June 28, 20186 yr More winning.... General Motors says goodbye to second shift, laying off workers (at Lordstown GM) About 1,500 people work the shift that's being cut https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/general-motors-says-goodbye-to-its-second-shift/1255590030 "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
June 28, 20186 yr Lordstown has been stuck with GM's loss-leader products since the mid 70s. These days the American market for small cars is so bad Ford quit making them, and GM's version recently had that ignition switch lawsuit. Time for Lordstown to get retooled for a product that sells.
June 29, 20186 yr Um.... G.M. Says New Wave of Trump Tariffs Could Force U.S. Job Cuts https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/business/automakers-tariffs-job-cuts.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
June 29, 20186 yr GM is especially reliant on foreign products and labor. NAFTA and similar agreements rewarded them for that, resulting in far greater job losses.
October 18, 20186 yr Calling American Plasma Energy Group and Plasma Igniter LLC! Here's the opportunity you wanted.... Edited October 18, 20186 yr by KJP "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 26, 20186 yr GM shuttering plants in Detroit, Ohio, Canada https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/general-motors/2018/11/25/general-motors-planning-oshawa-ontario-plant-closure/38606867/
November 26, 20186 yr I see that Lordstown is among them. It was posted in the Youngstown economy thread. AP also reports... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 19, 20196 yr But yeah, let's blame the union rep who wanted to keep Lordstown open. GM wanted Lordstown closed. And the voices in a new anti-trust movement grow ever louder.... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 19, 20196 yr ^GM: "No, we only sell Silverados. We can sell you those for that. Think about how many people you can fit in the bed with Best-In-Class-Payload!"
March 19, 20196 yr 35 minutes ago, GCrites80s said: ^GM: "No, we only sell Silverados. We can sell you those for that. Think about how many people you can fit in the bed with Best-In-Class-Payload!" I've been hearing radio ads for a pickup truck with "the most powerful steering wheel in its class." What?
March 19, 20196 yr That can't be right... "when you're crawling over a gigantic pile of rocks you're going to need the extra steering". Happens all the time!
May 8, 20196 yr Trump tweets that GM will sell Lordstown to truck manufacturer LORDSTOWN — President Donald Trump tweeted this morning that General Motors will sell its idled Lordstown plant to Workhorse. http://www.vindy.com/news/2019/may/08/trump-tweets-gm-will-sell-lordstown-truck-manufact/
May 8, 20196 yr 4 hours ago, Florida Guy said: Trump tweets that GM will sell Lordstown to truck manufacturer LORDSTOWN — President Donald Trump tweeted this morning that General Motors will sell its idled Lordstown plant to Workhorse. http://www.vindy.com/news/2019/may/08/trump-tweets-gm-will-sell-lordstown-truck-manufact/ Cincy to the rescue!
May 8, 20196 yr DeWine: Lordstown deal’s success hinges on Loveland company getting postal service contract The potential for a Loveland electric truck manufacturer to bring a major number of jobs back to a shuttered auto plant in northeast Ohio depends upon it getting a U.S. Postal Service contract as that agency replaces its vehicle fleet, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said on Wednesday. General Motors confirmed Wednesday that it is in talks with Workhorse Group Inc. (Nasdaq: WKHS) for a new corporate entity with Workhorse as a minority stakeholder to purchase its shuttered Lordstown manufacturing facility in Trumbull County, pending approval from the United Auto Workers. President Donald Trump hailed the news on Twitter Wednesday morning, declaring that “the USA is booming!” But at a news conference in Columbus, DeWine, who like Trump is a Republican, was more restrained. The governor noted that the required UAW approval is no sure thing and said that GM indicated Workhorse would bring “hundreds” of jobs to the plant if it did not get the postal service contract and potentially significantly higher if it did get the contract. “We need to be pushing the post office on this and making our case,” DeWine said. “This postal contract is key. Maybe the key. I’m trying to be realistic.” More below: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/05/08/dewine-lordstown-deal-s-success-hinges-on-loveland.html "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
May 9, 20196 yr Workhorse is smaller than my current employer. I can imagine many ways an attempt to get Lordstown big can go wrong, and very few how it can go right. Tesla would have been a better bet but the UAW would have nixed that. All Elon would have to do is bring a few key people from California, and their tossing of NUMMI under the bus would have come back to haunt them again.
