American Factory (2019 Netflix Documentary)

[Auggie]

Last edited Thu Aug 22, 2019, 11:31 AM - Edit history (1)

Wow. If this is the future of factory work in the United States, it is very disturbing. Spoliers below the linked text.

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The first documentary produced by Barack and Michelle Obama for Netflix debuted on Wednesday (August 21, 2019). Called "American Factory," it explores what befell workers of an Ohio General Motors plant that closed following the 2008 financial crisis and was later bought by a Chinese company.

Directed by veteran independent filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, the film looks at the economic and personal toll that the closure, which resulted in the loss of 2,000 jobs, had on residents of Moraine, Ohio, and at what happened after the facility was acquired by a Chinese investor in 2014. The factory was reopened as Fuyao Glass, an auto-glass manufacturer that promised the return of jobs to the community.

"A good story gives you the chance to better understand someone else's life," Mr. Obama said Wednesday in a tweet. "It can help you find common ground. And it's why Michelle and I were drawn to Higher Ground's first film, 'American Factory.'"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-netflix-documentary-american-factory-makes-debut-today-2019-08-21/

98% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer.

SPOILER BELOW:
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It didn't start out well -- not for American workers, certainly. In China, Fuyao workers are expected to work 12 hour days without overtime and little rest. Starting salaries of $14 an hour at the US plant, lax to no observance of OSHA and environmental regulations, plus a unionization effort (that failed), led to some bad blood and unwarranted and vengeful worker terminations. An effort to replace older workers with younger ones, plus increased robotics implementation, has helped the factory turn $40 million in losses into profit.

[wasupaloopa]

1. There also is a documentary about the GM truck plant

closing in 2008 that became the China plant.

Before GM the plant was Frigidaire appliance manufacturer.

I grew up in Dayton in the 50’s and 60’s. There were good paying factory jobs then for any white male that wanted them.

Things started to change when NCR changed over from mechanical cash registers to electronic. The company offered to train the workers in the manufacturing of the new machines but the workers when on strike wanting to keep their current jobs.

NCR then began moving it’s manufacturing to various locations around the globe. The other manufacturers followed suit.

There use to be Frigidaire, NCR, Delco, Chrysler Air Temp. Reynolds and Reynolds and others. All are gone overseas or quit.