This classic example of "capitalist realism" depicts a day in the life of Chevrolet workers in the U.S., while attempting to convince them that their own fortunes were inextricably linked to the fortunes of General Motors.
I Love these old films...My grandfather was a Auto Painter for the Cadillac Division. I am proud of all the Auto and Rubber workers we had in our family.
My father started at Chevrolet Atlanta in 1947 and I worked there before the Navy. It was a real "joy" to work there. For some reason however, I still have a warm and fuzzy feeling for the place. Can't explain it. I guess you had to be there.
As someone who spent time on a production line I can say, those people know they are facing yet another seemingly endless day of mind numbing work and know that tomorrow will be exactly the same
Along with a full belly, a roof over their heads, and clothes on their backs all the while spending more money on useless electronics than many third world workers make in a month. Don’t like “mind numbing “ work? Start your own business. Work for yourself. Then you’ll know what work is. I run my own small business and 12-16 hour days are normal.
You have to admire the dedication of all those years of hard labor for their families. My wife's grandma worked at "The AC" as she called it. AC spark plug factory in Flint Michigan for 34 years. She was one of the last to get a true pension. I wish we could make things here again so the kids could have something to do.......sigh.
Somebody in this comment list obviously hasn't known anyone who worked in the auto industry. They are very well paid and have great benefits. Industry is the engine of any economy and spawns towns and cities, builds roads, parks and shopping centers. Our middle class has nice cars, boats, motorcycles and homes. Hard work is what makes profit. A person can feel pride at the end of the day when he/she works hard. When the workers get lazy, quality goes down and manufacturers lose profit and have to close down.
The work is much safer today, too. Over $2000 of the price of every GM car goes to pay for pension and medical payments for past and present employees. Legacy costs that many foreign manufacturers don't have. Makes it that much harder to compete.
Nowadays people hate on American-made cars. German-made cars, for example, are dominating the market. Not to mention the presence of other non-American manufactured goods (anything made in China) in the market.
Absolutely. Think of what was going on in Soviet Russia in the 30's. I would rather have my fortunes tied to General Motors than live in a workers paradise that socialism offered.
When a man could earn enough to feed a family of four and have a nice home on one workers salary. Before maximum profits won out over excellent work and the welfare of the lower classes.
Just what I was thinking while watching this sunny little movie. Since the strike ended during the winter of 1937, it's easy to imagine that all the workers we see getting their paychecks were now members of the UAW. According to the Wikipedia entry on the strike, the result of the settlement was that workers "got a 5% increase in pay and were allowed to talk during lunch." So not all the prosperity we see here can be credited to GM's benevolence.
@@TheOzthewiz that's why all of trump's and his families products they sell including magazines hats are made in gyna.... meanwhile he gave corporate taxes the biggest pay raise in history....and 97% of them bought shares back for profit while 3% used it to expand jobs.
They were anything but.. They were rough riding, poor handling, and generally unreliable compared to now. When's the last time you had to change a flat tire? Or had a car that just wouldn't start? That used to be common.
@@tempest411 Don't misconstrue, I love the looks of those from post WW II until 1980 or so, especially late 1950s and early 1960s !! Those were some great and quite memorable shapes with the space age and jet age. I was born in 1957, and cars from the 1950s and even late 1940s were quite common on the streets well into the 1970s.. But about the time the movie "Christine" came out (1983), I realized they were disappearing quickly. I miss them all !
my grandparents bought their home (their 3rd home as the family grew) in 64 for $15,000. they paid it off in 10 years with my grandfather working fulltime and my grandmother working odd jobs and/or part time and raising 3 children (they ended up having 5). after they paid off the house my grandmother was given a choice between a new car or an inground pool (the pool won). she ended up getting a new car in 85 for more money then what they paid for their house (as my grandmother found very funny).
It almost unconscionable to think that every factory that was shown in that film is gone and when I say gone I mean gone. Most every factory that GM shuts down just sits for years and gets vandalized when parts of it could be rented out. Ultimately GM gets sewed by the city its in and has to give the property to the city after they pay for its demolition and clean up. And when its all gone and there is nothing left at all but a giant concrete slab, they put a fucking fence around it? No fence for years when the building was there getting trashed and vandalized but a fence is put up when there is nothing there at all? More of the great GM management thinking like the EV-1
You make a good point, but look at 06:00 for example - the endless rows of desks for clerical workers. In an era before computers, the white collar workforce was also substantial - which is why all the "Big-3" automakers had skyscrapers in downtown Manhatten - human computers, basically. The recession of 1980 saw a reduction in blue collar labor. The recession of 2009 was a layoff of the white collar counterparts, as more and more office jobs are replaced with web-based applications.
