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Back to To the Point

To the Point

The broken promise to Janesville

Nobody believed it would happen, but Janesville, Wisconsin, lost its General Motors plant in the Great Recession, almost 100 years after it opened. When suppliers and ancillary businesses also shut down, a classic, American middle-class lifestyle for 65,000 people went out of existence.

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By Warren Olney • May 24, 2017 • 1 min read

Nobody believed it would happen, but Janesville, Wisconsin, lost its General Motors plant in the Great Recession, almost 100 years after it opened. When suppliers and ancillary businesses also shut down, a classic, American middle-class lifestyle for 65,000 people went out of existence. We talk to the author of an intimate account of suddenly unemployed workers and their families — how they reacted and what they’ve done since. Janesville, once a model of civic unity and cooperation between labor and business — big and small -- is now a divided city.

  • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

    Warren Olney

    former KCRW broadcaster

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    Luke Vander Ploeg

    Producer, 'To the Point'

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    Amy Goldstein

    Washington Post

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    Craig Gilbert

    Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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    Maria Heidkamp

    New Start Career Network / Heldrich Center for Workforce Development

    NewsNationalPolitics
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