It was news heard around the world: 4,500 manufacturing workers from Youngstown, Ohio, and the Mahoning Valley region lost their union jobs when General Motors' iconic Lordstown Assembly plant, builder of the Chevrolet Cruze, shuttered in 2019.Some expressed surprise that there were any plants left to close in Youngstown. The city's protracted economic decline can be traced back to Sept. 19,1977, a day that locals call "Black Monday," when Youngstown Sheet & Tube, paternalistic employer of 5,000, announced it was pulling up stakes and moving operations to Tennessee. The decades that followed were dimmed with more plant closings, and Youngstown has lost half its population since.GM, however, soon had a new tenant for everyone likes a hard-luck story with a redemptive twist, the company's arrival generated media coverage and high-profile politican visits.
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