(20 Sep 2019) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus123864
Flint is the birthplace of General Motors and has been on an economic roller-coaster ride for more than a century as the company rose, crashed and retooled for changing markets.
Now, the Vehicle City is bracing once again for economic impact as a workers' strike against the automaker closes in on a week.
Picketing workers have been surrounding the massive GM complex for days, marching and toting signs and American flags at plant entrances. For some, it feels like they've been here before, because they have. James Schneider, who operates a laser-guided forklift truck, participated in the 54-day strike at a Flint plant in 1998 that forced a companywide shutdown.
"Our motto then was: 'One day longer.' And that's what we're going to be. We're going to hold out one day longer," said Schneider, a 43-year GM worker.
To be sure, there is resolve but also apprehension in the city with a population of less than 100,000 that had the nation's highest poverty rate a couple years ago among cities with at least 65,000 residents. Census data from 2016 estimated that 45% of Flint residents lived below the poverty line.
GM employs roughly 10,000 people in Flint and surrounding Genesee County, the majority of which are at truck, engine and metal plants clustered on the city's southwest side. That's actually up by a few thousand workers since the early 2000s, as more jobs have been added and investments made to the profitable truck-making business.
Still, it's a far cry from the manufacturing heyday of the 1950s and '60s, when the area burst at the seams with plants and boasted a workforce of upwards of 85,000. There was a disinvestment in later decades as jobs moved south, overseas or dried up.
The dwindling U.S. auto market and accelerating shift from cars to trucks benefits Flint, but the city also experienced layoffs when the trend reversed a decade ago.
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