Mid-afternoon in Detroit, outside a General Motors assembly plant. Five hundred jobs are being cut here. Workers go home for the day… By January a third of them will have lost their job. A woman driving out of the factory’s parking lot describes the widespread anxiety: “I’m not going to lose mine because I have seniority, but I’m concerned about the other folk…”

Opposite, is the workers’ traditional lunch spot. Over time General Motors staff has become scarce: 4000 factory workers have been laid off over the last 20 years. According to one man, “layoffs are coming in two weeks...it’s a bad situation around here.”

John is a regular here. He knows the feeling. He worked in the auto industry for thirty years, was laid off three times. At 51, he’s now looking for a more stable job: “I had several jobs and each time I started feeling comfortable they said 'oh sorry we’re sending it abroad we’re laying everybody off'. So I want something that’s safe and secure; I don’t want every couple of years to be looking for a new job, I want to find one job for the rest of my career until I retire.”

Unlike John, United Auto Workers hasn’t given up on the auto industry. These union representatives have pinned their hopes on the presidential election. Top of their demands: more money for the automobile sector. They’re also opposed to a potential merger between GM and Chrysler: which would cut 30,000 jobs. Their candidate is Democrat Barack Obama.

Joe Ryan has worked for GM since he was 18 years old: he’s not expecting any miracles, but just a president more mindful of Michigan’s blue collar workers: “Obama is fair, he gives us a piece of the pie, he gives us an opportunity for a fair days’ pay for a fair day’s work.” With General Motors loosing a billion dollars a month and Michigan’s car manufacturers bracing for further layoffs, saving the industry has become an uphill battle.