The Closing Of The Zenith Assembly Plant In Sioux City, IA (1978)
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- A story on the closing of Zenith's Sioux City assembly plant and how it affected employees and the community. Zenith's Sioux City assembly plant built radios and other components that supplemented Zenith's assembly operations in Chicago.
NOTE:
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The man in the beginning hugging his kids reminds me a lot of my dad and I was around their age at the time. He wasn't a "man's man" but he was loving and kind. He rarely raised his voice at us. We weren't rich but there was always enough to go around. He passed away 2 years ago tomorrow. I miss you Dad.
Consider yourself one of the luckiest persons on earth. My dad was a mans man, an asshole, hot head, yelled, screamed, was abusive, not kind, couldn't talk without raising his voice, even had a good paying job that he liked. A childhood I try hard to forget.
The fact that Zenith was even able to keep this plant open until 1978 is a testimonial to their efforts, as a company, to fight as long as they could in the face of offshore competition. By 1978, Detroit was a ghost town.
A sad documentary echoing the situation in virtually every western nation. Here in Australia we have just lost all our vehicle manufacturing and our electronics manufacturers shut down at around the same time your Zenith plants did. I remember touring the last of the electronics manufacturers in Australia in the late 70s. The building was so large you could have parked a few 747s in there with room to spare. The plant made everything from transistor radios, tvs right through to air conditioners and white goods. It's all gone...there's a housing estate on that land now. When I was a kid everything we bought was made here, from the socks on your feet, the shoes you wore, the bike you rode to the cars you travelled in. That's all finished.
The root cause of this is the championing of Globalisation by the big multi-national companies in cahoots with governments. This meant obscenely-large profits could be made by companies going off-shore on the pretext that labour was too expensive in the home market. Crap! The real reason is profit. Let me give you an example: A pair of shorts made locally would have cost about $1.50 to make and ship to a retailer. The retailer would then sell the shorts for ten bucks. Big profit, huh? But then think about that same product made in China. It's made for 40 cents a unit and the retailer still charges ten bucks (or more)! Catch my drift?
This is a concerted effort by governments and companies to break the middle classes. This is a move to create a two class society...the haves and have-nots. Along with globalisation is the DELIBERATE dumbing-down of our school systems...the removal of all discipline in schools and the facilitation of video gaming...junk television...etc... A happy dumb populace is easier to control than a well-informed and literate populace. The simple fact is that China is being used to keep all our products low-priced...take advantage of their low price workforce and smash the middle class and its power in all western nations. I blame the IMF, the World Bank and virtually every corrupt politician in the west in the thrall of bastard multi-national corporations for this. Oh...talking about the corporations...they will NEVER die. Sure, they shut down plants in the west but then they open up new ones in China, Vietnam, Mexico...etc... One of GM's biggest markets is now CHINA. Wake up folks before it's too late.
Very very true. The little people in the western nations are powerless.
Ironically, it was the lack of quality control in Mexico that bit Zenith in the ass in the mid -late 90's. The guns produced for their CRT's were allegedly produced under less than clean conditions caused early failures and damaged the company's reputation for quality. That's what you get when buy cheap. What a damned shame! They were the best TV ever made.
I used to work in tv repair shop, these old Zenith tv's would last a long time. I saw sets that were more than 20 years old come in for the first time to be repaired.
Sounds exactly like the current political cycle. Thanks for taking the time to post this
+shango066 I agree. These days are quite first-handedly reminiscent of what was happening with the sense of malaise in the late-70's, up to the 1980 elections.
+Chet Pomeroy Absolutely..It was so much easier when companies were family owned because they weren't beholden to stockholders. Trump is the only one addressing these issues and they need to be addressed because we can't even build parts for our military anymore.
As I remember, during the 1970's, the quality and workmanship of American manufacturing certainly declined, and other nations had already rebuilt from the rubble of World War II. But if too many millions of people lose their jobs as the result of "outsourcing," who will buy the products that are being produced ever so cheaply? Manufacturers don't simply "give" their products away.