4 years later and American car manufacturers would halt the production of cars and turn to producing an unprecedented number of war machines to fight in WW2. The "giant had been awakened". Admiral Yasimoto expressing his well founded apprehension aboard his flagship after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
I love these old movies, I lived in Lansing for 3 years and RE olds was still a big name. the plant i worked in at one point did assembly on the 442. A coworker found a picture of an area that now has vertical mills and 3 axis machines making defense parts.
And all those goods they were buying were made in America, by Americans. That was the key to prosperity. Everyone who wanted to work had a job and earned a good wage. How times have changed. Now we have the working homeless, people who have jobs but cannot afford accommodation, and sleep under bridges, yet still put in a days work. Something is terribly wrong and we need to fix it.
This is a great period piece. 90% of the heavy and other lifting jobs in the plants today are automated pick and place. The big robot welders you see today were often hand controlled back then. I remember the "nut runner" job was to control by hand a machine that tightened big front suspension nuts. Those guys had forearms like Popeye from handing on to that air powered nut tightener! A down side is that a GED will not get a job in a modern plant. You almost need an associates degree, but that is not true in the vendor plants. Most everything today in computer controlled!
oldcarboater - The Computer, which promised to "improve day-to-day life" has literally and almost singlehandedly *DESTROYED* The Middle Class, the American Dream, Pride in a hard day's work, character, manners, respect, and nearly EVERYTHING that USED to make this a great Country!!! 😲 😲 😮😣 It's NOT Racism! It's certainly NOT the idealistic concept of "fair share" - especially for people who simply refuse to work..... NOPE. We are literally living in the aftermath of the Revenge of the Nerds! Enjoy your iPhone in your face. You ARE the illustration of the decline of a once Great Nation. Regardless of where your family came from, everybody had the same opportunity - to WORK for their fair share.
Wow, 908,279 Standard and Master Deluxes were built in '36. They hustled building these awesome cars. The best part is you can still see these cars for sale on craigslist all the time...
But '37 was the same year Congressional Republicans forced New Deal programs to be scaled back -- too early, as it turned out; a snap recession followed. Only the run-up to WWII -- Lend-Lease orders from Britain and increased military preparedness spending by FDR -- brought us out of the doldrums of 12-15% unemployment. So much for the self-correcting bias of capitalism.
I am from St. Louis. I recognized that building just before you see the shot from across the Mississippi River-Cahokia. It is the city Municipal Court building.
Interesting film. Supposedly the cost to build a modern car is somewhere around $7000-$8000. Auto workers get good pay and benefits. Hence, the high overall price they charge to the buyers. Buyers are probably paying more toward worker benefits just as much for the vehicle itself lol
Perhaps the work was tedious at times. But I suspect the sense of community those people had more than made up for it. Community it work, at home in the neighborhood, at church, the bowling league, at their kids school. I bet they knew their neighbors in a way that’s rare today. I bet they had a pride in those community public buildings that no one even thinks about today. What has replaced all that? Facebook?
Well said and true, i am 57 so i remember no cell phones, computers, etc. But we do love the internet as i will attest to, regardless it's sad what this Country has become.
It's shocking to see Flint, Michigan shown in this film vs. Flint today. Those jobs are now in Mexico, Canada, Brazil, China, and who knows where else.
There really WAS a time when the American Worker was treated well and paid well, and the rich paid their fair share of income, but it ain't that way anymore :(
+Robbi496 The 'Rich" pay MORE than their "Fair Share". If you got rid of "entitlements", then there'd be more than enough tax money....But half of the people just suck up resources without paying ANYTHING. "Fair share" is a term used by socialists to divide us.
+mj ee I love when our government tells us Social Security is an entitlement. Since when is taking money out of someone's paycheck for 45 years and then spending it, an entitlement???? The government took my money and then used it as a "slush fund" and left me with an IOU.
Fascinating to watch. I wonder how many of the men seen here putting cars together ended up fighting in Europe or the Pacific theater in WWII just a few years later? I wonder how many didn't come back. What was built in this factory during the war?
The workers at GM in Oshawa Ontario earned big bucks for a century. Sadly GM closed the plant Dec 2019 and laid them off. Over recent decades the percent of Oshawa work force who worked for GM went from about 80% to zero.
