Nearly 1,400 workers lost their jobs Wednesday at the former Navistar truck factory in Springfield, Ohio, three days before President Donald Trump’s scheduled rally at a nearby high school, the New York Post reported. The cuts were large enough to effectively wipe out a year of job growth across the greater Dayton area, according to the report.
The layoffs leave families facing a gap between their last paycheck and a potential return to work under a new owner. They also put a setback for American manufacturing alongside Trump’s argument that his trade and tax policies are rebuilding the nation’s industrial base.
According to the Post, Canadian armored-vehicle manufacturer Roshel is buying the facility from International Motors. Laid-off workers told the newspaper they expect to be rehired in six to 12 months, though the company’s statement described a phased expansion rather than a specific recall timetable.
Roshel said it is “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.”
Families Face an Immediate Paycheck Gap
For Kyle Bos, 30, the layoff comes with two daughters at home and a third due in January, the Post reported. A United Auto Workers member who describes himself as a centrist, Bos said he voted for Trump three times but now plans to spend the closing weeks before November’s election canvassing for Democrats.
“Something has to change politically in this country,” Bos told the Post. “Seems like it just kept getting worse and worse and worse.”
Marianne Donnelly, who drove a forklift at the factory, described cutting household expenses as prices climbed. According to the report, she buys discounted meat for her freezer and has canceled newspaper subscriptions and some streaming services.
Donnelly also said the temporary tax relief for overtime in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill offered limited help when extra shifts were scarce. “We weren’t getting a lot of overtime because of the economy,” she told the Post. “There just wasn’t any to be had, very little to be had.”
Another worker, Morgan Hughes, 35, told the newspaper that her factory job helped her buy a home at 21 and work alongside her father. When her hours were cut, she supplemented her income with DoorDash work and obtained a real estate license. The Post reported that she was knocking on doors for Democrats before the layoffs.
A Manufacturing Setback Amid Aerospace Growth
The Dayton area has lost about half of the 90,000 factory jobs it had in 1990, according to federal data cited by the Post. The report traced the decline through the movement of production to Mexico following the North American Free Trade Agreement and an acceleration after China joined the World Trade Organization.
But the region has also developed new sources of employment. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base now directly employs 38,000 people, and its expansion and innovations have attracted aerospace companies including Joby Aviation, Sierra Nevada Corporation and Electra, the Post reported.
The White House pointed to Electra’s $850 million investment, along with Ohio announcements from Honda, Stellantis and other companies, as evidence that Trump’s policies are creating jobs, according to the newspaper.
Jeff Hoagland, chief executive of the Dayton Development Coalition, credited Republicans and Democrats with recognizing Wright-Patterson’s economic value over the past two decades. He cautioned that development takes time to produce results, the Post reported.
At the Springfield factory, however, the newspaper reported that broad tariffs had failed to boost demand before International Motors chose to sell. Roshel’s plans offer a prospect of renewed employment, but workers’ anticipated wait for rehiring underscores the distance between an investment announcement and a household paycheck.
Economic Pressure Meets the Midterm Campaign
Trump has described his campaign travel as a 32-day rally marathon to persuade voters that the economy is stronger than they believe, according to the Post. Speaking Thursday at a Texas truck plant, he said: “All over the country, they’re building factories, plants — manufacturing’s coming back.”
The Ohio contest between Republican Sen. Jon Husted and former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown could help determine Senate control, the newspaper reported. Local Republican leader Phil Plummer said Trump remains central to the party’s coalition of businesses and working-class families.
Republicans are also emphasizing state-level affordability measures. State Rep. Andrea White told the Post that Ohio’s flatter income tax and restraints on property tax increases provide relief. She also helped lead a push for a temporary suspension of the state’s 38.5-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax.
“The concept is, put it back in the hands of the people who pay the taxes — so they have more of their own money,” White said.
Source: nypost.com
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