: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.
:08:00
I think most of you are aware...
:08:03
that this is the first major plant closing...
:08:06
to take place in Flint.
Let me rephrase that.
:08:08
This isn't a plant closing.
It's a loss of one product line.
:08:20
My friends and I decided to pose
as a TV crew from Toledo...
:08:23
to sneak inside the factory.
:08:25
I wasn't exactly sure
what a TV crew from Toledo looked like...
:08:28
but apparently the ruse worked, as we
filmed the last truck going down the line.
:08:42
What's everybody so happy about?
We just lost our jobs.
:08:48
Everybody's applauding.
They just lost their jobs.
:08:51
We're trying impress upon the employees
that are being laid off...
:08:53
that there is nothing out there for them...
:08:57
to depend upon for the future.