If you lived in the Lansing area in the second half of the 90's, you probably remember billboards and bumper stickers shouting "Lansing Works" and "Keep GM." It was part of an aggressive campaign to persuade General Motors from cutting back, and possibly ceasing operations in Lansing. Up to 7,000 jobs in the city were at risk.
The memorable campaign involved concessions from the city and the United Auto Workers along with a collaborative, sometimes dramatic, approach to unite a diverse array of stakeholders. Some participants have called Lansing's "Keep GM" effort one of the first serious efforts in regionalism. Ray Tadgerson was at the center of the effort. Ray, along with filmmakers Tom Lietz and Terry Terry, discuss their film project "This Model Works."
