OPINION:
BOOM, BUST, EXODUS: THE RUST BELT, THE MAQUILAS AND A TALE OF TWO CITIES
By Chad Broughton
Oxford University Press, $29.95, 408 pages
As children, we rarely called it “Maytag.” It was simply known as “The Factory.” Back in the 1970s, my buddy Shawn would point a finger at the giant refrigerator plant on the edge of Galesburg, Ill., and say, “My dad works there.” It was a point of pride in our small town. Those were good jobs.
At its peak, the plant known by a variety of names over the decades, employed more than 5,000 people. Admiral, Rockwell International, Magic Chef and finally Maytag owned the sprawling factory on the edge of my hometown, a city of 33,000 in Western Illinois.
The Galesburg of my youth was a blue-collar haven filled with factories. Butler Manufacturing made steel buildings. Outboard Marine Corp. made lawnmowers. And the plant eventually owned by Maytag made refrigerators, microwave ovens and a variety of other appliances. As in so many Rust Belt communities, those factories — and the jobs associated with them — are gone.
In 2004, Maytag closed its Galesburg operation and moved it to Reynosa, Mexico. Galesburg workers made on average $15.10 an hour when the plant closed. Their Mexican counterparts earn about $1.10 an hour.
In his book, “Boom, Bust, Exodus: The Rust Belt, The Maquias and a Tale of Two Cities,” author Chad Broughton examines the fate of the two cities in near-Dickensian terms.
Readers find themselves in the bedroom of George Carney, a former Maytag employee watching television all day while fighting depression. And they observe Laura Flora Oliveros, who leaves her three young daughters at home in a dangerous Reynosa barrio while working long hours at the Maytag plant.
It is a well-researched book, a product of more than 100 interviews in Illinois, Texas and Mexico. Nevertheless, at times Mr. Broughton’s depictions become near caricatures.
There’s Mike Allen, a former Catholic priest who spends his days promoting economic development for McAllen, Texas, and nearby Reynosa . Once a socialist, now an advocate for unbridled capitalism, Mr. Allen is portrayed as the architect of Galesburg’s demise. It seems a bit unfair. After all, the man’s goal was to bring jobs to his community, not to harm another.
Then there is Maytag CEO Ralph Hake, who presided over the company’s tumultuous final years and quit after its sale to Whirlpool in 2006. According to Mr. Broughton, Mr. Hake’s golden parachute was worth between $10 million and $20 million.
To read Mr. Broughton’s depiction of him, one would almost think he was Simon Legree, Montgomery Burns and Ebenezer Scrooge rolled into one. Oddly enough, the book never says whether Mr. Broughton sought an interview with Mr. Hake, and the book begs for his point of view.
But the book’s biggest shortcoming is its depiction of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Like all public policies, NAFTA has costs and benefits.
One reads about the displaced factory worker struggling to find work in West-Central Illinois or the Mexican mother leaving her rural village to work in a border town factory for modest wages, but rarely in the book does Mr. Broughton mention the benefits of NAFTA.
How about the Midwest farmer who developed new markets for his crops? Or the U.S. consumers able to buy blackberries year round rather than as just a seasonal treat?
Bill Watson, a trade policy analyst for the Cato Institute, notes the benefits of free trade are often profound but subtle. “Free trade may cause one person to lose a job and five people to get raises. It’s not surprising the author focused on the job loss, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Free trade drives innovation, generates jobs and brings costs down for consumers,” he said.
However, Mr. Broughton contended in an interview that the purpose of his book was to illustrate those marginalized by large economic activities, such as NAFTA. To that extent he did an excellent job.
The book stoked my hometown pride. It showed the resilience of workers facing challenges. People such as Maytag veteran Annette Dennison reinvented herself as an X-ray technician. Others such as Doug Dennison found themselves working as educators after a career on an assembly line. Still others pursued college degrees or created their own businesses.
The story of “Boom, Bust, Exodus” is not just one of people facing adversity, but overcoming it.
• Scott Reeder is the executive editor of the Illinois News Network, a project of the Illinois Policy Institute.
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