If you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work – people like the workers at Lordstown.
That’s why last week, Senator Portman and I met with General Motors CEO Mary Barra and demanded answers, calling on GM to work with us to find solutions and save Ohio jobs, after GM announced it would lay off its final shift of workers and close its Lordstown plant in March of 2019.
That decision came on the heels of GM’s announcement this summer that it would lay off the second shift of workers at the plant, on the very same day that we got word that GM plans to build its new Chevy Blazer in Mexico.
During last week’s meeting, we urged Barra to work with us to save these Ohio jobs, and consider retooling the Lordstown plant to build a new vehicle. We know Ohio workers are the best in the world – the plant was rated the top GM plant in North America by J.D. Power and Associates this year.
Ohio has stood by GM. And now GM needs to stand by Ohio.
And I spoke to President Trump, and called on him to join us in working to save these jobs, and support my American Cars, American Jobs Act.
The bill has two simple parts: it gives customers a discount when they buy American-made cars, like those built in Lordstown, and it gets rid of incentives that reward car companies for sending jobs overseas.
Communities like the Mahoning Valley trusted Donald Trump when he said in 2016, “If I’m elected, you won’t lose one plant, you’ll have plants coming into this country…I promise you that.”
Let’s end the tax cut for corporations that shut down these American plants and move American jobs overseas, and let’s keep workers on the job in Lordstown.
Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) represents the state in the U.S. Senate.
