For thousands of US auto workers, downturn is already here
LORDSTOWN, OHIO: Wall Street is fretting that the US auto industry is heading for a downturn, but for thousands of workers at General Motors Co factories in the United States, the hard times are already here.
Matt Streb, 36, was one of 1,200 workers laid off on Jan 20 – inauguration day for Republican US President Donald Trump – when GM canceled the third shift at its Lordstown small-car factory here.
Sales of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, the only vehicle the plant makes, have nosedived as US consumers switch to SUVs and pickup trucks.
Streb is looking for another job, but employers are wary because they assume he will quit whenever GM calls him back.
“I get it,” said Streb, who has a degree in communications, “but it’s frustrating.” Layoffs at Lordstown and other auto plants point to a broader challenge for the economy in Midwestern manufacturing states and for the Trump administration.
The US auto industry’s boom from 2010 through last year was a major driver for manufacturing job creation.
The fading of that boom threatens prospects for US industrial output and job creation that were central to President Trump’s victory in Ohio and other manufacturing states.
“This is about economics, not what Trump says,” said Robert Morales, president of United Auto Workers (UAW) union Local 1714, which represents workers at GM’s stamping plant at Lordstown.
“Even if Trump went out and bought 10,000 Cruzes a month, he wouldn’t get the third shift back here.” Last week the Federal Reserve said US factory output fell 0.4 per cent in May, the second decline in three months, due partly to a 2-per cent drop in motor vehicles and parts production.