May 9, 20196 yr 1 hour ago, E Rocc said: Workhorse is smaller than my current employer. I can imagine many ways an attempt to get Lordstown big can go wrong, and very few how it can go right. The only way buying this plant would work is if Workhorse lands that US Postal Service vehicle contract it apparently is a finalist for right now... a $5 billion contract, as ColDayMan noted above. In the past, places like Mahindra have had a lock on that work, and a lot of their manufacturing capacity is in Mexico. Trump isn't the smartest guy on the block, but if he has even an iota of common sense he'd be making sure Mahindra or another company based outside the US doesn't get the contract and it goes to someplace like this new Workhorse startup. Workhorse currently has a building in Union City, IN that does manufacturing (guessing it is structured more like a job shop), idk what they really do in Loveland. What confuses me about Workhorse though is how they are convincing the venture capitalists to keep pouring in as much money as they have poured in, IMO it is Theranos level bad... Quote In its first quarter Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Workhorse reported $384,182 in sales with a net loss of $6.3 million. In 2018, revenue was $763,173 compared with $10 million in 2017. The company has invested heavily in research and development, and reported losing $36.5 million in 2018. Source: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/05/08/trump-tweet-loveland-manufacturer-will-buy.html?iana=hpmvp_cinci_news_headline Tesla would have been a better bet but the UAW would have nixed that. All Elon would have to do is bring a few key people from California, and their tossing of NUMMI under the bus would have come back to haunt them again. Probably an unpopular opinion, but if Tesla were in financial shape to take on any of the three closing GM plants Hamtramack seems like the best bet because it puts them in the Detroit market with the Detroit supply chain. I know a number of OH companies that supply parts to Tesla's Fremont plant and can't imagine it is the most efficient way to make those cars... might as well come to the auto hub and build on the knowledge here instead of trying to fight it. Edited May 9, 20196 yr by SWOH
May 9, 20196 yr Parma mayor ecstatic about General Motors’ investment announcement PARMA, Ohio -- General Motors Co. announced on Wednesday (May ? $700 million in manufacturing investments, leading to the creation of more than 450 jobs at Parma’s Metal Center, as well as at plants in Toledo and Moraine. https://www.cleveland.com/community/2019/05/parma-mayor-ecstatic-about-general-motors-investment-announcement.html Will former Lordstown workers be offered any of these jobs?
May 10, 20196 yr 13 hours ago, Florida Guy said: Parma mayor ecstatic about General Motors’ investment announcement PARMA, Ohio -- General Motors Co. announced on Wednesday (May ? $700 million in manufacturing investments, leading to the creation of more than 450 jobs at Parma’s Metal Center, as well as at plants in Toledo and Moraine. https://www.cleveland.com/community/2019/05/parma-mayor-ecstatic-about-general-motors-investment-announcement.html Will former Lordstown workers be offered any of these jobs? If the UAW is like many other unions, there is not much "brotherhood" between locals. The Parma jobs would be offered to locals with UAW connections before any Lordstown people were brought in.
May 10, 20196 yr 4 hours ago, Cleburger said: If the UAW is like many other unions, there is not much "brotherhood" between locals. The Parma jobs would be offered to locals with UAW connections before any Lordstown people were brought in. UAW is more Michigan-not Michigan, which is why Tesla's old time NUMMI people, not the company, are the anti-unionization leaders there. The locals would have an inside track along with the Lordstown people, not so much instead of them. Though locals who used to work at Ford or Chrysler would probably come first.
