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GM Employee Wins Millionth Cruze Made Here
LORDSTOWN, Ohio -- Six months after it rolled off the assembly line at General Motor Co.'s Lordstown Complex, the millionth Cruze will finally hit the streets of the Mahoning Valley.
Since the car was produced, the plant has been selling raffle tickets to all members of locals 1112 and 1714 of the United Auto Workers union as well as retirees of the 50-year-old manufacturing complex. On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, drew the name of Sharon Frey, a chassis employee at the factory, as the winner of the car.
Frey was absent, but “Word will travel fast,” Local 1112 President Glenn Johnson said with a laugh.
“It's huge. It's a piece of our history. Any time you sell a million cars in four years, that's just an astronomical amount of cars. It speaks volumes to the workforce and the quality work they do every day of their lives,” Johnson said. “Once we built the millionth car, we just knew there was nothing better to do than to keep it local to value the sentiment [of that car].”
The raffle raised $10,000, donated to the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Youngstown.
With sparks flying behind the crowd as even more Cruzes were built, Brown commented that the day was “truly a celebration” of what the plant has done.
“It's a celebration. This is the most productive, largest assembly plant that GM has, I believe, in the country. This speaks to their productivity and to a great four years building this car,” he said.
Plant manager Steve Notar Donato, at Lordstown since early August, noted that producing one million of anything, not just cars, is quite an accomplishment.
“It's a testament to the quality, the commitment of the employees and the reception in the general population. The Cruze has done that for us and they [the employees] are excited for it to stay here,” he said.
September sales of the Cruze were up more than 40% from the same month last year and year-to-date sales are up about 6%, Notar Donato added. He sees the upward trend continuing with the 2015 model — released at the end of September — receiving a few tweaks and the next-generation Cruze that is expected to be available for the 2016 model year.
The Cruze is one of the best-selling cars in the Mahoning Valley, but while the Valley is the area most associated with the car, other cities in Ohio play a role as well, Brown said.
“The seats come from Warren, the steel and aluminum from Cleveland, the glass from Crestline and the stamping is done in Parma. This whole region has done well because of the success of this workforce in Lordstown,” he said after he drew Frey's name. “We all care about this state.”
In 2008, the federal government extended loans to General Motors and Chrysler to help them help them through bankruptcy, something Johnson says helped the plant get to where it is now.
“If it wasn't for the foresight of people like Senator Brown and President Obama to extend the auto rescue package, we might not even be having this conversation,” he said. “It may have been a moot point.”
Brown and Notar Donato echoed those sentiments.
“It took an investment of tax dollars understanding that the basics of this company and workforce are solid. There are about 1.1 million Cruzes to come out of this plant. That's 4,500 people's wages, 20,000 people getting retirement benefits,” putting money into the Mahoning Valley economy, Brown said.
Notar Donato added that GM's low point made the workers at the Lordstown Complex realized “how fortunate we are to be employed and have these jobs and how important it is to give back to the community.”
Without the union workers at the plant, Johnson concluded, things like this -- one million cars off the assembly line and donations to charity -- would not be possible.
“I have to thank the team members. Each one of them dug into their own pockets and gave money to take a chance on a piece of history,” he said. “And even if they didn't win, they knew they were going to feed a lot of needy families.”
Pictured: U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Glenn Johnson, president of Local 1112 of the United Auto Workers.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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