UAW 1112 remains optimistic about GM Lordstown's future after meeting

As auto workers left a membership meeting at the Local 1112 Union Hall in Lordstown Sunday, no one we talked with was willing to throw out a white flag and surrender, not without a fight for a new product. 

Felice Robinson, who has worked at the Lordstown plant for 23 years, said, "Fight, stand up. It's time for us to get behind workers and make sure politicians and everybody knows we are not taking this lying down anymore. GM is making more profits than ever, $4 billion this last quarter. What our community needs to understand is that if GM took $100 million and invested in our plant, there is your next product and your next generation of whatever vehicle they want to build."

Dan Smith from Austintown said, "It's hopeful. We are working to try and get a product here. The community deserves it, and the auto workers who have been working so hard at the plant for the past three years deserve it."

The UAW International passed out a poster stating, "GM: We invested in you. Now it's time to invest in US."

They are asking people in the community to take a picture of themselves in front of their GM product and post it on social media, share it, and to use #GMinvestinUS. 

Folks are also being asked to take part in the "Drive It Home" campaign and other upcoming activities to show they want GM to invest and commit a new product for the Lordstown plant.

People who buy GM's line of cars, SUVs, and trucks have invested in the company, along with taxpayers who bailed the company out after its former leaders drove the company into bankruptcy.
 
Lordstown resident Tommy Wolikow and his fiancee both were laid off from their jobs at GM.

Wolikow worked at the Lordstown plant for 10 years, bought a home in the Valley, and does not want to leave the region.

Wolikow emphasized, "I'm ready for the Trump administration to see how important GM is to Lordstown. I'm ready for Mary Barra, the company's CEO, to see how important GM is to our area, and I'm ready for the world to see we do have a leg to stand on because we have fight in us. My dad retired from GM Lordstown, my brother worked there, and I worked there. GM is important to me, my family and our community. People like me and my UAW brothers and sisters are willing to go to Detroit, to Washington D.C., or wherever we have to go, in order to have our voices heard."

Dave Green, president of UAW Local 1112, would not tell reporters what he and international UAW representatives discussed.

Green said, "Work to get a product at the Lordstown plant and jobs here in our country has just started. They're not closing the plant, they're idling it, and we are going to fight to make sure they allocate it. We do want to see a product here. People are calling to say I'm so sorry, but we are not dead yet. We are going to keep fighting and we are going to get this done. We are ready to build anything GM gives us. We have the best workforce and have proven ourselves over and over again, so anything they want to bring here we are ready to build it."