President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration will coincide with 2,000 employees of General Motors losing their jobs, CNN Money reported.
Despite announcing plans Tuesday to invest $1 billion in U.S. manufacturing, 1,200 workers in Lordstown, Ohio, and 800 Lansing, Mich., will be terminated in the company's first layoffs in over half a decade.
"Please help us in Lordstown," Robert Sheridan, a 40-year-old GM worker and father of three, told CNN. "This is a great middle-class job. You can't find one better around here."
GM pays more than twice as much as other factories in the area, at $25 an hour for Sheridan's job installing brake lines, compared to $9 or $12 elsewhere nearby.
Trump criticized GM earlier this month in a tweet about the carmaker's production in Mexico.
"Trump's tweet really gave us hope," Sheridan said. The Chevy Cruze is the only car produced by the Lordstown plant, but after gas prices fell, the car's popularity faded.
"It's absolutely about supply and demand," said Glenn Johnson, president of Lordstown’s UAW Local 1112, to CNN. "Consumers have decided they are choosing not to buy small cars."
During their prime in the 1980's and 90's, GM employed 15,000 people at the plant in Lordstown. After Friday, that number will drop to just over 3,000, despite record car sales the past two years, according to CNN Money.
"If you could get a job at GM, it was like winning the lottery," Heather Lexso, a 41-year-old GM worker and mother of three who stands to lose her job Friday. "I don't think I'll ever earn $25 an hour again."
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