WASHINGTON, D.C – A $1.75 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor will help 337 of the 1,686 workers affected by layoffs at the General Motors plant in Lordstown get the employment and training services they need to find new jobs.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-13, and Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman announced Wednesday that the Department of Labor approved a National Dislocated Worker Grant application submitted by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The $1.75 million grant – with an initial award of $875,000 – will provide relief to workers impacted by GM’s layoffs over the last two years. That includes those laid off from the Lordstown plant, as well as from three other auto industry suppliers in northeastern Ohio.
In addition to harming “the economic security of workers at the Lordstown Assembly Complex,” the layoffs by GM affect the broader automotive supply chain, thus affecting the entire region, Ryan said in a release issued Wednesday.
Portman said the grant is a “positive step” toward helping the displaced workers get the resources and training they need. While he remains “disappointed by GM’s decision to cut another shift at the Lordstown plant,” Portman said he will continue to encourage the company to reinvest in the plant.
“I’ve had the chance to visit that plant and meet with the exceptionally-skilled workers there that produce world-class automobiles. In the coming weeks, I will meet with GM CEO Mary Barra again to encourage the company to reinvest in these workers and this plant,” he Portman said.
Portman plans to meet with Barra on Sept. 25 in Washington.
In August, Portman, Brown and Ryan wrote letters to U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta in support of the ODJFS’ application for the grant. The suspension of the GM Lordstown plant’s second shift in April came just over a year after it laid off its third shift in November 2016, consisting of some 1,250 workers.