Congressman Tim Ryan said the pending sale of the Lordstown General Motors plant is bittersweet.
Ryan said bringing jobs to the plant is good news in the long-term, but not necessarily beneficial for the GM workers who lost their jobs when the plant ceased production.
“It’s not gonna have much of an impact on the housing market in the short term or the workers in the short term, but all in all it’s a net positive, because there’s something going in the facility, and we’re gonna have to work really hard to try to grow the jobs over the years to try to make it as impactful hopefully as General Motors was at one point," Ryan said.
Ryan said he wants to learn more about Workhorse, the Cincinnati-based company wanting to use the plant to build electric trucks.
He also said he hopes the company stays true to its current plan to employ United Auto Workers from GM.
“The UAW will have all kinds of issues on the table I’m sure, whether there’s an opportunity for people who have left to come back, maybe," he said. "But again they’ll be in a different company with a different pension system, so I’m not sure how all that works, but the UAW is going to be front and center in negotiating the rest of this deal.”
GM begins national negotiations with the UAW on a new contract in July.
Ryan said he is pleased that GM CEO Mary Barra said the company will invest $700 million in three other GM plants in Ohio – Toledo, Parma and Moraine near Dayton. That investment is expected to create 450 jobs.
