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The fate of a closed General Motors factory in Ohio is still topical even after a tweet from President Donald Trump announced the potential sale of a plant that he showed a keen interest in the economy.
Indeed, the buyer is a novice electric vehicle builder who has never made a profit, has only one hundred employees and who warned this year that he might not have enough money to stay in business.
This potential agreement signals the likely end of a half century of GM car manufacturing at its plant near Youngstown and the lingering uncertainty for the rundown community of Rust Belt that has seen many unfulfilled promises. outfits.
GM confirmed last week that it had negotiated the sale of its huge assembly plant in Lordstown, whose production ended in March as part of a major restructuring of the automaker.
The Cincinnati-based Workhorse Group plans to build a commercial electric van on the site. Its only production facility is located in Union City, Indiana, where it has built approximately 400 delivery trucks.
It has started supplying electric vehicles to UPS and is one of five companies vying for a $ 6 billion contract to manufacture a new generation of mail trucks for the US Postal Service.
But its financial base raises many questions.
Workhorse spent most of its money on research and development. Sales were limited, losing $ 36.5 million last year. In its latest quarterly report, the group had warned that it did not have enough money to finance its operations in the first half of this year and that it needed a additional funding to stay afloat.
But the publicly traded company, whose shares skyrocketed after Trump 's tweet, also said he believed that she could collect enough money to continue.
Yet, it does not seem to yet benefit from the support of a competitor, Rivian, who has just received a $ 500 million investment from Ford for the development of a new electric vehicle.
The plan Workhorse outlined this week is to be a minority investor in a new entity that owns the Lordstown plant. No other investor has been announced and the group is still looking for partners.
GM spokesman Jim Cain said it was too early to say whether the builder would be one of them. GM sees the start-up as a way to preserve the Lordstown plant and believes Workhorse has the technology and product to build, Cain said.
Tesla Inc. and other start-ups were small businesses at a time, he said.
If Workhorse started producing there, it would probably start with a few hundred workers, much less than the 4,500 people GM employed just two years ago before starting to downsize.
The Democratic representative Tim Ryan, whose district includes the factory, said that a sale would not serve GM workers in the area who would need mutations if they wish to retain their pension and their pensions. benefits to the builder.
Any long-term employment growth for the region would be in years, he said, but "it's better that the factory be empty."
Trump has repeatedly asked GM to find another owner or reopen the plant, a state-owned area that will be important to him in the 2020 election, in which he promised a resurgence of manufacturing jobs. .
Some GM workers in Lordstown who were hoping the builder would reopen the plant with a new construction vehicle were skeptical about new projects.
Since the closure of the region's steel mills in the 1970s, investors have committed to the Mahoning Valley by committing to building factories to produce airships, regional aircraft and a new version of the Studebaker. said Tim O 'Hara, who worked at the Lordstown plant for 41 years.
"Nothing has ever happened," he says. "We went through that in the valley, we had these false promises, we're kind of used to it, at least we should be."
O & # 39; Hara, vice president of the United Auto Workers section of the factory, said that any sale was yet to be negotiated in the upcoming contract negotiations with the union, which still wants GM to stay and maintain the # 39; plant.
"We tell our members to hope for the best and prepare for the worst," he said.
Republican Governor Mike DeWine, who called GM to sell the plant if it does not intend to keep it going, said it was too early to celebrate, as many details still need to be sorted out.
"If things are not in place for this to happen," said the governor, "it would be very cruel for the workers and the people of Lordstown and the Mahoning Valley."
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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio; Krisher reported from Detroit.
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