Feature
GM’s Electric Future Means Prosperity for One Michigan Town, Disaster for Another
The haves and have-nots are separated by just 35 miles.
United Automobile Workers members picket the GM plant in Orion Township, Mich. When the UAW returns to work, this plant will be busy.
Photographer: Corine Vermeulen for Bloomberg Businessweek
March 22 was a big day for Chris Barnett. The supervisor of Orion Township, a 36-square-mile rectangle of lakes, parks, and pricey homes north of Detroit, donned his lucky gray suit and headed to the General Motors Co. assembly plant on the township’s southern border.
There, with a car body suspended overhead nearby, he shook hands with Governor Gretchen Whitmer and GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra. Then he whooped and clapped along with plant workers as Barra announced GM would invest $300 million and add 400 jobs to build a new Chevrolet electric vehicle at the factory.