Conn Selmer Shuts Ohio Plant, Offshoring 150 Jobs to China Despite $21 Million Expansion
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Aug 1
Conn Selmer Shuts Ohio Plant, Offshoring 150 Jobs to China Despite $21 Million Expansion
3 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Aug 1
Summary
150 Eastlake workers lost their jobs when Conn Selmer ended production at its 61-year-old Ohio brass-instrument plant on June 30, with some work shifting to a nonunion factory in Indiana and the rest to China.
Conn Selmer told officials the closure was unavoidable after repeated annual losses and an inability to match Asian competitors on cost; union leaders said the company had already begun building a $21 million facility in Jiangsu in 2024.
UAW leaders and workers tried for months to reverse the decision, pressing owner John Paulson and seeking help from Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, but executives said nothing could stop the shutdown.
The closure undercut Trump-era promises of a manufacturing revival in a pro-Trump working-class area, where workers said offshoring continued even as U.S. manufacturing employment has fallen by about 75,000 since 2025.