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2024-04-19 04:12:08
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 Therrin
    
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: North of Chicago, IL
Gender: Male
*Therrin puts on the penguin-suit
 |  |  | Re: Undergarment Factory
<Reply # 1 on 7/18/2013 8:00 PM >
|  | | | whoa, cool book! I love stuff like that.
So was this a factory that was stuffed full of sewing machines and illegal immigrants?
Or do people actually have factories that make clothing that aren't all stereotypical like that? I'm doubting it.
Give a person a match and they'll be warm for a minute, but light them on fire and they'll be warm for the rest of their life. =) |
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kenfagerdotcom
Location: Madison, WI
Gender: Male
American Urbex... yeah. That was me.
| |  | Re: Undergarment Factory
<Reply # 2 on 7/18/2013 8:37 PM >
| | | | Posted by Therrin
So was this a factory that was stuffed full of sewing machines and illegal immigrants?
Or do people actually have factories that make clothing that aren't all stereotypical like that? I'm doubting it.
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Your stereotyping of blue collar workers is perplexing Therrin.
The jobs people held here were shipped overseas. Wherever the workers may have originated from, they held legitimate American jobs. Those American workers earned money that went back into the American economy and they paid taxes from paycheck witholdings.
[last edit 7/18/2013 8:45 PM by kenfagerdotcom - edited 1 times]
Flickr: http://www.flickr....os/kenfagerdotcom/ |
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lonewolf34
 
Location: Phoenix
Gender: Male
| | Re: Undergarment Factory
<Reply # 3 on 7/18/2013 9:30 PM >
| | | | ahh...windows 95. Great shot that really helps date the place.
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Hootie
Location: VA
Gender: Female
One playground after another...
| | Re: Undergarment Factory
<Reply # 4 on 7/19/2013 4:11 AM >
| | | | Posted by kenfagerdotcom
stereotyping of blue collar workers
Those American workers earned money that went back into the American economy and they paid taxes from paycheck withholding.
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I know not everyone is from an area where this industry provided a way of life. Ideas about the Blue-collar worker may be skewed by images of third world sweat shops: Maybe this will help.
I'm an American Citizen and so were my co-workers. I went to work in the industry when I graduated high school. It was my job to sew the collars and hoods into jerseys and hoodies *(back when they were zip up jackets!)I was legal age and got paid piece work average. My coworkers were middle class, American citizens by birth. We were black, white and Native American women between 18 and 70 years old. We worked 7-3, 3-11, or 11-7,took 30 minutes for lunch and had X number of *"smoke-break minutes" a day. *yes,we took our smoke break inside an area in the middle of the division floor. LOL
Our mill employed almost 1/3 of the adult population in our community of less than 50k. At one time, there were 18 thousand of our hometown, born and raised citizens, employed by one single textile company. This mill kept our community alive. Those employees worked across 3 shifts, every single day of the year, for generations of years. They worked hard, but they also got paid relatively well. Taxed were paid, homes and fishing boats were purchased, and college educations were paid off.
Thanks to "The Mill", our small city has "seen it's day". Suddenly, 1/3 of our city was unemployed. These were 100% American jobs. Without the only job they had ever known, a third of our taxpayers were unemployable. Community colleges were scrambling to re-educate with skills, trades and GED's.
The blue collar textile worker is an endearing breed of person. It's worth it to me to keep that image alive for those of us who come from that stock. And to inform those from other parts of the US who may have the media image of child labor and sweatshops.
http://www.flickr....ral-urban-natural/
I don't play well with chiggers and snakes. |
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Therrin
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: North of Chicago, IL
Gender: Male
*Therrin puts on the penguin-suit
| | | Re: Undergarment Factory
<Reply # 5 on 7/19/2013 9:48 AM >
| | | | I've actually spent enough time working and living in states and the mid-west to understand that this is the way things used to work and in some places still do.
It was tongue-in-cheekery.
I used to work in a glass factory in Chicago, my friend works in a mattress factory in Missouri, Sam works in a paper mill, and I'm pretty hardcore into mines, where pretty much the same thing happens. (although they saw a lot of immigrant workers too).
However, at the moment I live in Bakersfield, CA. HUUUGE farming area, and I gotta say that 90% or more of the pickers are immigrants / illegal immigrants. So as much as it's "stereotypical" in some areas but not truthful, it's truthful in some areas.
The whole "mill/factory" thing seems to cut both ways. It's hard work for a lot of people, but it's work.
Then either people want to work less and get paid more, or they complain about what it's doing to the environment, or the Company wants to not have to pay so much, and then the place gets shutdown (and likely outsourced overseas). Then all of a sudden no one has a job anymore, and suddenly the long hours and boring work doesn't seem so bad anymore.
Unfortunately these days, American workers (of all backgrounds) want more and more and want to give less and less as the feelings of entitlement seep in. None of them seem to realize that they're shooting themselves in the foot when that happens; as the Company will finally say "fuck you" and leave/outsource.
The Chicago area itself is just a shell of what it used to be as far as manufactured goods go. The people and the state make it so expensive to operate that companies finally just throw in the towel and leave. Then the people can't find work and then no one is happy.
There's something to be said for a hard day's work... and actually having the work.
Give a person a match and they'll be warm for a minute, but light them on fire and they'll be warm for the rest of their life. =) |
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Hootie
Location: VA
Gender: Female
One playground after another...
| | Re: Undergarment Factory
<Reply # 6 on 7/19/2013 1:02 PM >
| | | | Posted by Therrin
...Unfortunately these days, American workers (of all backgrounds) want more and more and want to give less and less as the feelings of entitlement seep in.
