Ryan Announces $875K in Additional Relief for Lordstown Workers
LORDSTOWN, Ohio – The U.S Department of Labor provided $875,000 in additional funding for a National Dislocated Worker Grant awarded to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The funding will allow for the continuation of reemployment services to workers affected by layoffs from the General Motors plant in Lordstown, as well as from four additional auto industry suppliers in northeastern Ohio, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan announced Monday in a news release.
In September 2018, Ryan announced $1.7 million in federal relief for idled workers at the Lordstown plant. Two months later, GM announced it would discontinue production of the Chevrolet Cruze at the plant and place it on “unallocated” status. The last Cruze came off the line in March.
Dislocated workers covered under the grants have been certified as eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance, enabling them to seek training through that program to find comparable reemployment. The funding provides these workers access to services not available through the TAA program, such as supportive services enabling participants to stay in training through completion and employment and training services for eligible displaced homemakers.
Ryan, D-13 Ohio, called the Lorsdstown plant’s closure “devastating for the Mahoning Valley and all of Northeast Ohio,” and praised the men and women who worked at the plant and produced vehicles for GM.
The congressman also reminded the automaker that American taxpayers who “bailed out General Motors a decade ago when they were on verge of bankruptcy,” and pointed out the company’s CEO makes “$21 million per year – 281 times the wage of the average GM worker.”
In addition, he issued a reminder to President Donald Trump, who in a July 2017 rally in Youngstown urged people not to sell their homes because jobs were coming back to the area.
“I am working every day to do my part, but it is time for President Trump and GM to do theirs,” he said.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
