Ohio members of Congress disappointed after meeting with GM CEO Mary Barra [View all]

WASHINGTON, D. C. - After a half hour meeting with General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Ohio members of Congress said they weren’t convinced the company’s proposed sale of its Lordstown plant to an electric vehicle startup would come close to replacing jobs lost by GM’s decision to stop making the Chevrolet Cruze in Ohio.

Although Barra called her exchange with Ohio’s congressional delegation “productive” as she left the Capitol Hill meeting, Ohio members of Congress who spoke with the media afterwards had a different assessment.

“This is a sad story right now," Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman told reporters, bemoaning the company’s decision to abandon one of its most efficient factories and its refusal, so far, to consider it for production of upcoming models of General Motors electric vehicles. He expressed skepticism that a Cincinnati company interested in buying the plant to make its own electric vehicles will be able to raise the $300 million to $400 million needed to bring the plant “up to speed.”

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown described the Workhorse Group affiliate that might buy the plant as “undercapitalized,” and noted the 400 people that it might eventually hire are a small fraction of the 4,500 workers the Lordstown plant employed when it operated at full capacity. While GM has offered jobs at other plants to some of the displaced workers, Brown and Portman noted it is difficult for many workers to relocate. Brown suggested that General Motors could relocate some of its Mexican production to Ohio as a way to save the plant.

Read more: https://www.cleveland.com/open/2019/06/ohio-members-of-congress-disappointed-after-meeting-with-gm-ceo-mary-barra-video.html