Chevy Cruze

GM’s decision to cease production of the Chevy Cruze at Lordstown is bringing an end, at least for the time being, to one of the last super-size industrial sites that used to drive the Mahoning Valley economy. It’s also bringing an end to the plant’s defining presence for the community around it.  

GM’s plant in Lordstown, which is slated to cease production next year, could have a future with one of the automaker’s competitors.

Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman says he hasn’t given up the fight to keep the GM plant in Lordstown open and its 1,500 workers employed.  

Portman says he knew the Lordstown-produced Chevy Cruze has not been selling well recently. But he says GM’s leaders have not provided him with many specifics about why they decided to close the plant rather than manufacturing another vehicle there. Still, Portman says he’s working with incoming Governor Mike DeWine and they are not giving up.

An effort to keep GM Lordstown operating brought nearly 300 workers, local business leaders, and political figures to the Auto Workers union hall. They came to launch the “Drive it Home" campaign. 

“Drive it Home” refers to selling General Motors on continuing to build vehicles at Lordstown if the Chevy Cruz goes away in the face of a declining small car market.

Lordstown’s employment picture could be changing in the next several years, as two large employers in the village face shifting futures.

GM’s Lordstown plant is down to one shift starting tomorrow, as the plant faces a downturn in demand for the once-best-selling Chevy Cruze. 

Lordstown lost its third shift last year, and earlier this year, GM said it was cutting about 1,200 workers on the second shift.

Here are your morning headlines for Tuesday, May 29:

The GM plant in Lordstown is billed as “The Home of the Chevy Cruze.” And over the weekend, Cruze owners came home to celebrate their cars and also ponder the plant’s future.

The Lordstown plant opened on what had been 900 acres of open fields northwest of Youngstown in 1966. Since then, it’s turned out millions of vehicles for GM -- mostly compact Chevys. That means the plant’s fortunes have usually ridden a rollercoaster alongside gas prices.

The new president of Lordstown’s United Auto Workers union is facing the elimination of another shift and making a vehicle that the company says customers are shifting away from.

David Green was sworn in yesterday as the new president of Local 1112, which represents assembly workers at GM’s Lordstown plant. The union also now includes fabrication plant workers – previously Local 1714 – of which Green was the president from 2007 until 2013.

Here are your morning headlines for Thursday, April 26:

CLARIFICATION: The 800 jobs associated with the electric generation plant are construction jobs. The ongoing employment will total several dozen.

The announcement that General Motors will cut a shift at its plant in Lordstown is being met with concern about the ripple effect beyond the 1,500 workers who will be affected.

A new report by the Brookings Institution shows signs of a slowdown in the auto industry that will likely resound throughout the manufacturing economy. And a map included in the report identifies Northeast Ohio as among the areas that will be hurt.   

Editor's note: We'll have more coming on the Lordstown layoffs Thursday morning on WKSU.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST: The day of Donald Trump's inauguration is also the last day for the midnight shift at the General Motors assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio. About 1,200 people will lose their jobs. Trump blames GM production in Mexico. As M.L. Schultze of member station WKSU reports, the reality and reaction in Lordstown is more complicated.

The recent earthquake in Japan is having an effect on auto production worldwide, including GM’s plant in Lordstown.

The Lordstown plant just received a $50 million makeover to start production of the third-generation Chevy Cruze. Now, GM is suspending production for at least two weeks due to a disruption in the parts supply chain.

Spokesman Tom Mock says the company is eager to get the plant moving again.