Flint GM plant changes shift time to accommodate Lions fans
By ELISSE RAMEY
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FLINT, Michigan (WNEM) — The General Motors (GM) truck plant in Flint is allowing some of its workers to start their shift later so they can watch the Detroit Lions NFC Championship Game on Sunday.
Grit and toughness are some of the words that people have used to describe the Detroit Lions. Those same words could be attributed to the people working on the line at the Flint truck plant, and that common threat is why so many people are behind this Detroit Lions Team.
“You can look at those guys and say, ‘I can back that guy. I can back that team. I can resonate with those group of guys,’” said Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell, touting his team’s appeal to the masses.
Campbell was also appreciating that this is Michigan, not California where the underdog Lions will face the 49ers in the NFC championship game Sunday.
“You know, it’s not the first thing you think of if you go to L.A. Or just in general, right? You’ve got the sun, you’ve got the beach, you got plenty of other things going on and here man, it’s harsh winters, right? Auto industry. Blue collar. Things aren’t always easy,” Campbell said.
With each practice, each play, the Lions have turned the page on the past. The once-troubled franchise and the auto industry both have known tough times.
“I think it’s resilience. I feel that that resonates with every person that is not only from the city of Detroit, the surrounding cities and the entire state,” said Adelphia Lyles, a GM employee.
The entire state is practically draped in Lions colors, and it’s no different at the Flint assembly.
It’s this spirit that Lyles believes her favorite team has captured, a spirit she and the people she works alongside at the truck plant can appreciate.
“It’s really a once in a lifetime so far, right, so it’s exciting in the community, it’s exciting in the plant. Everybody is cheering for them at every turn,” said Eric Welter, UAW shop chairman at Local 598.
The excitement for the team is boiling over so much that workers requested a delay to the start of third shift on the night of the NFC Championship Game.
“A lot of them petitioned me to go speak with the plant manager. I did so. They were very open to the conversation and put some thought to it and decided to accommodate the employees’ ability to celebrate the Lions and still make it to work on time,” Welter said.
Welter didn’t think it would cause as much of a stir, but for Lyles — who was once a ticket taker at the Pontiac Silverdome and who cheers for the team proudly alongside her family, including her GM retired father — it means so much.
“I think that’s a huge deal for General Motors and the UAW to put something like that together like that and say, ‘Hey, you guys are a part of the community too. You guys definitely want to make sure to support the team,’” Lyles said.
A quick trip downstate — I-75 connects mid-Michigan to the center of it all.
“Flint’s not too different than Detroit in that we love an underdog, right? We’ve been fighting the fight a long time and living the underdog life, so now we get to celebrate and take in a win,” Welter said.
He said the third shift would normally start at 9:42 p.m. but will now start at 11 p.m. — impacting about 1,500 of its 4,500 employees at one of GM’s biggest and most productive plants, stopping – just for a minute – an organization that moves the whole world.
“It is really, really exciting to see them move forward down the field, headed towards the Super Bowl so let’s just get this other team out of the way so we can head to the Super Bowl,” Lyles said.
Kickoff for the Lions vs. 49ers game is on Sunday, Jan. 28 at 6:30 p.m. on FOX.
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