The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant

CinemaSerf

I think what is most striking about this short feature is the stoicism of the workforce as they accept the inevitable when their assembly plant in Moraine, Ohio, USA is slated for closure. With demand for many of the 280,000 trucks that they produce slumped to it's lowest level for fifteen years this huge source of employment for the town is deemed no longer viable. This isn't so much a documentary - there are no contributions from the corporate powers that be, nor is there any structured narration - this is much more a compendium of ordinary working people reacting to the news and attempting to come to terms with it's consequences. For many, this has been their only job since it opened to much fanfare in 1981. Now in their fifties, many are being presented with challenges that some embrace more willingly than others, but still they all appear to have a dignified resignation to their predicament. Interestingly, and unlike with many of their European counterparts, there are no strikes or protests nor angry union activists picketing the place with placards and blockades. Instead we see a group of people who still turn up on these chilly winter mornings for some fairly strenuous work knowing that with Christmas just days away, their futures are distinctly uncertain. This is a very human story that brings home quite poignantly the effects of automation and lower consumer confidence on real workers who have committed themselves proudly to a process and to a family that isn't their's and that they are now going to have to leave.