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When General Motors has been
plunged into bankruptcy due to the numerous plant
closures and especially with the shutdown of the
Buick City complex, the Flint working population was
forced to see their prosperous community affected by
the fluctuations of the automotive market and the
decisions of corporate executives.
This highly profitable
industrial center was thrown into chaos and the
irrationality of production for profit, when GM has
cut the workforce from almost 82,000 people in 1970
to just 15,000 in the present. The dismantling of
plant operations from all over Flint has also caused
the local finances collapsing, cutting the very
source of living for all the workers. Mayor Woodrow
Stanley was then the first mayor of a larger US city
to be recalled by the Flint voters as a solution of
resolving the city’s financial crisis and the harsh
attacks of the working class. In May 2002,
republican Governor John Engler had to declare a
financial state of emergency in Flint, Michigan and
begun the necessary procedures of implementing a
state take-over.
The city’s finances were
handled to Ed Kurtz, the former president of a
private business college. In spite of the several
attempts of the city council to block the state take
over, in September 2002 the decision was finalized.
Since that decision, Ed Kurtz has tried to somehow
balance the $40 millions budgetary deficit of the
city, proposing severe measures on an already
near-collapse infrastructure (such as cuts in trash
collection or the closure of the community centers).
Here are some of the effects
of the GM‘s bankruptcy and the wrong decisions taken
by the people responsible for handling the crisis:
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The city’s housing department, the
city jail and the ambulance service were closed;
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Ed Kurtz approved the purchase of 30
M-16 military assault rifles for the Flint police;
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In Flint there was the highest rate of
vacancy in Michigan;
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The unemployment rate was 14, 3%
(compared to the state average of 5, 9%).
In Flint‘s case, the state
take over was mainly the result of the failure of
the United Auto Workers and the AFL-CIO trade union
federation to protect the interests of the workers,
that degenerated in time in huge debts to the state
and poor management of the city’s resources.
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Michelle