The Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber will give its Spirit of the Valley Award to General Motors at its annual meeting Wednesday — a decision upsetting a number of those who lost their jobs or relocated when the company closed its Lordstown plant.

The timing of the award is bad — a little more than two years to the day, March 6, 2019 — that the last Chevrolet Cruze rolled off the production line at the assembly plant.

The closure was a devastating blow to the region with about 1,500 jobs lost that day. The plant had employed about three times that amount about five years earlier.

Those working at the Lordstown facility when it closed were forced to either relocate to another GM plant hundreds, even thousands, of miles away or quit or retire. Families were uprooted or separated because of the closure.

When I tweeted about the chamber’s announcement, I got no positive responses.

Dave Green, former president of the United Auto Workers Local 1112 at GM Lordstown, wrote: “This is a real slap in the face to thousands of autoworkers and their families. Give the award to the thousands of kids that sent Mary (Barra, GM CEO) Christmas cards. So disappointed to hear this!!”

The Christmas cards were part of an effort to save the local plant.

Tim O’Hara, who succeeded Green as UAW president, wrote: “‘Don’t sell your house. Don’t sell your plant. Don’t sell your soul.’ It’s a trifecta.”

The house comment was a reference to then-President Donald Trump’s July 25, 2017, rally at Youngstown’s Covelli Centre in which he talked about lost local jobs by saying: “They’re all coming back.” That was followed by, “Don’t move. Don’t sell your house.”

GM sold its 6.2-million-square-foot facility on Nov. 7, 2019, to Lordstown Motors for $20 million.

GM President Mark Reuss will “accept the award on behalf of the company via a special video message,” a chamber email said.

Of course, GM isn’t being honored for shutting down the assembly plant.

It’s for the $2.3 billion Ultium Cells project it is building in Lordstown, near its former facility, with LG Chem to make electric- vehicle battery cells.

That plant will have up to 1,100 employees when it is finished.

Guy Coviello, chamber president / CEO, told Ron Selak, our business editor: “The chamber perspective is that this is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, economic investments in the Valley’s history … and it was the GM site consultants that picked this location, and that doesn’t count the investment that GM made for Lordstown Motors.”

The new chamber head added: “I think what happened in the past was heart-wrenching, but as I take on a new role in this community, I prefer to look forward and with the glass half full, and as a result of these investments, the community has an opportunity to be at the forefront of an emerging industry.”

OK, but is honoring a company that is responsible for one of the largest number of lost jobs in the area in decades a “Spirit of the Valley Award” a great idea?

Asked about the award, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Howland, said: “Like most people in our area, I have a complicated relationship with GM. It’s the lover who broke your heart, and they came back and you say, ‘I remember why I love you.’ You have to give Mary Barra credit for not forgetting us. It’s a significant investment in our community. We welcome them back.”

GM had a solid run of 53 years in Lordstown and is making a significant investment in the area.

While unintentional, the chamber’s decision to honor GM at its annual event hurts many former Lordstown workers, their families, friends and the community as a whole.

Does that represent the Valley’s spirit?

Skolnick covers politics for the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.

dskolnick@tribtoday.com