May 10, 20196 yr On 5/8/2019 at 11:50 PM, SWOH said: The only way buying this plant would work is if Workhorse lands that US Postal Service vehicle contract it apparently is a finalist for right now... a $5 billion contract, as ColDayMan noted above. In the past, places like Mahindra have had a lock on that work, and a lot of their manufacturing capacity is in Mexico. Trump isn't the smartest guy on the block, but if he has even an iota of common sense he'd be making sure Mahindra or another company based outside the US doesn't get the contract and it goes to someplace like this new Workhorse startup. Workhorse currently has a building in Union City, IN that does manufacturing (guessing it is structured more like a job shop), idk what they really do in Loveland. What confuses me about Workhorse though is how they are convincing the venture capitalists to keep pouring in as much money as they have poured in, IMO it is Theranos level bad... Source: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/05/08/trump-tweet-loveland-manufacturer-will-buy.html?iana=hpmvp_cinci_news_headline Probably an unpopular opinion, but if Tesla were in financial shape to take on any of the three closing GM plants Hamtramack seems like the best bet because it puts them in the Detroit market with the Detroit supply chain. I know a number of OH companies that supply parts to Tesla's Fremont plant and can't imagine it is the most efficient way to make those cars... might as well come to the auto hub and build on the knowledge here instead of trying to fight it. It's true that there is no way in Hades Trump lets that contract go to anyone who is going to build them outside the USA. He's smarter than one might think (lacks focus though) but what he is more than anything else is shrewd. Vigorous new activity in Lordstown pretty much locks in Ohio for him or his designee.
May 10, 20196 yr On 5/8/2019 at 11:50 PM, SWOH said: The only way buying this plant would work is if Workhorse lands that US Postal Service vehicle contract it apparently is a finalist for right now... a $5 billion contract, as ColDayMan noted above. The offer to buy the plant is probably part of Workhorse's campaign to win the contract. Don't count on it proceeding even if they win. I wish them well, but proven technology is hard to build; experimental is most often a disaster for investors, anyway.. Remember: It's the Year of the Snake
May 27, 20196 yr So, for those that have a subscription, there’s an article in today’s Crains that discusses Ford’s vacant properties in Brookpark (or is that Cleveland?) and Walton Hills. The gist of the story is that there’s a potential buyer for BOTH properties, and it would be a “game changer” for the region’s economy. The product profile or potential company isn’t identified, but wondering if anyone has any insight? Very curious as to who the user is and what it could be. https://www.crainscleveland.com/real-estate/ford-driving-sale-huge-northeast-ohio-sites
May 28, 20196 yr Specific interest in the Ford foundry has my attention. Conventional wisdom says that an Ohio foundry can't produce dumb items like engine blocks at a competitive price because the labor component of cost is too high relative to the blocks' value. Ohio foundries have to be unique (like Arconic's in Cleveland), or non-union like the smaller ones, or produce high-value, sophisticated items to survive. This thinking would seem to rule out somebody like a foreign auto company being the buyer. Remember: It's the Year of the Snake
May 28, 20196 yr If this is as big as it sounds, it probably warrants its own thread. I'm asking around to real estate sources, but so far no one knows who the buyer is. One thing I did learn is that there was a lot of interest in the two properties, mostly by out-of-state suitors. I'm told there were more than a dozen offers for either or both Ford properties. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
May 28, 20196 yr Posted a new thread in the developments section at: "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 24, 20195 yr Not sure where else to put this. So the USA economy isn't so dependent on the manufacture of cars anymore? "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 24, 20195 yr I guess not as much according to that. But the fortunes of our publicly traded companies are, and that is what is really important. It also goes to show how anti-business it is to stick companies with enormous healthcare costs. M4A would fix that. Edited August 24, 20195 yr by GCrites80s
September 16, 20195 yr GM strike: Nearly 50,000 workers walk out at America's biggest automaker Workers walk out: The United Auto Workers union went on strike against General Motors late Sunday. It's a big deal: This is the biggest strike by any labor organization in the United States since 2007. GM, America's largest automaker, has nearly 50,000 full-time and temporary UAW members on its payroll. What happens next: The two parties resumed negotiations Monday morning. https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/gm-workers-strike-uaw-negotiations/index.html
September 18, 20195 yr In every report I've seen on this strike now there it has been mandatory there's a mention that GMs autonomous vehicle program exists. So GM is making sure to push a narrative about a product that is so far off that I might not even see it by using a strike to push it. Of course, this is also an effort to make the workers look like they are preventing THE FUTURE from happening while also trying to frame GM as "tech" to tech bros so that is allowed to lose infinite money in case the strike drags on. Edited September 18, 20195 yr by GCrites80s
September 18, 20195 yr 9 minutes ago, GCrites80s said: In every report I've seen on this strike now there it has been mandatory there's a mention that GMs autonomous vehicle program exists. So GM is making sure to push a narrative about a product that is so far off that I might not even see it by using a strike to push it. Of course, this is also an effort to make the workers look like they are preventing THE FUTURE from happening while also trying to frame GM as "tech" to tech bros so that is allowed to lose infinite money in case the strike drags on. Well the fact that they are losing money would be viewed as a plus by tech bros. ?
