Documenting the death of American manufacturing

[boobooday]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1mdGyICc8Y

I grew up in Indiana, next door to the Indiana Glass Company, a factory that made glass for over 100 years. My Dad worked at the factory. Many other members of my family worked at the factory, and it was an economic pillar in our little town, which was then known as "The Glass Capital" of Indiana.

After NAFTA, another big company bought Indiana Glass, and my Dad was asked to pack up some of the equipment so it could be moved to Mexico. He did that, but he refused to go to Mexico to set it up there. He took his early retirement, and our neighborhood went silent. I remember, growing up, the constant sounds of the factory, the rhythms of shift change, the muffled voice of the woman on the intercom that haunted me in my bed, and especially the sounds of the trains that brought the sand, and the semi trucks that took away the finished product.

Last year they started tearing the factory down. My Dad, who still lives next door, documented the destruction and made the video. I think the footage is haunting, emblematic of what has happened to manufacturing. And perhaps I am biased, growing up next to the piles of glittering shards that were melted back into vases and fancy deviled egg plates, but glass is so much better than plastic. It's something we can make here, and it is 100% recyclable. And damnit, your food tastes better when stored in glass. A great industry, devastated. And this is just one tiny little corner of the rust belt. The same thing has happened all over the country.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Free trade was just a way for corporations to freely

take American jobs and ship them overseas instead of products

[boobooday]

2. That's for sure.

And the one factory left in town is only operating because it was purchased by a large French corporation.

[dmallind]

13. You mean the people in your town are "stealing French jobs"?

If the $3.5T of US direct foreign investment in other countries (like the plant in Mexico from the OP) is giving away American jobs, what possible reason can there be to think the $2.7T of direct foreign investment in the US from other nations isn't them giving away their jobs to Americans for shiftless corporate greed? (in this case French - St Gobain I assume, that was actually a direct grant from the French king and therefore arguably more a national ownership than pretty much any US company).

Makes you wonder what Chinese and Indian companies are doing employing Americans here if the only reason to locate overseas is for cheap labor...

[boobooday]

16. It is St. Gobain, but I don't think you can say they are stealing French jobs

They weren't jobs that belonged to French people that were taken away and given to the people in my town. They were jobs that were always in my town that weren't lost because St. Gobain invested to keep the factory open.

Ultimately, we know that corporations answer to nothing but the almighty dollar.

[Enthusiast]

9. Correct me if I'm wrong

but I believe our greatest export is now waste paper.

[Angry Dragon]

10. Never heard that

[dmallind]

14. You ARE wrong. As I suspect you knew.

For the truly curious, it is civilian aircraft. A high value product that pays high wages.

[Enthusiast]

25. I'm glad to hear that.

Maybe we can outsource production to Mexico. Just imagine the increased profit.

[thaddeus_flowe]

3. Moving film.

It is tragic to think our children will be haunted by the sound of destruction rather than construction.

[boobooday]

4. I'll pass that along to him

I know it was hard for him to watch!

[thaddeus_flowe]

5. Who would have thought

that the glass they made was as fragile as our industrial jobs?

[boobooday]

6. It's so ridiculous not to make glass in this country

Sad to think that some of that fragile glass outlasted the factory, and the industry. :-(

[dmallind]

15. Plug this address into Google Maps on photo view

848 Southern Ave Chilicothe OH.

You will see dozens of tiny little dashes dwarfed by a huge plant.

The dashes are containers 40' long each. Guess what the plant makes..... and the company has another dozen in the US, including one in IN.

Probably making some of the $1.5B of this commodity that the US exports every year.

Can you guess? I think so.

[boobooday]

17. Of course

But I come from a heavy glass making area. My town used to have 6 or 7 glass factories. My Dad made glass in PA, Ohio and Indiana.

We definitely don't make as much as we used to.

Excuse my hyperbole.

[opihimoimoi]

7. The Pulse can be reversed...in which would result in new and better equipment for domestic glass

consumption...sold at market prices or higher.

Stabilizes Econ Flow....

[boobooday]

11. I hope that you are right!

My family made glass for at least three generations.

[opihimoimoi]

19. One of principle building materials.....new construction should require domestic glass at gov't subs

idized rate to compete...if legal...

its only way to keep industry in play

[boobooday]

22. and you know what else

It probably wouldn't need subsidizing if we had universal health care. The costs of shipping and everything else have to be enormous compared to making it here. The savings are all coming from labor, obviously.

edit: grammar!

[opihimoimoi]

26. The GOPers are anti construction.....only Destruction

[Enthusiast]

8. My story is similar

to your Dad's.

Now we have Citizens United which virtually guarantees the American voter will vote against their best interests. I see few solutions.

[boobooday]

12. Citizens United is truly a tipping point

It should be the starting point for the end of corporatism!

[Enthusiast]

24. It should spell their ending. nt

[midnight]

18. A family member owns a framing shop and said he has to get his glass from

one or two places in the country. That was a few years back... Now this explains why... That really is too bad....

[boobooday]

23. I've seen pictures

In the early days of this factory, they used to make window glass with rolling pins!

There are still some very large glassmakers in the U.S., but between the rise of plastic and the competition from labor overseas, the medium and smaller manufacturers can't hang.

I remember there was also a factory nearby in Muncie that made those suspended animation style paperweights, and beautiful glass marbles.

[Omaha Steve]

20. I have relatives all over Southern Indiana

Vincennes, Mitchell, Orleans, Loogootee, etc.

K&R btw.

[boobooday]

21. Thanks Steve

I love Vincennes! Great memories of 'ol Red Skelton's hometown.