They were paid much better than today, all things considered. One adult could maintain a home with no college degree (or debt) and most workers belonged to unions. Today, the average wage is virtually unchanged since 1978, while housing, health care and education are up exponentially.
Well here's the thing, by the time this film was made, the dollar was only worth 60% of what it was in 1900. Today, the dollar is worth only 1%. Thanks Fed. 👍
Sadly, something that started as a great idea - collective bargaining - evolved into greedy Unions. THAT, gave manufacturing Companies almost NO CHOICE but to move their production *and all our jobs* OVERSEAS, to Countries that are more like WE USED to be! Asia has what used to be our Middle Class - AND, our Economy. Our Unions took things way too far......
Small government? I remind you that this were the years of the New Deal, a plan that involved a lot of government control, a plan that revived the U.S. from the Great Depression, caused by a totally free stock market.
The days when a blue coller worker could support his family with his paycheck only, now his wife has to work just to keep up with the jone's or nowadays the perez's.
Somebody made a comment, were all the Black Folks...well the rule was at that time that Black People should not be filmed ..Some years ago I contacted the History Channel and asked the question. Why was there not much film of Blacks fighting for our country. They replied , that at that time WWII, Korea Conflict film crews were told not to film Blacks ....How sad.....My Dad served in WWII and in the the Korean Conflict.......R.I.P. Dad
It sure seemed to work. Products made here and it’s interesting to see. You don’t see many obese people or homeless. People worked hard and virtually everyone worked. I remember stories that my parents and grandparents told me. You could send your kids to school without fear of them being a victim of a shooting and getting hooked on drugs. I’d live in this era in a heartbeat.
Not so much that as it is corporate greed. They all claim they have a duty to the shareholders to turn as big a profit as possible. But to have a corporate charter that company is supposed to first and foremost be working for the public good. When they focused on profit, the coprporate charter is supposed to be revoked and they are supposed to lose that corporate charter protection. Instead they buy congress and our tax money goes to them to promote their products in other countries.
Industry was a good thing, a living wage for the common man, a country where no one took anything for granted, where work was rewarded. Also, companies manufacturing a product that was worth the investment. People took pride in their jobs and the things they bought with their hard earned money. We live in a disposable society, let's take a page from our grandparent's generation, there's a lot we can learn from them!
Very likely what you are seeing in both scenarios is the payment for goods sold in a department store. Rather than have individual registers in each department, the payment was done in one central location, with payment made via a network of cables and pulleys.
That's what America was all about! An auto worker, or most any factory worker could support a family nicely given their wages and our country's economic state. Too many offshore factories and foreign countries undercutting our labor wages. Big middle finger to corporate America for shipping production overseas.
The difference back then was other jobs paid wages that to so people could buy things, unlike today with big corps who moved all their jobs over seas. Just how did they think all the people here without jobs anymore could buy anything other than the minimum to survive. Those big exec's are a bunch of Mr. Burns' from the Simpsons.
The Unions, which WERE a good idea at the start, outlived its usefulness, got GREEDY and corrupt, and MADE all those US manufacturing jobs move away....
+Carmine Allocca That's what the right wants you to believe. Americans earning wages that are on par (competing) with foreign labor are no longer Americans. The people of this country will all be reduced to living in government or corporate subsidized apartment blocks living as surfs for corporations. They will not own homes, they will not own cars, they will be strongly discouraged from voicing opinions that counter what the state or corporations want them to support. In short, the people of this country will all be turned into everyone else in the 3rd world. There's nothing wrong with unions, but it needs to be supported by laws that say nothing is allowed to be sold in this country that isn't made by the people of this country. If we can't make it, we can't have it. That probably means everyone's fancy smart phones and plasma screen TVs will go away, but I'm ok with that...As long as Americans can own their own homes and put food on the table, everything else is secondary.
tempest411 I've never been one to listen to what the Right or Left tells me to.... I have always been a student of History, both recent and distant. One thing I've learned... EVERYBODY'S WRONG NOW!! We've become such a politicized Nation, so OVERLY Partisan in thinking and so Litigious in action, and SO overrun with corruption and overregulation, that it's any wonder we can still produce and sell ANYTHING! :( Why has China, Mexico, Canada and Slavic countries kicking our ass in labor and production??? (And yes, they certainly are) Their people WORK! They don't spend half their tenure STRIKING and SUING their employers, they value the WORK. They're proud and happy to. They VALUE their jobs - like we USED to. We've become a society of whiny, sue-happy trolls, with a sense of entitlement and low self worth. Our PEOPLE are the problem, from the bottom to the top. In the Teens, 20's, 30's and 40's, American workers were indeed being mistreated and disrespected. When the first Unions organized and "fought the system" back then, their objectives were honorable. Even if most Unions were corrupt at the core, and run by notorious individuals at first (and yes, STILL are). They may have strong armed their members, and worked a few "dirty deals" with management, that were profitable for the Unions. But their INTENTIONS were to give the American workers a fair, level playing field, to actually pursue the "American Dream"! Even in the early days, they occasionally went too far... In the 1910 - 1930 frame, one of the best production jobs here was at the Ford Motor Company! Sure, some of Henry Ford's principles were a bit Socialist leaning - BUT, he was the FIRST American mass producer to VOLUNTARILY pay his employees a Living Wage. His idea was "a well paid employee is a happy and more productive employee". His side motive - he also felt that the well paid employee would also return his investment, by creating CUSTOMERS out of his employees. His employees buying HIS products, were also good, free advertising for his products. He took pretty good care of his employees, in other ways as well. He was RIGHT! But, the Unions wanted a piece of that pie. After two decades of fighting and "finagling", up to and including demonizing Henry Ford, finally convinced the workers at Ford to organize... The employees at Ford, and the relationship with Management would never be the same. Unions used the same tactics to organize many corporation's work forces. It was a better advantage for other workers besides Ford, and VERY profitable for the Unions! [Now, NONE of this had ANYTHING to do with the abhoorable treatment of Blacks and other minorities, and the unfair treatment of women employees! These were related issues, with their own battles, but not relevant to this subject.] This all worked well, for a while... By the 1950's, the American middle class was the strongest, happiest, most euphoric than we may have EVER BEEN in our Nation's History! Then, a paradigm shift began. The workers were indeed doing quite well. Most, with honorable intentions, strove to give THEIR children a better life than they grew up with... This started to backfire, in that it created the FIRST generation of entitled, CONSTANTLY complaining and irresponsible young adults. (Sadly, I am in the tail end of that "Baby Boomer" Generation) There were Civil Rights battles occuring in the 50's, 60's and 70's. That was INDEED a worthy cause, and a necessary one as well, that brought necessary changes, that made life far more harmonious (until the PAST decade!) Somehow these fights for Unity and Liberty, somehow encouraged a good number of SPOILED, entitled White kids (MY generation!), to fight for "perceived" injustices, starting at school. Usually starting with anything from class curriculum to food on campus, to the way they were permitted to dress! Some, joined the Civil Rights battles, because they felt it was the "right thing to do"! :( By the 1970's, these spoiled kids spread their need for more, more, MORE to their workplaces. The Unions were more than happy to capitalize on that! They didn't want *fair* wages - they wanted MORE than fair wages, more than fair benefits, and LESS than fair workloads. [This was also simultaneously occurring in Great Britain] By the 1980's, the overdemands of the "modern" worker, was starting to choke American (and British) Companies... THAT was the period that accelerated the demand for companies to REPLACE the domestic workers! (Outsourcing, robots, ect...) By the 1990's, some of these "Boomers" (NOT me or others like me), became politicians, lawyers, and professors. They really had the power to change now, and exploited it to the maximum. They PUSHED technologies for "innovation" (read: employee REPLACEMENT, since it no longer affected them personally).... They got laws passed, some with good intentions, but would have long term repercussions. They started the "PC" movement, intended to create "equality", but only created resentment and division. The generation of lawyers created precedents and laws, constricting future parents from properly raising their children. Created ideals like "everyone's a winner", which crippled competition, the pursuit of exceptionalism, and true sportsmanship. The lawyers and politicians (quickly becoming the SAME), passed sweeping legislation like NAFTA, making it VERY EASY for domestic producers to move their production facilities AND workforce, to OTHER countries. The ones who became professors and teachers, created an environment of further entitlement and self righteousness, and even as far as "indoctrination" to THEIR way of thinking! They've since created a new generation of lazier, MORE entitled individuals, that NOW believe, as "fact" (because it's been drummed into their heads for SO long) that with the reinvented moral system they've learned - also now believe like it's a FACT, that the WHITE Americans, and especially the Executive class, is now entirely responsible for ALL the problems socially and economically, here, and indeed in the WHOLE World!! All leading up to the present, and a President, elected by NO other qualifications except for his skin color, a product of ALL I mentioned above - who has, in the name of "equality", has created the MOST divisive, corrupt, morally reprehensible group of Americans. Simultaneously creating a weaker nation, looked down on by the world, especially our adversaries, who've been taking FULL advantage of our new weaker stance.... And a generation of young adults, who have been lead by the education system and the government, to believe that staying HOME and collecting entitlement benefits is PREFERABLE to working for a living! ESPECIALLY the minorities, who have been convinced that the "white man" is keeping them down, and not their inability or desire to improve their lives... Rev. Martin Luther King is ROLLING OVER in his grave! THIS is never what he envisioned as equality and civil liberties for all. This is NOT what he fought - and died for. Most sad, is that the smaller percentage of Americans, the "Loud and the Proud", have distorted the views, the direction, moral compass, and the World perception of our once great Nation... And the majority just kept their heads in the sand, and let it happen! No, this ISN'T a Democrat OR Republican problem... It's merely a PROBLEM, and a HUGE one! :(
+Wooley689 Clothing makers, toy makers, etc couldn't tap into the asian manufacturing because it just wasn't practical. No big freighters with standard sized cargo containers. They were stuck with North America.
wonder if people realize.the average paycheck in 1937 was $40 a week.$40 a week supported a family,but today thanks to unions,lawyers,government regulation envio rules,and liberal policies......today it takes 2 to barely support a family.today you can`t even get a pound of good ground meat for less then $3.78.this is what is called progress..by the way did anybody notice the sizes of those eggs at about the 2:03 point,wow those are eggs,its amazing the food quality back in the day.
When people took pride in their work and were proud of what they did and showed it their personal and profession lives. What happened? I'm only 40, must have been something back then!
You know with different music and a different story line, change the language and the narrative, and viola! You have a Soviet Union style propaganda flim clip where the people are all going to work for the collective good of the people! 👍🏻
This was during during the Great Depression and there was a lot of backlash against big business when workers realized that Capitalism Isn't the infallible religion that the wealthy want you to think it is. So out came the propaganda.
@@Acer_Maximinus yep , those terrible " whites " that fought for the Union and your freedom , thats the way it was for a 100 years since Lincoln freed the slaves. Blame those racist southern democrats for keeping you down during reconstruction too , KKK days and not to mention segregation.
"while attempting to convince them that their own fortunes were inextricably linked to the fortunes of General Motors." This is exactly why GM went bankrupt several decades later, and shouldn't even exist today: they never did convince anyone.
+AlainHubert I'd have had no problem with GM going under if it didn't mean it's market share would just be replaced with more foreign cars and we'd have even more Americans out of work. GM makes good cars and trucks. They just got caught in a bad set of circumstances.
GM's fate was sealed in 1937 (same year as this film) when they gave into the strike and signed their first contract with the UAW and the communist Reuther brothers. From that day, it was just a matter of time before the final collapse and ultimate bankruptcy.
there was no direct deposit back then. if there was it would take weeks to go through (no computers back then). besides, most people got off work early enough back then to run to the bank after work to cash their checks.
Makes me wish I lived in those times. Times have changed but not for the better. Back then, everything was quality made American made. Now it's Chinese made junk at higher prices and a shorter life expectancy. Plus, the Chinese stole the technology from us (after we sent it to them to make our junk)!
quite frankly personal fortunes of most people WERE and ARE inextricably linked to the fortunes of the company they work for, if you "work for a company" and your company fails, yer out of a job to say the phrase "capitalist realism" like it was some baloney, fails to see that in fact most peoples lives mirrored this presentation ...they didnt need convincing ....they knew it was because of the company that they lived well ...and THAT is what capitalism is all about... it was all gravy until imported vehicles started coming to the shores en mass ...(and people cared little that with each import purchased another american lost his job)....
Workers were realistic. They knew they needed to stay employed, but weren't overly tied to the same car company in most cases. Turnover among assembly workers at any given plant was high -- 30% or more per year; if they got a raw deal at one place, they moved one company down the street and got a job there. Demand was usually high (they only left a job in a season when it was), the skills and experience were highly portable within the car industry, the pay and benefits about the same firm-to-firm, and line mangers who needed help did not ask many questions.
Look at some of the store prices... cheese at .18 cents a pound and a cap at .49 cents. I wonder what the pay was like at that time. I recall in the mid '60s that gas was .30 a gallon.
