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Two factories down at General Motors may have found new life, but their future remains incalculable, and even the best results will probably not save most of the jobs lost.
In Ohio, GM is currently discussing the sale of its assembly plant in Lordstown to Workhorse Group Inc. for the production of electric vehicles, while in Ontario, Oshawa Assembly will be transformed into a crossroads of spare parts after signing an agreement with the Canadian Automobile Union last week.
The two agreements, if concluded, would have similar results: much lower workforces, long-term uncertainty and a lesson on the difficulty of replacing or safeguarding factory jobs when automakers decide to close a major factory.
GM's plan for Oshawa only removes about 300 of the 2,600 jobs removed, and experts say there is no plausible scenario in which Workhorse, without other commitments from GM or D & O A third in terms of products, could retain more than a few hundred people in Lordstown just three years ago, he employed 4,500 people in northeastern Ohio, an economically disadvantaged state.
GM and the Unifor union have agreed on plans for Oshawa, but the potential deal over Lordstown could fail and there are many unknowns about Workhorse and its plans for the plant.
Workhorse, a low-profile manufacturer of electric vehicles near Cincinnati with fewer than 100 employees, is no longer profitable since its founding in 2007 under the name of AMP Electric Vehicles and closed the first quarter with just $ 2.8 million. most of which has been borrowed. A day before President Donald Trump declared that the potential sale was a fait accompli and "good news for Ohio!"In capital letters on his Twitter account, Workhorse, held in public, told regulators that he was about to become insolvent around the middle of the year.
GM said it is negotiating with an entity headed by Workhorse founder Steve Burns, who stepped down as CEO in February but remains a member of the board of directors. The board is led by Ray Chess, head of crossovers and commercial trucks over a 37-year career at GM. Workhorse said it would hold a minority stake in the new company, created to buy Lordstown, but few other details, including a source of funding, are known.
According to GM, Jeff Schuster, president of global forecasting at LMC Automotive, believes the company believes the company is serious enough to engage in discussions, but remains able to carry out a business of this magnitude.
"I think we are missing part of the story," Schuster said. "Obviously, they are extremely small and there are a lot of questions."
In March, GM slowed its operations on Lordstown, which was manufacturing the Chevrolet Cruze compact sedan, as part of a massive restructuring. Lordstown and Oshawa are two of the five North American plants GM said in November that it will remain unused this year and is on the verge of reducing overcapacity.
GM is trying to transfer laid-off workers or help them find another job. Last week it was announced that more than 1,350 employees from Lordstown and other factories had accepted mutations.
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