October 16, 20195 yr GM, UAW agree on tentative labor contract that could end a monthlong strike by 48,000 workers https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/16/gm-uaw-agree-on-tentative-labor-contract-that-could-end-strike.html
November 2, 20195 yr Ford to invest $1 billion in Avon Lake, Cleveland plants https://www.cleveland.com/business/2019/11/ford-to-invest-1-billion-in-avon-lake-cleveland-plants.html "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 2, 20195 yr 4 minutes ago, KJP said: Ford to invest $1 billion in Avon Lake, Cleveland plants https://www.cleveland.com/business/2019/11/ford-to-invest-1-billion-in-avon-lake-cleveland-plants.html So if they are upgrading Brookpark, does that mean they arent selling or is this a different property?
November 2, 20195 yr 1 hour ago, B767PILOT said: So if they are upgrading Brookpark, does that mean they arent selling or is this a different property? Not completely sure, but the article mentions just additional product lines at Brookpark, not additional Space. Engine plant 1 covers only a fraction of the footprint it used to, so there is still plenty of vacant land to sell if they want.
November 4, 20195 yr Cross posting here. Some additional info about the Ford investment at the Avon, OH plant.
January 15, 20205 yr Cross-posted too from Youngstown development thread.... GM picks Lordstown site for $2.3 billion battery plant https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/general-motors/2020/01/14/gm-picks-lordstown-site-for-battery-plant/4468957002/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
January 31, 20205 yr "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 26, 20205 yr "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 4, 20205 yr Lordstown plant could get spark from partnership GM, Honda to join together to develop 2 electric vehicles LORDSTOWN — Two all-new electric vehicles General Motors and Honda pledged jointly to develop for the Japanese automaker could increase demand for battery cells from GM’s proposed next-gen technology plant. The propulsion system in the vehicles is based on GM’s new proprietary battery platform, the cells for which will be manufactured at the planned $2.3 billion plant in Lordstown. https://www.tribtoday.com/news/local-news/2020/04/lordstown-plant-could-get-spark-from-partnership/
June 25, 20204 yr Why, has COVID-19 suddenly made climate change no longer a threat? Lincoln, Rivian cancel plans to co-develop EV because of pandemic https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2020/04/28/lincoln-cancels-plan-develop-ev-rivian-coronavirus/3042517001/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
June 25, 20204 yr Because their partnership was because they thought they could make money selling electric cars, not because of global warming.
June 25, 20204 yr Less-profitable projects get cut during these events. If your name isn't F-Series or Explorer you are expendable.
June 25, 20204 yr Gas prices are down this month...better cancel that EV project and ramp up full sized SUV production!
June 25, 20204 yr What the Big Three do is constantly talk long-term but only act short term. Other automakers do this sometimes as well but the Big 3 are the worst.
September 28, 20204 yr "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 6, 20213 yr "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 6, 20213 yr They're dead and they don't even know it yet. They had a chance to change and talked a good game, but that and $1 gets you a glazed donut. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
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