American Factory, this year’s Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature, is one of the best labor movies this old union guy has ever seen.
By clearly showing why workers need a union, the Netflix film reminded me of Matewan and Norma Rae. Spoiler alert: unlike in Matewan and Norma Rae, the union-busters win.
Made under the auspices of Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production company, American Factory opens with the closure of a big UAW GM truck plant in Moraine, Ohio. The plant’s demise has devastated the blue collar Dayton suburb.
Hope returns when Cho Tak Wong, the billionaire founder and CEO of Fuyao, a Chinese company that makes auto glass, buys the hollowed out factory.
Fuyao retools and reopons the facility non-union. Many of the first hires are middle-aged ex-truck plant workers who packed UAW cards. They’re just grateful to have a steady job again.
Thankfulness gives way to disillusionment. Absent a union, the employees are forced to work long hours at lot lower wages than GM paid. In addition, the GM plant was much safer. As a result, turnover and on-the-job injuries are considerably higher at Fuyao.
So workers seek to join the UAW.
(Read the rest of this post at the KY AFL-CIO web site.)