UAW members who formerly worked at the now-shuttered Lordstown Assembly Complex will travel to Detroit this week for a rally.
The rally will be taking place on the streets of Detroit as UAW representatives and the top brass from General Motors meet to discuss the union’s worker contract. The UAW’s current contract with the Detroit Big Three is set to expire on September 14, 2019.
According to local Lordstown publication The Vindicator, more than 150 UAW members from the Local 1112 branch will travel from Lordstown to Detroit on Tuesday morning for the rally. They plan to return to the Lordstown area Tuesday night, Local 1112 member John DeBernardo said.
“Between us and Baltimore (UAW branch) we’ll have around 300 people, and that’s just what we’re taking,” DeBernardo told The Vindicator.
While the UAW members will be headed to Detroit this Thursday, contract negotiations between the labor union and GM actually begin today. Discussions with Fiat Chrysler are also expected to begin Tuesday, while the union entered negotiations with Ford on Monday.
Talks between GM and the UAW could prove to be contentious, with the union expressing frustration with the automaker after it decided to close five North American plants last year – including Lordstown. GM has also faced backlash for continuing to allocate products to foreign plants in Mexico, China and South Korea whilst laying off thousands of its US workers.
The automaker is currently focusing its North America production efforts on larger trucks and SUVs, which are more profit heavy and could provide more job security to the workers that build them. In February, the automaker announced that it would be adding 1,000 positions at its Flint Assembly plant in Michigan, which builds the GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado.
It is believed that GM will seek to have more temporary workers going forward. While the UAW will certainly be against this, the automaker plans to sway the union by ensuring job security and better health benefits for those remaining unionized employees.
Source: The Vindicator
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Comments
should they not be out looking for a new job ??
inappropriate comment for people trying to keep their families and community together. Believe or not motorman, families are being ripped apart and the community is devastated. Watch how you troll….KARMA can be a _______!
I said to myself, Mrs. Bara could have transferred 4 out of the 8 Trim models of the Silverado 1500 to the Lordstown Plant in Ohio, the cost to retool that plant to acommadate the truck probably would have been high, but worth it if she cared about the employees that’s allowing her to keep a job, the Buzz Talk for electric vehicles are high, but not so much in high demand as there are still a lot of areas nationwide; that are not logistically available with Recharging Stations in order to adequately serve the needs of these vehicles. On top of that, there are still a large number of mechanics nationwide that are not properly trained to deal with the electrical components when it comes to software failure or scenarios or when it comes to battery recharging issues, this as we already know will take some time to address over the next few years to come . We have Hybrid Electric buses in the Transit Authority that I work for and they have to get someone 950 miles outside our state to come down and deal with major issues involving electrical components of the bus because our mechanics are not trained locally to deal with those issues, it’s pretty sad.
Ray the reality is GM did not need another truck plant here. They are expanding Indiana already to serve the needs of the region. Many Lordstown workers are going there.
You need to consider distribution of product as well transportation and delivery cost. On top of that export cost if they are building for other counties.
GM has carried too many plants since the bail out due to contracts and it finally got to where Lordstown drew the short straw.
This is a business not a social program. I know it is harsh but wasted or lost money could lose more jobs elsewhere it it hurts the company.
The truck EV planned here I suspect is a pipe dream unless GM steps in to help. I really do not expect that. At least not at this point.
We could now consider the increased export cost for the new Blazer that will soon been tapped with Tariffs, not a good move at all.
While not a cool comment the community is disappointed but not devastated by this. That happened a long time ago when the steel mills left the area in the 70’s.
The truth is most auto workers know and expect they will have to move if the plan to stay with any mfg anymore.
Some of my buddies have moved to several different plants over the years to keep working. Just the nature of the business.
In Ohio while they may have to drive most did not have to move but in this case that was not in the cards.
Many who did work here came from other plants in the first place.
If you do not want to move do not work assembly lines.
Trust me I found out first hand myself after getting bumped by older union workers in another plant years ago.
I was a kid during the big depression and my dad left sunday and came home saturday from work. he most likely slep in his car where ever he was working. there was no unemployment checks back in those days. before I was born my mom and dad also drove to iowa to work on a farm of a relative.
Work for mexican wages…………
If Barra did not breach the contract with the UAW they would still have a job.
The area where Lordstown is has a great number of people with southern heritage from WV, TN, KY, GA NC And AL.
There were few jobs in the depression other than coal mining or share cropping so many came to Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown and Pittsburgh for work.
Yet today many make that weekend trip south out I77 south to go visit family that still lives in the south.
I have a 5 hour trip to visit family in the mountains. Hardship no but something you just do. There are still areas with little work down there so still many come north for work.
It is just what you do.
At least in Youngstown there has been many oil drilling jobs that will pick up many unemployed folks. As long as the government does not ban the drilling and oil lines.
better hope the libs don’t take over the federal govt as they will stop the oil well drilling and pipe lines.
You better hope a country that is 22.4 trillion dollars in debt has plans for the future. Now about your social security. How long will healthcare be affordable????
are you referring to the doubling of the debt by obama in 8 years ??? health care was affordable to most working people before obamacare.
And still nothing in the works to replace it after almost 4 years of the current administration…I wonder why!!
Fight the good fight Lordstown!!
Stand proud!!