A Trump pledge is falling flat as Ohio musical instrument plant closes

Source: msn/Reuters

8h


EASTLAKE, Ohio, April 17 (Reuters) - When Keith Czika learned the brass-instrument factory where he had worked for nearly 18 years was closing and his job was headed to China, the 62-year-old Ohioan focused on what he saw as a source of leverage: the plant’s ultimate owner, billionaire investor John Paulson, a close ally of President Donald Trump.

A three-time Trump voter, Czika raised the idea in early January with union colleagues of publicly calling out Paulson to try to save the Conn Selmer plant. The strategy was to pressure Paulson by linking the closure to Trump's pledge to revive American manufacturing. During the 2024 campaign, Paulson had criticized U.S. companies for offshoring jobs.

But the United Auto Workers’ public campaign — including a rally at which local officials assailed Paulson, social‑media videos and an online petition to the White House seeking Trump’s intervention — failed to avert the closure. The Eastlake, Ohio, factory is set to shut at the end of June, costing 150 jobs.

Conn Selmer, the largest U.S. band-instrument maker, will shift to China production of tubas, sousaphones and some French horns, Chief Executive John Fulton told workers in January, according to a video reviewed by Reuters. That accounts for nearly all of the Eastlake factory’s output. The failed effort underscores the limited political power of blue‑collar workers who form a core part of Trump’s base, even when their demands echo his populist “America First” agenda.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-trump-pledge-is-falling-flat-as-ohio-musical-instrument-plant-closes/ar-AA218T6x