Bearing Witness to the Times: Down at the Plant

The historic Buffalo Cotton Textile Mill in Union County, South Carolina

(Public Domain photo, courtesy of  Wikimedia Commons)

"Manufacturing leader: Job losses are destroying Illinois' middle class"

(Headline from Sauk Valley Media)

Down at the Plant

When did you last hear

The morning whistle

Down at the local plant?

Many good Americans

Would give little thought

To who resides in the White House

As long as they could

Wake up in the morning

And put in a shift

Down at the local plant.

This is the sad irony

Of our national struggle today.

The one thing

That has given our country

Its greatest security –

Steady local employment –

Is no longer there.

Agriculture may have given birth

To Middle America,

But manufacturing

Gave it legs to stand on.

Sometimes seen

As mindless repetition

Or a cultural wasteland,

The local plant

Kept small town America humming.

“Will it play in Peoria?”

“Is it good for Main Street?”

These were the questions

That kept our ship of state

On an even keel.

The bustle of New York

And the glitter of L.A.

Were possible only

Because across the heartland

There was a whistle blowing

Down at the local plant.

Not everyone could own farmland,

Or get a college education,

Or find fulfillment

In the bright lights of the city,

But almost anyone

Could get on

Down at the local plant.

It became a fail-safe

For the country.

One by one

They began to leave.

Company bosses

Shipped manufacturing overseas

Leaving the heartland

As desolate as any inner city.

Meanwhile, the college crowd

Made its fortune

And toasted its success

While leaving Main Street

In the shadows.

Meth came to the heartland

Like heroin to the inner city

In vain attempts

To fill a desolate, jobless void.

And so the culture wars rage –

Some wanting to move forward,

Others wanting to go back.

Everyone feeling

The unspoken need

To hear that morning whistle

Down at the local plant.

                                                   ~ CK

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Author's Note: I hope that readers do not see this poem simply as a nostalgic look at the past.  If you saw the movie, Norma Rae, or if you read my post about southern mill towns, you know that the cotton mills were no panacea, especially in the non-unionized regions of the country. Those days are gone and there is no going back. The fact remains, however, that though the mills are gone, nothing has taken their place. We have yet to figure out how to bring meaningful work to Middle America and rural America. Until we fill that need, we will likely continue to have trouble in the heartland. – CK  



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Labor Day: Remembering the Hard-Won Gains

Labor Day weekend is upon us.  Many will be taking that last outing, that last trip to the beach, or some other way to enjoy that three day weekend that marks the end of summer. Some cities will have Labor Day parades. How many of us stop to consider the significance of the holiday?

It was organized labor that brought about many of the things that made for a viable middle class in this country: the 40 hour work week, humane working conditions, pension plans, health insurance, paid vacation and sick leave.  In the 1950’s 40% of the workforce belonged to labor unions. Today, the influence of organized labor has waned with only 14% of the workforce being unionized.

I grew up in a southern mill town in a part of the country which was mostly non-union. The populace was largely convinced that unions were troublemakers and that we should all just be grateful for the magnanimity of the textile mill owners in providing jobs. It was a world very realistically portrayed in the film, Norma Rae.  My wife, on the other hand, grew up in steel mill territory. Unions were big, and workers appreciated the gains that had been made on their behalf.  They knew that without a strong organized voice from labor, owners and management would give heed mainly to the dollar and not to the workers who made those dollars possible.

For much of the 20^th century, workers (whether unionized or not) benefitted from the struggle on the part of labor unions to bring laws into effect which would improve the lot of the working class.  Today with these early steps into the 21^st century, even though there are 25 million people either unemployed or working without benefits, I am seeing more of the “let’s just be thankful for the magnanimity of the industry owners” attitude, and less of a will on the part of the people to organize on their own behalf.  A friend sent me the following video presentation which does a powerful job in reminding us about what the labor movement has accomplished for us in this country.

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For more information on the history of Labor Day, check out these websites:

http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm

http://www.history.com/topics/labor-day

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/question459.htm

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You may be interested in these related posts:

The Workers Built This Country

Politics and the Common Good

Moving Toward the Common Good, or Slouching Toward Dystopia?

Trending Up or Moving Backward?