The Rundown

Brown bringing former Lordstown UAW prez to State of the Union

By: - February 4, 2020 9:26 am

LORDSTOWN, OH – NOVEMBER 26: An exterior view of the GM Lordstown Plant on November 26, 2018 in Lordstown, Ohio. GM said it would end production at five North American plants including Lordstown, and cut 15 percent of its salaried workforce. The GM Lordstown Plant assembled the Chevy Cruz. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Ohio U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said in a news release Saturday he would be bringing former GM Lordstown United Auto Workers Local 1112 President Dave Green to tonight’s State of the Union address.

Over the last two years, the release noted, GM laid off roughly 4,500 workers between the three shifts at the plant.

“President Trump has betrayed workers at every turn. The workers at Lordstown helped create GM’s financial success and, instead of fighting to save these jobs, the president sided with corporations and gave companies like GM massive tax breaks to shut down American factories and ship jobs overseas,” Brown said.

Green praised Brown and slammed President Donald Trump in the release.

“Unlike President Trump who has turned his back on working families and their communities, Senator Brown continues to fight for the least privileged. Corporations need to focus more on the communities they do business in as opposed to shareholder returns. People are worth more than a paycheck,” Green said.

Green has relocated to a different factory in Indiana, at immense cost to his family, the release said.

Green made national news after Trump attacked him on Twitter.

From BuzzFeed’s Henry J. Gomez:

The fracas ignited with an appearance on Fox News, where Green was asked about Trump’s Saturday tweet pushing GM to reopen or find another use for the Lordstown plant. Green twice had written to Trump asking for his help on the matter. Saturday’s tweet, he said, wasn’t enough help “and I don’t know that it will be.”

Trump was watching. Not long after the segment, the president fired off a tweet that blamed Green for Lordstown’s plight.

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David DeWitt
David DeWitt

OCJ Editor-in-Chief and Columnist David DeWitt has been covering government, politics, and policy in Ohio since 2007, including education, health care, crime and courts, poverty, state and local government, business, labor, energy, environment, and social issues. He has worked for the National Journal, The New York Observer, The Athens NEWS, and Plunderbund.com. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and is a board member of the E.W. Scripps Society of Alumni and Friends. He can be found on Twitter @DC_DeWitt

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