Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1179544
9 American Factory… American Dream… I'm second-generation IA. My dad was a Local 695 member … a proud union man … for more than fifty years, working as the Sound Mixer on Gunsmoke, A Christmas Story, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and many others. The "factories" my dad went to work in every day were the film and television studios of Los Angeles. What he wanted for his family … for my mom, my sister, my brother, and me … was to bring home the American Dream. And he found a way to do that working on stage in Hollywood's Dream Factory. FROM THE BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVE called American Factory. It tells the story of a shuttered Dayton, Ohio, automobile parts factory that comes back to life as the production facility for a Chinese automotive glass manufacturer. We watch as they turn the factory lights back on and gear up to become a modern, high- tech competitor. And we watch as some of the same automobile workers who were laid off eight years earlier are now being re-hired … except eight years ago, they were members of the United Auto Workers union and were getting $28 an hour, and now there's no union and they'll get $14. The filmmakers ultimately witness an event they weren't anticipating when shooting began two years earlier. A clash of Chinese and American cultures, along with conflicts between labor and management, eventually push some of the workers to request a federally protected election run by the National Labor Relations Board on whether to bring in representation from UAW Local 696. The company was staunchly anti-union from the very beginning and in the run- up to the election, they spend more than $1 million for a "union avoidance" company to come in and mount a campaign against the union. Workers are required to sit through hours of "mandatory training" from hired union-busters brought in to spread fear and doubt. To win over the workers, the company quickly offers a $2 raise but fails to mention that if the union is turned away, $16 an hour is here to stay and the chances of finding the American Dream in this American factory would vanish. At factories across the country, it's been a similar story for seventy-five years, with Moms and Dads working union jobs and taking care of their families all the while reaching for their own personal American Dream. Decent pay, job safety, a path toward advancement, quality healthcare, and a pension to retire on … these were the hallmarks of good American union jobs which for many prosperous decades built a middle class that made the country strong. But things have changed. Families are losing their foothold in a changing world economy where income inequality is sharply rising at the expense of a shrinking middle class. Working Americans are getting squeezed by corporations on one side, and by legislation paid for by corporations on the other. These are complex issues with many moving parts, some of which are on display in a newly released Netflix documentary featured as the first episode of Michelle and Barack Obama's Higher Ground Productions,