General Motors

This article was updated on January 14, 2020.

For a century, the Mahoning Valley has ebbed and flowed with the fortunes of traditional manufacturing. Now, it’s looking toward a new economy: one defined by distribution centers and autonomous and electric vehicles. What are the prospects for transformation.

A hundred new jobs and $46 million in new investment is coming to the world’s largest auto glass manufacturing plant – located near Dayton. The Chinese company moved into what was a GM plant in Moraine.

Fuyao has invested $600 million into the plant since 2014, six years after GM shut it down and 2,000 workers lost their jobs. Gov. Mike DeWine said these 100 new employees will join the 2,300 workers at Fuyao.  And he’s hoping for more.

The impeachment debate is drawing a big line between Republicans and Democrats. But the parties are working together on some bills. 

Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman is working on a bipartisan bill that he says would increase recycling. But he said voters don’t often hear about efforts like that.

“So much of the media is focused on controversy because, I guess, it sells," he said.

A new Duramax factory is coming to Brookville. The DMAX plant is part of General Motors’ stated plan to invest in $700 million in Ohio.

DMAX is a joint venture, with 60 percent owned by GM and 40 percent owned by Isuzu Diesel Services of America, Inc.

Representatives from GM and Isuzu say the new $175 million diesel engine components plant will create 100 new union jobs and should be fully operational by the end of 2020. 

United Auto Workers members in Parma voted to ratify a new contract with General Motors today.

Nearly 90% of the plant’s 950 workers voted. 52 percent approved the deal while 48 percent did not. 

UAW Local 1005 President Mike Caldwell says this narrow decision has to do with how the contract affects each worker. 

The contract agreement reached between the UAW and General Motors that may end the month-long strike does not include a new product for the shuttered Lordstown plant in Trumbull County.

The deal meets many demands that sent 49,000 workers to the picket line. Those include a better healthcare plan, gradual wage increases and a path for temporary workers to be hired on full time. 

However the agreement maintains the closure of three of four facilities GM shut down earlier this year, including the assembly facility in Lordstown where the Chevy Cruze was made. 

Union leaders are looking through a tentative agreement between labor and General Motors that could end a strike that's lasted longer than 30 days. Democratic state lawmakers say they want legislation that would not only help union workers in any future strikes, but could benefit the workers of the current strike too.

House Democrats want to change the law that says striking workers don't receive unemployment compensation and food stamp benefits because they're considered to be people who are voluntarily leaving their jobs. And they’d make that retroactive.

United Auto Workers (UAW) at General Motors (GM) are expected to vote this weekend on a tentative deal negotiators have reached with the company. UAW workers who lost their jobs when GM Lordstown shut down in March had hoped the national agreement would include a future for their plant. Sen. Rob Portman said it’s disappointing that it doesn’t.

More than 900 General Motors workers in Parma are among the 50,000 UAW members currently on strike across the country.