USA: Residents of Pontiac, Michiagan fear the plant closing could cause their town to collapse

Record ID: 574724

  • Title: USA: Residents of Pontiac, Michiagan fear the plant closing could cause their town to collapse
  • Date: 3rd June 2009
  • Summary: PONTIAC, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES (JUNE 1, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF GM PONTIAC ASSEMBLY PLANT STREET SCENE OF DOWNTOWN PONTIAC, MICHIGAN VARIOUS BUSINESSES IN DOWNTOWN PONTIAC EXTERIOR OF PONTIAC PIZZA NICK MANSOUR INSIDE PONTIAC PIZZA (SOUNDBITE) (English) NICK MANSOUR, OWNER OF PONTIAC PIZZA, SAYING: "You know the old saying when GM sneezes, the U.S. catches a cold. It's true, you can not deny it, especially Pontiac. You know how it is, you can feel there is something wrong going on. It's like a cloud in the air, you don't see the sun, you feel the weather is not good. That's how it is today, you can sense it. Every face, you can see the look on their face and it's like 'Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God. What are we going to do tomorrow?' We are already at a 13 percent unemployment rate, and they are talking between 20 a 25 percent unemployment rate in Michigan. How do you think this is going to make you feel?" INSIDE PONTIAC PIZZA VARIOUS EMPTY BUILDINGS (SOUNDBITE) (English) CARLA INMAN, MICHIGAN RESIDENT, SAYING: "Well if you walk down the street, you can kind of see the town is going to sleep, and I'm sure it will definitely be in a coma after that. We need some life and the company and the jobs bring life to this little town, so definitely it's going to hurt it even more than it has now." EMPTY STREET CLOSED BUILDING (SOUNDBITE) (English) SHEDRICK WALKER, PONTIAC RESIDENT, SAYING: "It's gonna be a ghost town in this town. It's gonna be awfully tight." EMPTY STREET (SOUNDBITE) (English) HAROLD BARTTLEY, RETIRED GM WORKER, SAYING: "It almost brought tears to my eyes because I worked there a long time. To see it closing, you think about all your friends you had in there, people that you know. It's tight." DOWNTOWN PONTIAC
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Industry,Employment
  • Reuters ID: LVA1PJ26I0ZWYKJBXPQUIHFW2ZGJ
  • Story Text: On the same day that General Motors, the largest automobile company in the United States announced its bankruptcy on Monday (June 1), it also announced that it will shut down eleven assembly plants in the United States and idle three others.
    One of the plants GM plans to close is the Pontiac assembly plant in Pontiac, Michigan.
    The Pontiac plant is located in the small town of about 66,000 people, according to the U.S. census. GM named its Pontiac brand after the city when it began producing the vehicles in 1926.
    During GM's glory days, Pontiac cars including the sporty GTO, TrasAm and Firebird. The sports cars were once the symbol of youth and vibrancy, but now GM plans to scrap the brand along with the assembly plants that make them.
    Just a few miles from General Motors Pontiac assembly plant is downtown Pontiac, Michigan. The streets of downtown Pontiac are mostly empty and many of the stores are vacant.
    Nick Mansour owns and operates Pontiac Pizza. Mansour says he moved to the United States from Baghdad, Iraq in 1996. He says opened the pizza shop two years later. Mansour says since November of 2008, business has been slow. He says his business is off conservatively about 50 to 60 percent from last year. He says that he may not feel the effects of the plant closing immediately, but eventually he says the plant closing will affect his business.
    "You know the old saying when GM sneezes, the U.S. catches a cold. It's true, you can not deny it, especially Pontiac. You know how it is, you can feel there is something wrong going on. It's like a cloud in the air, you don't see the sun, you feel the weather is not good. That's how it is today, you can sense it. Every face, you can see the look on their face and it's like 'Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God. What are we going to do tomorrow?' We are already at a 13 percent unemployment rate, and they are talking between 20 a 25 percent unemployment rate in Michigan. How do you think this is going to make you feel," said Mansour.
    Michigan resident Carla Inman says the tiny town of Pontiac is already dealing with its own economic downturn, and says the closing of the neighbourhood assembly plant will not help the area.
    "Well if you walk down the street, you can kind of see the town is going to sleep, and I'm sure it will definitely be in a coma after that. We need some life and the company and the jobs bring life to this little town, so definitely it's going to hurt it even more than it has now," she said.
    Shedrick Walker says he has lived in Pontiac for about twenty years, and thinks the plant closing could be a death nail for the city.
    "It's gonna be a ghost town in this town. It's gonna be awfully tight," he said.
    Harold Barttley says he retired from GM's Pontiac assembly plant last year, but he says he still has a lot of friends who still work in the plant.
    "It almost brought tears to my eyes because I worked there a long time. To see it closing, you think about all your friends you had in there, people that you know. It's tight," said Barttley.
    Other residents of Pontiac said in their opinion, the city has already hit its low, and they don't think it has further to fall. However, many of the town's residents said, unlike GM, they have no plans to leave Pontiac.
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