Workers at the Lordstown, Ohio, facility received bad news last week as union officials announced General Motors would cut the plant’s second shift, resulting in job losses up to 1,500 workers. The plant that once ran three shifts, will be down to a single shift.
The unwelcome news to employees has spurred Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown to pen a scathing letter to GM CEO Mary Barra. In the letter, Senator Brown demanded answers to a number of questions surrounding Lordstown investments and future plans after the automaker’s corporate tax cut from 35 percent to 21 percent.
In the text, the Senator penned 11 specific questions to help address the plant’s future. Senator Brown argued union workers and their families deserve to know the future of their livelihoods. In particular, the Senator asked of GM’s plans regarding the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback, which is produced in Mexico.
He asked what sales changes are needed to reinstate the second or third shifts at the plant, and then asked how many Cruze hatchbacks were imported from Mexico in 2016 and 2017. The Senator followed up the questions by asking if GM has plans to expand production of the Cruze hatchback in Mexico, and pondered if GM has considered producing the hatchback at the Lordstown facility.
The long letter includes some pretty harsh language and pegs GM executives as greedy while they “line the pockets” of executives and shareholders. You can see the entire letter at the link here.
Comments
This has nothing to do with GM building the Cruze Hatch in Mexico – and everything to do with the fact small cars (and cars in general) are not selling, thanks to crossovers.
Gm sadly wasn’t helped much by the tax cuts. Hard to see these jobs getting cut…but thats how capitalism works.
Yes executives make too much.
Do you still have that 8″x10″ of Karl Marx on your nightstand?
The only thing Socialist or Communist about Tom’s comment is this executives making too much money.
There was no reason to move production to Mexico. Could have all been done at Lordstown. He has a great point.
The Hatch is built in Mexico – and supplies the whole world.
The sedan, for the US, is built in Lordstown. Why on earth would they produce the hatch from second plant when they have no need to?
Tariffs. Mexico has great trade policies. Also, GM does assembly Cruze in China, S, Korea, and Argentina. Trump is working on it now, but he can only do so much to fix the problems of the previous administrations.
Senator Brown knows nothing about business. I live in Ohio and he is a moron and people voting from him are also. He doesn’t understand the manufacturing business and that you build a car or some products in a place where its sold the most or can be easily distributed. If he really wanted to help he should have voted for the tax cut and even tried to get a bigger tax cut for business that are American, so the product could be sold cheaper to americans. Problem is Brown like other politicians really only care about being re-elected not about most of us.
Joe is correct as I have Brown for a my Senator and claiming that he is a Moron is the most polite thing to be said.
He has no business experience and has just been a political lackey his whole life. The only reason he is voted in over the years mostly was due to how they plotted the district lines to include the parts of Cleveland that would vote for him.
The bottom line here is if you want to increase production and add more shifts find a way to sell more cars.
The full record here is that the Cruze has been good to Lordstown for many years now. GM likes the UAW there as they have become one of the best locals to work with and have had a good relationship with GM.
The Cruze was given to the plant as a reward and the Union was happy to get it. But the market has changed and now it has become a liability as sedan sales are tanking to the CUV models that are now on the market.
I would wager with in two years GM could announce a move to move the entire Cruze line to Mexico to open Lordstown up to a higher volume CUV model at some point.
Moving the hatch here would have done nothing and as posted above it was not brought here as the rest were already made in Mexico for export. The small number sold here was not worth the investment. Also at the time they were already up to three shifts and really could not work it in.
The workers knew it was coming and expected it. They also know they are a favored group and hope to be brought back at some point. In fact many of them were not there real long as the later shifts were fairly new people.
Many of the older employees will move to other GM sites or take a buy out. While they lost this job many move to other GM plants that are numerous in the region.
Not a good thing but one that most involved know may be temporary till GM can make moves to better use the facility. It is one of their largest plants and one shift is not cost effective but a 2-3 shift CUV would be a good thing for both sides.
But for now do not get distracted by Browns grandstanding. Even the local Democratic Rep for this areas understand the big picture better. Tim Ryan is very pro business and gets it better than Mr Brown.
“GM likes the UAW there as they have become one of the best locals to work with and have had a good relationship with GM.”
Perhaps, to clarify, a better way of saying this is that this particular local is one of the more reasonable ones. (All of GM final assembly plants here in the states are unionized).
people should go and look at who all voted for nafta and see how many dems voted for it. they claim they are for the working class what a joke.
Umm… Reagan invented NAFTA and Bush Sr. signed it into law. Two of the most famous ‘dems’ ever.
:eyeroll:
People keep talking about the change in markets and while it may be true some extent, the biggest problem with the Cruze sales is the Cruze itself. It’s a lackluster car… It lacks features that it’s competition has, much like every other half baked Chevrolet that isn’t a Corvette. And it might get away with some things if the styling was a home run but the styling just isn’t good. Again, like most of the other Chevrolet’s with either lackluster or plain bizarre styling..
All the talk right now is about JDN and Cadillac but someone within GM needs to be a little more worried about Chevy. It’s like GM cares about the Corvette and perhaps Escalade but those 2 vehicles aside, neither Chevrolet nor Cadillac gets anywhere near the love that Buick & GMC gets. Especially concerning styling, options and content. Again, those are Cruze’s biggest problems. I’m continually baffled on how screwed up Chevrolet is right now.
I fear job losses like this will continue if Chevrolet can’t get their styling fixed and the glass ceiling it lives under broken. You can get more in a Kia, Honda or a Ford than you can from Chevrolet and that’s just not right.
I’ve been saying this, GM/Chevy needs to get their heads out the sand even in cities with strong GM ties keep shutting down plants, screw workers and buyers, put out “me-too” blahmobiles and wonders why a Kia is in everyone’s driveway.
They could fix everything on the Cruze but it would only result in a small increase in sales. It is a tough segment that the others also are seeing a decline.
Also the others hold an advantage of global markets to help in profits and lower pricing in some cases.
GM is a leader in the CUV segment and holds higher than most ATP. THe sad truth is the car is slowly dying no matter what anyone does. We will still have them but they will be much more limited in offerings.
The CUV about 2 years ago passed up sedan sales and its only increases.
Scott3,
Well written .. thank you.
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