Buckland
2008-02-28 08:38:23
One other piece of the puzzle…
Manufacturing changed in the past 3 decades. Once a manufacturing plant was a huge industrial complex employing thousands (think car plant). These huge plants were very visible, relatively easy to unionize, and everybody in the community knew somebody who worked there. They make great ‘deindustrial’ pictures as they’re mostly ghostly, uninhabited hulks.
Now manufacturing usually consists of small facility and warehouse. It usually employs a hundred or fewer workers and makes a small set of closely related products. If it goes out of business the facility is easier to sell to the next manufacturer or convert to other use than was the 1950′s era factory.
