Obamas' first film charts life in US factory under China bosses

Obamas''' first film charts life in US factory under China bosses

Los Angeles (AFP) - "They refer to us as the foreigners," says a downbeat employee at the Ohio car glass factory where hundreds of Chinese laborers have come to work, far from their wives, children and homeland.

But the worker in question is American, not Chinese, and is finding life very different under new management after billionaire "Chairman Cao" swept into town to reopen the shuttered, iconic former General Motors* factory in 2014.

[snip]

The film charts a Midwestern rust belt community's journey from optimism at the giant plant's reopening -- bringing back vital jobs -- toward creeping anger and disillusionment as the Chinese management imposes its strict, exhausting demands on workers and sacks those who don't comply.

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Im glad to see Obama doing something useful. I get the drift that maybe Obama may be trying to draw attention to some wrongs that needed to be addressed but weren’t. Better late than never. We need more expose’ writers.

If American managers exploited workers “nationalism” like the Chinese do, yeah we can keep plants open if we wanted to treat American workers this way.

I have seen construction projects in the S.F. bay area financed by China, and built with Chinese labor. The State of California out sourced most of the steel for the San Francisco bay bridge to China**, to save $400 million and some time. I think in todays world under Trump, this isn’t going to fly. Yeah. U.S. labor is higher and so is the cost of freedom. Capitalism has it’s limits.

BTW, I have no idea how many other plants are operated like this one.

* Have you ever noticed how wavy your front windshield in your car is? They never used to be like that until China took over the industry. Cheap visually distorted windshields undercut US windshields which were better but cost more.

** BTW, the union labor stand down begat the Bullet Train boondoggle as a pay off to organized labor to shut up, not picket, and not protest. “We will give you a job your children will retire on!” A.K.A. “A retirement job” in union lexicon - a union job that never ends.

chuckiechan said:

Im glad to see Obama doing something useful. I get the drift that maybe Obama may be trying to draw attention to some wrongs that needed to be addressed but weren’t. Better late than never. We need more expose’ writers.

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:shock: Oh my god... Guys... Can we take a step back for a minute and think about the fact that chuckiechan just non-ironically praised Obama for something?

In all seriousness, this sounds absolutely tragic. On one hand, international free trade and capitalism are good things, but having a foreign power buying up large swathes of our economy and becoming our employers isn't great either. It's similar to the case of Toronto, where an extremely high amount of real estate is owned by Chinese nationals and isn't inhabited, artificially driving up rents. It's these kinds of things that make the relationship between government and the economy not so clean cut and free of grey areas like many people think it is. Capitalism is good, but it still needs a certain amount of regulation, rules, and soft-handed oversight to remain a free and prosperous economy.

RabidAlpaca said:

:shock: Oh my god... Guys... Can we take a step back for a minute and think about the fact that chuckiechan just non-ironically praised Obama for something?

In all seriousness, this sounds absolutely tragic. On one hand, international free trade and capitalism are good things, but having a foreign power buying up large swathes of our economy and becoming our employers isn't great either. It's similar to the case of Toronto, where an extremely high amount of real estate is owned by Chinese nationals and isn't inhabited, artificially driving up rents. It's these kinds of things that make the relationship between government and the economy not so clean cut and free of grey areas like many people think it is. Capitalism is good, but it still needs a certain amount of regulation, rules, and soft-handed oversight to remain a free and prosperous economy.

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Those darn communists using all the profits from their private business's to buy things for private ownership. Why it is like they are not communist at all

toward creeping anger and disillusionment as the Chinese management imposes its strict, exhausting demands on workers and sacks those who don't comply.

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I think the above shows why, Chinese, Korean and Japanese economies have large trade surplus's.

I expect the conditions in that factory are better than most in China, or much of east Asia. Instead of being happy having a good job (not working in an Amazon distribution center) they complain about facing demands and being fired for not being able to do the job

Lord Tammerlain said:

I think the above shows why, Chinese, Korean and Japanese economies have large trade surplus's.

I expect the conditions in that factory are better than most in China, or much of east Asia. Instead of being happy having a good job (not working in an Amazon distribution center) they complain about facing demands and being fired for not being able to do the job

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I am curious to know the specifics these strict, exhausting demands.

KevinKohler said:

I am curious to know the specifics these strict, exhausting demands.

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I expect they are similar to those in Amazon's Fulfillment centers in which breaks are tracked including bathroom breaks, productivity is tracked etc. I expect it is also very hot inside being a glass manufacturer


From the article

In the new documentary's early scenes, genuine attempts by the US and Chinese workers to bond with their new colleagues, including fishing and shooting lessons and shared Thanksgiving dinners, appear to bear some fruit.

But as the new Chinese owners become alarmed by heavy financial losses, they fire the American middle managers and increasingly invoke their Chinese replacements' sense of nationalistic pride to spur harder work, leaving the workforce ever-more divided.

Despite promises, wages remain frozen far below those of the GM era, while workers' attempts to unionize and confront slipping safety standards are aggressively shut down from above.

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The plant has to compete with Asian, Mexican and other countries imports, meaning the labour has to compete with labour from those countries

Lord Tammerlain said:

I think the above shows why, Chinese, Korean and Japanese economies have large trade surplus's.

I expect the conditions in that factory are better than most in China, or much of east Asia. Instead of being happy having a good job (not working in an Amazon distribution center) they complain about facing demands and being fired for not being able to do the job

Click to expand...

In a capitalist system we build to meet expect demand. China intentionally built capacity that was way over demand, then they went and flooded the market with subsidized materials. Steel, aluminum, cement, glass, were the opening salvo.

If you know anything about CEO and performance bonuses, American industry went all in. Right behind that came factories bringing their expertise to China for component manufacturing. The fact that china “forced technology transfer” is a flat out lie. The companies could have refused. No one ever claimed they had a gun to their heads. But to make thrir bonuses they would be fools not to cooperate.

Am I the only one who remembers CEO’s making millions in performance bonuses as factories laid off, closed, or moved production off shore?

Note to Alpaca: Obama could have been more proactive when he was president and in a position to do something about it. China’s biggest mistake was thinking thinking this could go on forever.

chuckiechan said:

In a capitalist system we build to meet expect demand. China intentionally built capacity that was way over demand, then they went and flooded the market with subsidized materials. Steel, aluminum, cement, glass, were the opening salvo.

If you know anything about CEO and performance bonuses, American industry went all in. Right behind that came factories bringing their expertise to China for component manufacturing. The fact that china “forced technology transfer” is a flat out lie. The companies could have refused. No one ever claimed they had a gun to their heads. But to make thrir bonuses they would be fools not to cooperate.

Am I the only one who remembers CEO’s making millions in performance bonuses as factories laid off, closed, or moved production off shore?

Note to Alpaca: Obama could have been more proactive when he was president and in a position to do something about it. China’s biggest mistake was thinking thinking this could go on forever.

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It is called capitalism

The intent is to make as much money as possible regardless of who or what it is for. Plants in the US were unprofitable, or quite a bit less profitable and closed as a result so that capitalist business's could make more money for their owners.

Business's (ie capitalists ) have to look after the owners interest's not those of the workers, that is socialism is it not

Lord Tammerlain said:

I expect they are similar to those in Amazon's Fulfillment centers in which breaks are tracked including bathroom breaks, productivity is tracked etc. I expect it is also very hot inside being a glass manufacturer


From the article



The plant has to compete with Asian, Mexican and other countries imports, meaning the labour has to compete with labour from those countries

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Which is unrealistic. They have to compete with no OSHA, EPA, FLSA, etc.