23 years ago this week in Metro Times: Laurie Townsend covers a conference targeting union concessions to employers. It is held by 700 Canadian and American activists and officials questioning whether concessions save jobs and are essential to prevent corporate bankruptcy. Conference coordinator Bill Parker, who was laid off from Chrysler in 1979, points out that now, three years after Chrysler workers accepted concessions to “save the company,” 50 percent of their work force has been wiped out. What was happening: Nina Hagen at St. Andrew’s Hall.
14 years ago this week in Metro Times: Jim Dulzo talks to architect William Wizinsky about his proposal to revitalize the J.L. Hudson building. Wizinsky plans for new apartments, department stores and office space, among other things. “It would cost $10 million to $15 million to tear it down,” he says. “If you gave me that money, I could put a hotel in one corner of the building, all paid for.” In 1998, the Hudson Building was demolished; as of 2005, the site remains a parking lot. What was happening: Rush at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Five years ago this week in Metro Times: Anita Schmaltz previews the launching of MENA, an annual Middle Eastern and North African film festival put on in Dearborn by ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services). She writes that the festival illustrates the Middle East’s heterogeneity through films that contain a multiplicity of ethnic dimensions and diverse genres. It “takes us from the search to understand a mind from a foreign country to the search to understand a country by a foreign mind.” What was happening: David W. Christner’s This Blood’s for You at the Detroit Repertory Theatre.
Send comments to [email protected]
