The Lordstown plant opened in 1966; GM closed it just months before its contract with the UAW expired in 2019. That closing, along with that of three other US plants, helped spark a six-week strike at the nation’s largest automaker. The UAW won many of its bargaining goals with that strike, including new life for one of those four doomed plants, which today is building EVs. But Lordstown was left without new vehicles to build. “It’s a blight on this town.
They voted 97% in favor of ratifying the deal. “Members are looking at a minimum of $600 more a month. Who wouldn’t want that?” said Manaro. A ‘foot in the door’ Many workers in Lordstown were second-, even third-generation autoworkers there. Justin Brown’s father worked at the Lordstown plant for nearly nearly 50 years; Brown, for 10 years. He moved to a GM plant in Missouri in the hopes that Lordstown would soon reopen. He thought the 2019 strike would save the plant.