There's something to be said for a hard day's work... and actually having the work.
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I couldn't have said that any better!
I work in schools. This attitude of entitlement seems to be the mindset that pisses me off the most about co-workers and students alike. (and unfortunately, it's not the exception anymore.)
http://www.flickr....ral-urban-natural/
I don't play well with chiggers and snakes. |
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crownand
Location: Piedmont Triad
Gender: Male
There is salvation in the decayed...
| | | Re: Undergarment Factory
<Reply # 7 on 7/19/2013 2:11 PM >
| | | | Nice shots Ken! Also thanks for the narrative Hootie!
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kenfagerdotcom
Location: Madison, WI
Gender: Male
American Urbex... yeah. That was me.
| | | Re: Undergarment Factory
<Reply # 8 on 7/19/2013 4:08 PM >
| | | | Hootie and Therrin - Props for taking the time on your thoughtful and meaningful insight. I didn't mean to turn this thread into a pitched debate, but it is really the story behind a lot of industrial urbex locations. Knowledge of "low price/maximum profit" business practices and the export of American industry is key to understanding urbex subject matter. (Hell, even appreciating what continues to succeed and not become an urbex location. USA! USA!)
Therrin in particular. One of your quotes really hit home.
Posted by Therrin
The Chicago area itself is just a shell of what it used to be as far as manufactured goods go. The people and the state make it so expensive to operate that companies finally just throw in the towel and leave. Then the people can't find work and then no one is happy.
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Coming from the midwest and having done urbex in Chicago I know what you mean. In one case it wasn't the state of Illinois, but the federal government. The Brach's factory closed because it couldn't afford the artificially high costs of sugar.
Flickr: http://www.flickr....os/kenfagerdotcom/ |
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Therrin
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: North of Chicago, IL
Gender: Male
*Therrin puts on the penguin-suit
| | | Re: Undergarment Factory
<Reply # 9 on 7/20/2013 12:03 AM >
| | | | yeah I didn't intend to either, my bad.
I was just pointing out that sometimes I actually have real thoughts bouncing around in this head instead of always just stirring the pot. 
| "Kraft's not going to say: 'We're going to abandon America's workers for cheaper labor,' " says Joseph Terrell, a spokesman for the American Sugar Alliance, a trade association of sweetener producers and processors in Arlington, Va. If the company blames high sugar prices, "it's just easier for people to swallow." |
I think this is absolutely true.
Unfortunately, everytime people scream and holler about raising minimum wage, they don't realize all the chaos they're unleashing on everything else, as prices just tend to rise enough to fend off the offset of the more money that is paid to workers.
I'm no economist, but I tend to think the system overcompensates every time; which makes the continual effect worse as it propagates.
EVERYONE WANTS MOAR MONEY! Then they can't figure out why the price of butter, bread, bacon and bananas have gone up.
Don't even get me started on unions. Yes, they started up and protected American workers who were being abused. Yes, they serve a useful purpose.
But when it gets to the point where it takes 6 guys to do a job that one non-union guy can perform; because that guy has to touch the lightbulb, and that guy is the only one who can move the ladder, and that guy has to stand by and oversee everything, and that other dude has to inspect the lightbulb after it's screwed in....
It's no wonder that large companies are saying "fuck it" and moving on.
I've actually explored a large sugar beet mill. It's a phenomenal place. Has it's own little "town" built right next to it. All abandoned now of course. But you can definitely see how just ONE industrial enterprise can support a decent amount of people.
Those owners apparently started their own rail line, to get the sugar beet fields access to the mill; continually building up their capacity and production ability.
Then when the mill started going downhill they pulled everything out and put it into railroading and blasted into that new industry all together.
Seems, unfortunately, like there's nothing "new" these days, outside of microcircuited technology.
But that's not very amazing, considering that when you try to start a business these days you're hobbled and hogtied from the very beginning. It's a pretty counter-productive system.
Give a person a match and they'll be warm for a minute, but light them on fire and they'll be warm for the rest of their life. =) |
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Noorg
Location: Southwest Virginia
Gender: Male
| | Re: Undergarment Factory
<Reply # 10 on 7/21/2013 12:06 AM >
| | | | Well put, Hootie. The town I grew up in had three major blue-collar factories. Two of them closed while I was in high school there and it hit the town hard. Here in SW Virginia where I am now, everyone has seen what has happened to the furniture factories and textile mills (as well as NC and elsewhere).
I don't want to go all classist on people but I somehow doubt the people who made the decisions to move operations overseas lost their jobs to outsourced Indonesian executive VP's.
But, enough ranting. While they may be fun to explore, I think it is a crying shame all this enclosed space is just being left to fall into ruin. I'd be tickled pink if a group of people pulled a Freetown Christiana (http://en.wikipedi...eetown_Christiania) on one of the more intact places and made it stick. I've been there, it was quite interesting.
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Therrin
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: North of Chicago, IL
Gender: Male
*Therrin puts on the penguin-suit
| | | Re: Undergarment Factory
<Reply # 11 on 7/21/2013 3:29 AM >
| | | | ok FINE, enough ranting...
Give a person a match and they'll be warm for a minute, but light them on fire and they'll be warm for the rest of their life. =) |
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