Lordstown’s Auto Industry Is Coming Back. The Jobs? Not So Much
The Ohio city is getting a new battery factory, but employment is a fraction of what the local GM plant offered.
GM worker Justin Brown.
Photographer: John-David Richardson for Bloomberg Businessweek
It’s just after 2 p.m., and Justin Brown is waving down the bartender at Ross’ Eatery & Pub, a dimly lit dive in the shadow of the old General Motors Co. assembly plant. It isn’t hard to get her attention. The crowds have thinned since GM closed the factory two years ago, cutting about 3,300 workers and striking another blow to Lordstown and other cities in northeastern Ohio still reeling from the loss of highly paid steel jobs in the 1980s.
When the plant closed, Brown was transferred to a GM facility in Missouri, though he frequently makes the nine-hour drive in his Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze to help his aging parents and look after his house. Furloughed because of a semiconductor chip shortage, he’s back in Lordstown on a balmy afternoon with plenty of time to ponder whether to stay at GM or return home for a shot at a job that would require months of training and a pay cut of 30% or more.