YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – It’s hard to escape the notion that each time the Mahoning Valley senses optimism, the other shoe drops to dash it.
In mid-October, a representative of Kimberly-Clark Corp., which is building an $800 million manufacturing plant on a former steel mill site in Trumbull County, disclosed that the consumer paper products manufacturer is considering an additional project at the site: a $160 million regional distribution center.
Tom Williamson, director of capital enterprise projects for the company, outlined details of the potential project to members of the Western Reserve Port Authority’s board of directors, which approved entering into a capital lease agreement to support the plan. The center would create 65 more jobs at the site in addition to the approximately 500 who would be employed at the plant, on top of the construction jobs both projects would create.
Cue the other shoe.
Any enthusiasm over the prospect of the potential additional jobs must be tempered by the Oct. 29 announcement – just two weeks later – that more than 1,300 workers would be laid off effective Jan. 5 at Ultium Cells LLC’s Lordstown plant, which manufactures batteries for the electric vehicle market.
“This layoff is the result of production schedule adjustments needed to align with slower than expected near-term EV adoption,” according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, letter written to local officials by Mark Pervine, vice president of the GM components sector.
The lowered expectations for the EV market can be attributed in part to the elimination in the One Big Beautiful Bill of incentives for EV purchases. The bill was passed by Congress and signed into law by EV critic President Donald Trump. This is the same President Trump who in 2017 told attendees at a Covelli Centre rally not to sell their houses because jobs were coming back to the Valley. Trump also hailed the now-defunct electric truck manufacturer Lordstown Motors’ acquisition of the former General Motors plant in Lordstown, even touting the vehicle during a White House lawn appearance.
Today it feels like the best we can do is hope no more shoes drop – at least not anytime soon.