UAW Regional Directors React to GM Announcement

Region 8 Director Mitchell Smith: “It is a shameful day when a corporation like GM, that already makes record profits, pulls the rug out from its workforce and communities. All that is wrong about corporate America is what went into this decision. This will long be a textbook example of corporate greed.”

Region 1 Director Frank Stuglin: “Generations of auto workers got up every day in the Detroit area and put their grit and sweat into building GM as a company. That’s why the American people during the recession bailed this company out. Now that the company is profitable, corporate executives have bailed on those Detroit workers. It is everything the American people reject about corporate America. It is greedy — there is no other word for this.”

Region 1A Director Chuck Browning: It is a great injustice for our hardworking and dedicated members at the Brownstown Battery Plant to have their job security threatened as a result of a company, whose viability was secured by our tax dollars, continues to manufacture vehicles in Mexico while making record profits. GM is abandoning the very workers that have contributed to their success.

Region 2B Director Rich Rankin: GM’s Decision to stop production at the Lordstown complex is an attack on American workers. I am very disappointed that a company that made 12 billion dollars last year cannot see the importance of investing in the country, American workers, and American taxpayers that bailed them out of bankruptcy just eight short years ago.

Their recent decision, to close a warehouse in West Chester, and now their decision to stop production at Lordstown, is a slap in the face to all Ohio consumers.  GM needs to realize that their decisions have consequences. Not only are they destroying communities, splitting up families, and turning their backs on hard working Americans, they are going to create a huge backlash from the American consumer.

Americans are tired of greedy corporations closing factories and moving work to foreign countries just to increase profits. The American consumer is more informed today than they ever have been in the past, and there is a groundswell of support for companies that build where they sell. I believe there is still time for GM to recognize that they can do the right thing and invest in Ohio and the American worker. Maybe, hard working Americans just need to give them a nudge.