1,500 likely to lose jobs with GM announcement
A huge banner touting the home of the Chevy Cruze covers an exterior wall at the General Motors Lordstown plant. It is visible to cars passing by on the nearby Ohio turnpike. GM announced Monday the plant’s production of the Cruze will end early next year. The plant is one of several that has not been allocated a new product.
For the Observer-Reporter
For the Observer-Reporter
Laid-off UAW 1112 GM Lordstown autoworker Tommy Wolikow, 36, of Lordstown, gives his thoughts on the announcement Monday morning concerning the GM Lordstown plant.
LORDSTOWN, Ohio – President Donald Trump told people to brace for a wave of manufacturing success in areas like the Mahoning Valley during his 2016 campaign for president and told them “not to sell their houses.”
So Tommy Wolikow didn’t.
He said he was laid off from the General Motors Lordstown complex when the company cut the third shift, the same day the president was inaugurated into office, Jan. 20, 2017.
He got training in a new field to hedge his bets as he waited, still hopeful the promise of a manufacturing renaissance echoed through news conferences about tax cuts and tariffs would materialize into something lasting he, his wife and three girls could depend on at the plant where his father retired after 42 years.
Monday, he lost all hope.
With the announcement the plant is to be placed on “unallocated” status in 2019, about 1,500 United Auto Workers members are slated to lose their jobs. About 1,200 of the union members are employed by GM and may be eligible to transfer, said David Green, president of UAW 1112.
Now, Wolikow, 36, fears it may be too late to transfer, that the other plants won’t have room for a guy with the amount of seniority he has, a permanent employee only since 2013, after he worked for five years as a temporary worker. And he really doesn’t want to sell his house, which he bought two miles from the plant.
He’s angry.
“Not another federal contract dollar from the Trump administration should go to the huge corporations that take, take, take and never give back,” Wolikow said. “Our politicians should hold them accountable – they shouldn’t get any more tax breaks, no more federal contracting dollars, nothing.”
There is no indication of exactly how many plant workers will be able to transfer to other plants, and Green said he doesn’t know how many are even willing to relocate.
A few union members, cut from the the second and third shift, have transferred already, Green said.
Even though several other plants are closing, Green is still hopeful there will be positions to transfer to, because the plants employ temporary workers union members can replace.
It is unclear if GM will offer severance packages or how many are eligible to retire, Green said.
The company is reducing salaried staff by 15 percent across the board, including 25 percent fewer executives, according to a news release. That amounts to about 14,700 jobs. GM already followed robust third-quarter profits by offering buyouts to 18,000 white-collar workers last month.
The company’s news release Monday made no mention of what options or services employees at “unallocated” plants may access. The company called the move a part of its “transformation” into the future.
U.S. Rep. Timothy J. Ryan, D-Howland, said the announcement showed “no basic humanity” for employees who will spend the entire holiday season now worried about their families’ future income. Ryan said he doesn’t know exactly what can be done by Congress to force GM to respect American jobs, but he will try to work with them on the vision they have for the future of the company in a way that includes a place for the American workers and taxpayers who bailed it out of bankruptcy a decade ago.
Cuts at the plant are already impacting local businesses.
“The shift cuts have had a huge impact already. The domino-effect has already started, and this is going to continue to have huge impacts on local businesses and suppliers,” Wolikow said.
Brenda Armstrong, a cook at Ross’ Eatery and Pub, 8421 Tod Ave. SW, said the establishment where she has worked for 11 years is already seeing a hit on business from the loss of plant shifts.
“We’re all pretty down. There was a sadness, a worry in the air with the announcements of the cuts to the other shifts, but this was different today. I worry about them. But it is going to hurt us too, there is going to be a ripple effect through the whole economy. It is going to hurt everyone,” said Armstrong, a sentiment echoed by numerous politicians and union officials.
GM employees make up an estimated 75 percent of the establishment’s customers, Armstrong said.
Union leaders, plant officials and politicians came together just last week to announce a “Drive it Home” campaign to request donations and to show community support for the plant to GM’s corporate headquarters in Detroit.
“It’s messed up. How are we supposed to have a ‘Drive It Home’ campaign when there is no home, no GM Lordstown, to drive it home to?” Wolikow said. “I am heartbroken.”