Your Trump condescension has nothing to do with what we are talking about. I'm as right wing as they come but I also know that not all American products were bad in the 70s. TVs didn't suffer the fate of over government regulation that the auto industry did back then with their ridiculous emission standards on larger engines. RCA and Zenith built wonderful products but they were forced out with price dumping and currency manipulation by the Asian countries and that's how they sold things for less money. Idiots like you that think moving all of our manufacturing to China and Mexico is somehow going to help us,I would love to know how? Do you realize that the US was able to win WW1 and WW2 and supply the allied forces,largely because of our manufacturing capability that we no longer have. The most formidable opponent we would face is China and since they are fast becoming the manufacturing hub of the world,they will have the advantage one day. If you think the west can't lose its sovereignty,the Romans and the Ottoman empires both had that same perception. You can't starve a population and think they won't rebel at some point.
BTW,Japan has moved much of their manufacturing base to other parts of SE Asia. What gives? Their economy has been in the shitter for the last 30 years.You know,those people you claim built such great products,
China has the advantage now. Right now, I could try to order a part from an american manufacturer, they would probably give me lip on how it should be made, and I would have to wait for weeks to receive an overpriced part that was probably made across several states due to location of foundries, machine shops, and precision finishing operations. . Meanwhile, I can contact a chinese manufacturer who will gladly take my order, make it cheaply with similar materials, and never need to go very far since all the sourcing, manufacturing and polishing are done in-house with locations withing close proximity. I can expect to pay a competitive price and receive my goods quickly and without much problem.
This is why american manufacturing is failing.
I did some research on titles seen in the newspaper the woman reads at 20:09 in which to find the approximate date(s) when this video was filmed. It's the Sioux City Journal, dated Thursday November 3, 1977.
Let's make Zenith great again! But in all seriousness it's sad to even see this knowing that this would become a trend that led us where we are today. Our country not producing even half of the goods bought and sold in the United States. I really hope we can start producing more soon.
+Dan McCafferty Zeneth isn't american anymore. It's south korean because it's owned by LG. They don't even produce anything. Just research and licensing on behalf of LG.
@JuanitoMaxxCarnaje you couldn’t be anymore right! I forgot I wrote this six years ago! Thank you for your input!
Amazing snapshot of that very moment when the US electronics industry was in it’s last days of greatness!
We could bring some of that back if we just had the will and determination.
What was also impressive was the way this film was produced! Storyline Perfect, Editing Perfect, Photographic Directing Flawless very modern production style for the late 70’s..
Government responsibility to provide jobs? Wait what? @ 4:40
The government should not have allowed free trade and could have provided for tariffs as it used to be.
This is a sad documentary, I know Gateway built computers in Sioux City at one time.
My God. How sad. Seeing insides of your 1978 Zenith, got me here.
Sounds a lot like the same thing going on with the current Carrier plant and distribution going to Monterrey, Mexico, where the workers get less pay in a day than the Indianapolis workers get in an hour.
Now in 2020, 1978 seems like the good old days. America has declined so much further since this video was made.
1978 was a mess. Super high inflation, worst cars ever made, etc.
At least in 1978 one out of every five young men didn't wind up in prison at some point in their life.
@@fredmcgurk2666 Super high inflation is back with a vengeance. Autos with crappy CVT's, hard to service automatic transmissions that don't even have dipstick with far too much electronic technology that's destined for failure. At least in 1978 once could get a very nice, low mileage used early 70's or 60's vehicle which were still simple, well made, and easy to service.
Many thanks for posting this, Doug! This should be shown on CNN/Fox News/MSNBC in-lieu of at least one of those so-called "debates". Having been in engineering management for most of my working life, and employed in a union shop, I wish now that I had supported them, the union membership in more of a wholesale manner!
***** We're kinda in the same boat; 28 yrs with MS, at end stage now - my system laughs at Avonex, and pain meds stopped working long ago. I've worked part time in broadcasting since the mid-'70s, with the balance of that time spread between Avionics manufacturing, and part time stop gaps necessary to support two kids going to private school and colleges... Whatever you do, don't slow down!
Farout these words hit home to me. I went through the same thing after 14 years service at a General Motors plant here in Adelaide, South Australia. Went through exactly the same thing and this was is 2015. Not sure about the US but manufacturing here in Australia is almost completely dead.
U.S. manufacturing jobs are pretty much dead, almost all have been moved to Mexico, China, