"They referto us as the foreigners," says a downbeat employee at the Ohio car glassfactory where hundreds of Chinese laborers have come to work, far from theirwives, children and homeland. But theworker in question is American, not Chinese, and is finding life very differentunder new management after billionaire "Chairman Cao" swept into townto reopen the shuttered, iconic former General Motors factory in 2014. This is"reverse globalization," say Oscar-nominated directors Steven Bognarand Julia Reichert, who filmed the GM plant's closure in 2008 and returned tochronicle its reopening by Fuyao corporation for the documentary "AmericanFactory."
The film charts aMidwestern rust belt community's journey from optimism at the giant plant'sreopening-bringing back vital jobs-toward creeping anger and disillusionment asthe Chinese management imposes its strict, exhausting demands on workers andsacks those who don't comply. The all-access look at how both American andChinese workers, from blue-collar to management, had their lives transformed bypowerful global economic forces caught the eyes of none other than Barack andMichelle Obama.
The former firstcouple acquired "American Factory" at January's Sundance Festival,and will release it on Netflix and in select theaters from August 21 as thefirst offering from their Higher Ground Productions company. "Mrs Obamasaid it resonated with her because her father had done an intense, hardworkingjob for decades just to provide for his family, and she felt the Midwesternessof the film in what she saw on screen," Bognar told AFP. "She felther own family in the film, and I think the President felt there was a certainamount of policy issues and big broad globalization" themes in thedocumentary, added Reichert.
'Cultural chasm'
The battle foreconomic supremacy between the US and a rising China is perhaps the defininggeopolitical story of the 21st century. The filmmakers set out to understandwhat that rivalry looks like on a human level, and were granted extraordinaryaccess by Fuyao founder and chairman Cao Dewang, who was as interested inbridging the cultural divide and showcasing Chinese capitalism as making aprofit. "The chairman's a maverick-he's very much his own person, anindependent self-made business guy," said Bognar.
"He'd seenour earlier film and liked it, and so he took a chance on us," he added,referring to 2009's "The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant." In thenew documentary's early scenes, genuine attempts by the US and Chinese workersto bond with their new colleagues, including fishing and shooting lessons andshared Thanksgiving dinners, appear to bear some fruit. But as the new Chineseowners become alarmed by heavy financial losses, they fire the American middlemanagers and increasingly invoke their Chinese replacements' sense ofnationalistic pride to spur harder work, leaving the workforce ever-moredivided.
Despite promises,wages remain frozen far below those of the GM era, while workers' attempts tounionize and confront slipping safety standards are aggressively shut down fromabove. "The cultural chasm was wider than people anticipated," saidBognar, noting that the new Chinese owners felt equally baffled and let down bythe attitudes of US workers. "To their credit, as the pressure mountedthey did not kick us out, they certainly could have kicked us out at anypoint," he added.
'Sense of unease'
While the factoryin Moraine, Ohio is of symbolic significance due to its size and legacy, it isnot unique-Chinese-owned factories are now abundant across the American Southand Midwest. Like Fuyao, many are housed in the same buildings formerly shutdown by American bosses who shipped jobs overseas to Mexico and elsewhere."You're getting a slice of what globalization really looks like on a humanlevel," said Reichert, adding: "I think the film leaves you with asense of unease."
Nobody has tappedinto that disquiet better than President Donald Trump, whose 2016 victory wasbuilt on successes in Ohio and nearby Michigan and Wisconsin. For Ohio-basedReichert and Bognar, who have spent years interviewing blue-collar workers,that result was no surprise. "We saw that coming, being in Ohio-the enthusiasm,the yard signs," said Reichert. "Hillary Clinton was not wellliked."
Trump promisedthe region's laid-off workers they would get back their jobs. Earlier thisyear, another enormous GM factory in nearby Lordstown, Ohio became the latestto close. But in a strange quirk, even as Chinese investment in the US hasplummeted by over 80 percent under Trump's tariff war, jobs like those providedby Fuyao have become an important lifeline. - AFP