{"id":4898,"date":"2009-06-11T16:42:52","date_gmt":"2009-06-11T20:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/?p=4898"},"modified":"2018-09-11T11:14:24","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T15:14:24","slug":"ireland-focal-point-interview-with-laid-off-gm-worker-brian-larkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/uncategorized\/ireland-focal-point-interview-with-laid-off-gm-worker-brian-larkin\/4898\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Veteran GM Worker Brian Larkin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/files\/2009\/06\/wa_brianlarkin.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4896\" title=\"wa_brianlarkin\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/files\/2009\/06\/wa_brianlarkin.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"274\" \/><\/a>America&#8217;s loss of an iconic brand of muscle car parallels Ireland&#8217;s loss of Waterford Crystal in<em> Raise the Last Glass<\/em>. General Motors originally manufactured Pontiac Firebirds, GTOs and Trans Ams in Pontiac, Michigan.\u00a0 The cars were driven by Burt Reynolds in the movie <em>Smokey and the Bandit<\/em> and were almost characters unto themselves in TV shows such as the <em>Dukes of Hazard<\/em> and <em>Knight Rider<\/em>. GM announced in April that it would eliminate Pontiac as part of cuts to win continued government financing. It followed this news on June 1 by announcing it would shutter an assembly plant in Pontiac that employs 1,360 people.<\/p>\n<p>WIDE ANGLE multimedia producer Renee Feltz speaks about the loss of GM jobs in Pontiac with 36-year GM veteran worker, Brian Larkin. Larkin is Vice President of the United Auto Workers Union Local 594. He discusses how GM has employed his family for generations, the end of production of the iconic Pontiac brand of cars, and what the loss of GM jobs will mean for workers in Pontiac and the town itself.<\/p>\n<p>Click here to listen to the interview:<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-4898-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/2\/files\/wa-ireland-gminterview-edit.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/2\/files\/wa-ireland-gminterview-edit.mp3\">https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/2\/files\/wa-ireland-gminterview-edit.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>America&#8217;s loss of an iconic brand of muscle car parallels Ireland&#8217;s loss of Waterford Crystal in Raise the Last Glass. General Motors originally manufactured Pontiac Firebirds, GTOs and Trans Ams in Pontiac, Michigan.\u00a0 The cars were driven by Burt Reynolds in the movie Smokey and the Bandit and were almost characters unto themselves in TV [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,31,1],"tags":[5261,337,307,5260,5252,909],"class_list":["post-4898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe-russia","category-interviews","category-uncategorized","tag-brian-larkin","tag-economy","tag-focal-point","tag-general-motors","tag-global-economic-crisis","tag-ireland"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Raise the Last Glass ~ Interview with Veteran GM Worker Brian Larkin | Wide Angle | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/uncategorized\/ireland-focal-point-interview-with-laid-off-gm-worker-brian-larkin\/4898\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Raise the Last Glass ~ Interview with Veteran GM Worker Brian Larkin | Wide Angle | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"America&#8217;s loss of an iconic brand of muscle car parallels Ireland&#8217;s loss of Waterford Crystal in Raise the Last Glass. General Motors originally manufactured Pontiac Firebirds, GTOs and Trans Ams in Pontiac, Michigan.\u00a0 The cars were driven by Burt Reynolds in the movie Smokey and the Bandit and were almost characters unto themselves in TV [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/uncategorized\/ireland-focal-point-interview-with-laid-off-gm-worker-brian-larkin\/4898\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wide Angle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-11T20:42:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-11T15:14:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/files\/2009\/06\/wa_brianlarkin.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"thompsonc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"thompsonc\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/uncategorized\/ireland-focal-point-interview-with-laid-off-gm-worker-brian-larkin\/4898\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/uncategorized\/ireland-focal-point-interview-with-laid-off-gm-worker-brian-larkin\/4898\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"thompsonc\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/#\/schema\/person\/6a404e875f0b173c645e3e9e838a18d1\"},\"headline\":\"Interview with Veteran GM Worker Brian Larkin\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-11T20:42:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-11T15:14:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/uncategorized\/ireland-focal-point-interview-with-laid-off-gm-worker-brian-larkin\/4898\/\"},\"wordCount\":205,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/uncategorized\/ireland-focal-point-interview-with-laid-off-gm-worker-brian-larkin\/4898\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/files\/2009\/06\/wa_brianlarkin.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Brian Larkin\",\"economy\",\"Focal Point\",\"General Motors\",\"global economic crisis\",\"Ireland\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Europe &amp; 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