At a massive factory complex not far from Cleveland, most of the 3,200 hourly workers know that they may play a major role in upcoming national contract talks between General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers. As the union opens its national bargaining convention in Detroit on Tuesday, the 5-million-square-foot Lordstown plant has no car to make when its current products go out of production after the 2009 model year. GM won't say if Lordstown will get the next generation GM small car. It won't say if the plant will get anything. And it acknowledges that a factory is under construction in Mexico that some analysts believe could be the place where GM builds future small cars for North America.
See "Ohio factory in play as UAW meets to plot bargaining strategy", Tom Krisher, Chicago Tribune, March 25, 2007