GM Chief Executive Rick Waggoner said amidst a celebration with the United Auto Workers union and state of Ohio officials that the company will invest a total of $500 million into the Chevy Cruze product program, including the $350 million at the sprawling plant off the Ohio Turnpike, about 20 miles west of the Pennsylvania border.
The Cruze will replace the Chevrolet Cobalt, which is built at the Lordstown plant and is being phased out, along with the Pontiac G5.
GM did not reveal how many additional jobs that the assembly of the Cruze might create at Lordstown, which already has about 5,000 employees in the complex’s assembly, metal stamping and paint shop operations.
With the Cruze, GM is hoping to take advantage of the strong demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, especially this year as gas rose to above $4 a gallon.
"Our dealerships are asking for many more Cobalts than we can build," Ed Pepper, vice president of Chevrolet, said in a statement.
While GM was celebrating the promise of a bright future at its Ohio plant, company officials this week gave autoworkers at its metal stamping plant in West Mifflin, near Pittsburgh, an update on plans to close that 58-year-old facility by the end of the year, said Rick Mismas, shop chairman of the UAW Local 544.
The West Mifflin plant, which had about 350 workers last year stamping parts for some 200 GM cars and trucks, is down to about 208 employees, Mismas said.
The West Mifflin plant had been targetted for closing in 2007, as outlined in a cost-cutting restructuring program aimed at slashing costs by $7 billion. GM made that announcement in November 2005.
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