5/8/2019

AUTO INDUSTRY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “General Motors is poised to sell the northeast Ohio factory that it’s closing to a little-known maker of electric pickups, President Donald Trump said Wednesday [5-8-19] on Twitter. While Trump has been known to mischaracterize these types of deals, the president claimed that GM CEO Mary Barra told him about the plan to sell the Lordstown, Ohio, factory to Workhorse Group. GM said it’s ‘discussions’ to sell the plant to an entity affiliated with Workhorse, which ‘could bring significant production and electric vehicle assembly jobs to the Mahoning Valley.’ GM announced in 2018 that the Lordstown plant would cease production as part of the automaker’s sweeping plan to kill most of its passenger cars. The Lordstown plant made the Chevrolet Cruze compact car, which is being discontinued. The plant’s fate is ultimately subject to a new union contract between GM and the United Auto Workers, which represents the plant’s hourly employees. Trump said on Twitter that the plant’s sale would be ‘subject to a UAW agreement.’ Trump – along with a bipartisan chorus of other political officials, including Democratic presidential contenders Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren – had criticized GM for announcing plans to shut the plant.” 

-Nathan Bomey, “Trump says GM will sell shuttered Lordstown, Ohio plant to electric truck maker Workhorse,” USA Today, May 8, 2019 12:54 pm