American Factory (film)

American Factory is a 2019 documentary made by Netflix on the Fuyao Glass Company built by a corrupt Chinese corporation (actually run by the Communist Party) in Dayton, Ohio where the General Motors Factory used to be.

6 out of 10 stars.  Documentaries are supposed to be about facts, not propaganda, but the first 60 minutes of this documentary are entirely Chinese propaganda which makes it difficult to digest.

In 2017 President Trump paved the way for a Chinese car glass company, Fuyao, to purchase the General Motors factory in Dayton, Ohio tax free and to operate there also tax free.  At first the residents of Dayton welcomed the company.  Even though they were previously paid $29 an hour and now were only paid $12 an hour, they were happy to work.  But that quickly changed as the workers began to see the company change.

• American supervisors were fired and replaced with Chinese supervisors who demanded twice the normal quota and injuries skyrocketed.
• The company violated OSHA rules and EPA laws, forcing employees to work in rooms 200 degrees hot and dumping toxic paint into the water system.
• When American workers refused to do things that were illegal they were immediately fired.
• When American workers tried to unionize they were fired.
• The company produces thousands of tons of broken glass and this is illegally disposed of.
• American workers were repeatedly subjected to Communist propaganda videos during breaks and lunch periods then forced to work overtime, through breaks, and through lunches.
• The Chinese workers quickly demanded that all of the American workers do the dangerous jobs and injuries skyrocketed a second time.
• 3,000 American workers were fired in less than a few months.
• In less than a year the few remaining American workers were being replaced with automated robots.
• The Chinese workers pretended to be friends with the American workers to spy on them, then reported anyone favorable to unions and had them fired.

Does this sound like hell on earth to you?  That was how some of the workers described it right before they were fired.  With oven temperatures at 400 degrees many of the rooms they were forced to work in were 200 degrees, way above OSHA laws.

There’s even a scene in this documentary in which the Chairman of Fuyao admits that he poisoned the environment in his home town but he doesn’t seem to regret it at all or poisoning the water and air in Dayton, Ohio.

I think what I found most deeply disturbing were the fat, white, American men hired as supervisors when the plant first opened.  They collected their paychecks and reported on their American workers, mostly women and people of color.  When they learned that Chinese workers work 28 days a month and 12-14 hours a day, they didn’t lobby to get the company to treat the Chinese workers better.  Instead they degraded and berated American workers calling them lazy and spoiled.

This is a state that overwhelmingly voted for Trump for President under the “make America great” slogan.  Fuyao’s slogan is “China is great but we can help make America great”.  They’re doing this in Dayton by bringing in Communist propaganda and Communist Chinese workers, all approved by Trump.  It is really hard to feel sorry for the people of Dayton when they literally voted in the President  who made this all possible.

6 out of 10 stars.  The facts are in this documentary but they’re glossed over when they should’ve been emphasized.