:06:00
- Where's Mom?
- In the kitchen.
:06:09
Why, your hands are filthy!
:06:13
- Go upstairs and wash them.
- Okay, Mom.
:06:16
Okay, so my homecoming
wasn't quite like that.
:06:18
In fact, I wasn't back in Flint more than
a few days when the bad news hit.
:06:24
This is the CBS Evening News,
Dan Rather reporting.
:06:28
Good evening.
:06:29
General Motors confirmed it today.
:06:31
It is going to close plants
employing almost 30,000 workers.
:06:34
Today we are announcing the closing...
:06:38
of 11 of our older plants.
:06:40
While Detroit and Pontiac
will certainly be hurt by the shutdowns...
:06:44
the effect on Flint
is absolutely devastating.
:06:50
Devastating wasn't the half of it.
Maybe I got this wrong...
:06:53
but I thought companies lay off people
when they hit hard times.
:06:56
GM was the richest company
in the world...
:06:58
and it was closing factories
when it was making profits in the billions.
:07:02
We do not have any plan
to cut our workforce by 80,000.
:07:05
That was kind of
a what-happens-if type of thing.
:07:10
So this was GM chairman Roger Smith.
:07:12
He appeared to have a brilliant plan:
:07:15
First close 11 factories in the U. S...
:07:17
then open 11 in Mexico, where
you pay the workers 70 cents an hour.
:07:21
Use the money you saved by building cars
in Mexico to take over other companies...
:07:25
preferably high-tech firms
and weapons manufacturers.
:07:29
Next, tell the union you're broke...
:07:31
and they happily give back
a couple of billion dollars in wage cuts.
:07:34
Then take that money from workers...
:07:36
and eliminate their jobs
by building more foreign factories.
:07:39
Roger Smith was a true genius.
:07:41
I think our employees
have got a new emphasis on job security...
:07:45
and we want to try
and help them with that.
:07:47
- What do you have to say to Roger Smith?
- It's gonna be rough.
:07:51
I can't mention it on television.
:07:54
This was to be
the first of many layoffs in Flint...
:07:57
the final day for the GM truck plant.