American Factory

A 2019 documentary film that was awarded an Oscar, in 2020, American Factory tells about the re-opening of an automotive glass plant in Dayton, Ohio under Chinese ownership. When the plant closed, thousands of workers lost their jobs. The coming of a Chinese investor to open Fuyao Glass America was seen as an opportunity to return to meaningful work for many of the laid-off workers. But they were paid less than half of what they had been making before, and safety standards were not observed. When unionization efforts began, the company paid a million dollars to a "union avoidance" consulting firm, fired pro-union employees, and forced workers to attend multiple anti-union sessions. The film is good at following people around as they work, participate in corporate meetings and events, and tell us about what the jobs mean to them; the approach is very much of the "show, don't tell" version of documentary film-making. Some interviews with Chinese supervisors are included, but most of the information about working conditions in China is presented briefly without much context for their struggles, and next to nothing is said about their status as Chinese workers in the U.S.--they were apparently paid half of what their American co-workers were making. The Chinese managers speak openly about how American workers are slow, and talk about trying to manage them as if they are recalcitrant animals. To be fair, there are Americans--a lawyer, anti-union consultants, and a manager--who take the same stance. The film records a nationalistic rhetoric at times, but the tactics employed by the owners and management are the same as in any American-owned company.   It's a fairly polite movie given its topic, but it's possible to read between the lines about the need for global solidarity in the face of transnational capitalism. Barack and Michelle Obama's Netflix production company supported the film. The film is not available legally in China, but has been seen by enough people to spark vigorous conversations on social media about working conditions in both countries.