President Donald Trump is set to visit the Dayton, Ohio, area Saturday as nearly 1,400 workers at a truck plant in nearby Springfield grapple with layoffs that have become a flashpoint in the state's political debate ahead of November's midterm elections. The job cuts, affecting workers at facilities formerly operated by International Motors, occurred on September 30 and were large enough to effectively erase about a year's worth of job growth in the greater Dayton region, the reported. The layoffs have created a complicated backdrop for Trump's appearance in southwest Ohio, a region that has been central to Republicans' success with working-class voters.
Workers described frustration over rising costs and economic uncertainty, including some who had previously supported Trump. "Something has to change politically in this country," Kyle Bos, a member of the United Auto Workers (UAW) who identifies as a centrist, told the AP. "Seems like it just kept getting worse and worse and worse." Bos added that he had voted for Trump multiple times but now planned to canvass for Democrats.
The president's Ohio visit is part of an extended series of campaign events aimed at persuading voters that economic conditions are improving. "All over the country, they're building factories, plants—manufacturing's coming back," Trump said Thursday at a truck plant in Texas. "The only thing we're doing badly at is public relations." While the layoffs have become part of a broader political conversation, public filings tie them to a corporate transaction rather than a sudden closure spurred by economic conditions alone.
More than 1,300 employees were expected to lose their jobs as part of International Motors' agreement to sell the Springfield Assembly Plant and Truck Specialty Center to Canadian vehicle manufacturer Roshel, per a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filed with Ohio authorities. The Springfield facility, which opened in 1966, had recently been used primarily for contract manufacturing under an agreement that was scheduled to expire at the end of September. Company officials said that expiration helped prompt efforts to find a buyer for the operation.
The sale is expected to transfer the facilities to Roshel, which has indicated plans to establish operations at the site. The AP reported that some workers hope they may be rehired once the new owner ramps up production. The layoffs have also become a major focus for UAW Local 402, which represents many Springfield workers.
Roshel said in a statement to the AP that it's "working with everyone involved not only to protect the current workforce, but to more than double it over the coming years through a phased process." Industry and labor groups have separately been warning about pressures facing parts of the trucking sector, including high operating costs and concerns about freight demand, though no public evidence has directly linked those issues to the Springfield layoffs. The Dayton-Springfield region has long been viewed as an important barometer of working-class political sentiment. Once a major manufacturing hub, the region has experienced decades of industrial change and job losses, making issues such as wages, inflation and factory employment particularly salient for voters.
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