But Lordstown and its allies, including President Donald Trump himself, have mobilized quickly to cast the plant as the sympathetic symbol of GM’s restructuring and job cuts. UAW Local 1112 President Dave Green partnered with the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce for a campaign called “Drive it Home” to persuade GM to increase its investment in the plant, rather than shut it down.
The group’s efforts include having more than 5,000 schoolchildren write letters to GM CEO Mary Barra urging her to keep production in Ohio, distributing signs to residents and businesses to hang in windows, and raising funds to escalate its campaign.
“We plan on traveling around the state as early as January and doing events every week to keep us in the news,” said Green, a 29-year UAW member. “We don’t want this to die. We’re going to continue to let GM know we are part of the family and want to continue to be part of the family.”
Trump, who campaigned as a champion of Midwest auto workers, has lavished far more attention on Lordstown than on Hamtramck since Barra announced the restructuring moves on Nov. 26.
“You know, the United States saved General Motors,” Trump said, referring to the 2009 government-led bankruptcy, “and for her to take that company out of Ohio is not good. I think she’s going to put something back in soon.”
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