The
General Motors plant in the eastern San Fernando Valley was the
last auto plant to leave as part of the region’s painful process
of deindustrialization. During the 1980s it was the site of major
struggle, led by a multiracial group of workers, to keep the plant
open. GM wanted to close the plant to shift production to Canada
where they could save on health costs. By waging an extensive campaign,
activists managed to get GM to stay ten years longer than anticipated.
Although GM eventually left, the organizing work that occurred formed
the basis for the Labor/Community Strategy Center, which has developed
such organizing projects as the Bus Riders’ Union. |
