The economic outlook for Michigan

Through interviews conducted and gathered by 'Your Story' citizen journalists in Michigan, USA, the reality for people living under the threat of a collapsing car industry is told.

Listen Listen to the BBC's Nina Robinson's report - 4 mins 16 secs

In Joe Maggioncalda's house there are 3 drivers and 4 cars

Fifty-seven year old Joseph Maggionalda has been working as a forklift truck driver for General Motors for over 30 years.

He was hoping to see his two teenage children though college before retiring, but that seems unlikely at this point.

Scary

Joe describes the future as scary, "we went from keeping one eye on our overtime sheets to looking at our seniority to lay off and that was in the space of two months".

Joe circles all the car plant factories on a Michigan map

With jobless rates already well above the national average in Michigan the threat of even more job losses is unthinkable but likely.

It's even more difficult to comprehend when the strongest memories for many employees are of the big three auto companies - GM, Chrysler and Ford - dominating the world's car production.

Joe says, "we put the world on wheels, we're too big to go under, we can't die."

See the Your Story photos of Detroit on flickr

The local union president of the plant where Joe works, remembers a time when the membership of his local United Auto Workers (UAW) stood at 20,000 - now it is 1,800.

Kit Walk thinks there is nothing wrong with GM's product line

Kit Walk moved to Detroit from Tennessee to work for GM over thirty years ago.

He believes that Americans should buy American cars. In his opinion, it's a tradition that should be maintained; "My father drove a chevy truck..if it was good enough for him, it's good enough for me."

Cynthia Harrison's husband works for Chrysler. She interviewed a friend; Dwight Holien, who works for GM.

Listen Listen to Cynthia interviewing Dwight - 2 mins 25 secs

Dwight thinks that Americans should buy domestic and sees this as a way of supporting the country.

Cynthia's blog on life - cynthiaharrison.com

But US President Obama has so far resisted a policy of protectionism. The "buy American" clause of his $787 billion economic stimulus package was watered down to say that all current trade agreements would remain intact.

Kids plan to move

At the local high school where Joe's teenage daughter studies, some students have a different idea of what Americans can do to help their country.

Sixteen year old Carrie Ambrose thinks that people need to stop sitting at home and watching TV and to go out there and try to do what they can.

Sixteen year old Nick Robbo wants to work for the auto industry when he leaves school, but when he tells his peers, they react by telling him that he must be crazy and that the industry is bound to fail.

Other teenagers say that they do not think they will be staying in Michigan as adults, because of the lack of job opportunities.