GM News: Trump Tweets for Action on Lordstown Plant

[Drew Dowdell]

Trump posted multiple tweets regarding the closure of GM's Lordstown Ohio plant today.  In those tweets he says he has spoken to GM CEO Mary Barra about his displeasure over the closing of the facility.  He said he demanded swift action on either the selling of the plant or reopening it.   He further stated the Ms. Barra blamed the UAW for the closure.

 

In a further series of tweets, Trump mentioned that GM and the UAW will be starting talks in September of this year, but that he is impatient with that timeline.  Claiming that we have one of the best economies in history, he wants to see the plant opened or sold to another car company.  While Lordstown has shuttered on reality, on paper it still needs to negotiate its closure with the UAW during contract negotiations later this year. 

 

 

In a report last week, it appears that General Motors has something in the works for the Lordstown plant that Governor DeWine said could be a possible sale of Lordstown. 

Some have pondered why Trump is focusing on the Lordstown facility out of all 5 GM plant closures and the answer seems to be in Ohio's status as a presidential election swing state. 

UAW 1112 President David Green has sent multiple letters to Trump asking for his assistance to help save the facility, but at last report has not heard back from the administration.

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[G. David Felt]

Politics is what this is leading up to the 2020 election. 

Now the focus on auto's is the fact that GM has TOO MUCH capacity. As such what Mary is doing is correct to reduce costs as any smart business person would do.

I honestly can see this plant being sold to one of the EV auto companies that are starting up their production. Someone somewhere is going to get hit hard as there is no limitless sales of auto's. Some body is going to lose out on auto sales.

We are in interesting times and the change over will be an interesting debate.

My one thought, who says it has to be an Auto Company that buys the plant for auto production?

Why could it not be LG who says buys the plant to build EV battery packs that are resold back to GM?

Is the plant Big? YES, Hell YES! Is auto's the only thing you could produce there? NO

I could see component creation there or robotic assembly line building, so many things in such a large space.

Interesting times we live in friends! Interesting Times! ?

[Drew Dowdell]

8 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Is the plant Big? YES, Hell YES! Is auto's the only thing you could produce there? NO

I could see component creation there or robotic assembly line building, so many things in such a large space.

The plant was too big even for the Cruze. I've been taken on a tour of the plant years ago during the building if the first generation Cruze.  There were large empty sections of the plant even back then.  They could have easily used the plant for another vehicle line, perhaps another delta vehicle like Envision, Equinox, or Terrain... but they opted not to. 

[smk4565]

GM has way too much capacity for sure.  

And maybe if there wasn't a tariff battle going on, GM could use that capacity here to produce cars to ship to China, rather than vice versa.  But I feel like regardless it would have been easier/cheaper to just build them in China.  

Lordstown needs sold to another manufacturing or warehousing company, hopefully they find a buyer that can bring some jobs.  Maybe they could use it to produce windmills so we don't have to buy oil off the Middle East, but Trump probably never thought of that one.

[balthazar]

4 hours ago, smk4565 said:

...GM could use that capacity here to produce cars to ship to China...

That's not GM's decision to make tho.

[riviera74]

51 minutes ago, balthazar said:

That's not GM's decision to make tho.

Yeah.  China is a truly protectionist country.  They already have a 25% tariff on all imported vehicles.  While I would rather not see the plant close down, GM needs a product that sells like hotcakes that will keep Lordstown open.  Ideally, Buick would make the Encore and the Envision (as well as the Trax and Equinox/Terrain) in Lordstown rather than SK/China.

[daves87rs]

For the sake of not being banned, I’ll keep my mouth shut.

That said, the plant will not go to waste.......