Oct. 7 at 10pm on WKAR-HD 23.1 | The story of Lansing is one of unlikely collaboration, a community who came together to save their auto-based economy where so many others failed.
In 1996, GM announced that after production of the new Oldsmobile Alero finished in 2004, the automobile giant planned to leave Lansing. Michigan's capital city faced the threat of losing local operations, resulting in the loss of thousands of high paying jobs, major tax revenue, and significant support for area nonprofits. Then-Lansing Mayor David Hollister decided to fight this decision, and bridged numerous political divides to create the Blue Ribbon Committee to Keep GM. Mayor Hollister and Jack Davis, then chairman of the Chamber, co-chaired the committee and launched a public campaign entitled 'Lansing Works! Keep GM,' to persuade GM to remain in the city.
This film tells the story of that campaign, its eventual multi-billion dollar economic impact on the state, and the lessons learned as this community moved from crisis to collaboration
Second Shift is produced and directed by Tom Lietz and is a production of MessageMakers.