The contract agreement reached between the UAW and General Motors that may end the month-long strike does not include a new product for the shuttered Lordstown plant in Trumbull County.
The deal meets many demands that sent 49,000 workers to the picket line. Those include a better healthcare plan, gradual wage increases and a path for temporary workers to be hired on full time.
However the agreement maintains the closure of three of four facilities GM shut down earlier this year, including the assembly facility in Lordstown where the Chevy Cruze was made.
John Sandquist Jr., a 25-year employee of GM in Lordstown, says workers here feel betrayed.
“We’re getting screwed. We’re the sacrificial lamb in this one," Sandquist said. "They’re gonna sacrifice Lordstown for the good of the whole, and the whole UAW membership. It sucks for us, but I get their point, and I’m pissed off about it.”
Sandquist is among the hundreds of Lordstown workers transferred to other GM plants. He’s heading to Bowling Green, Kentucky to work in their Corvette assembly facility, while his family remains in Ohio.
Union rank and file will vote on the agreement early next week.
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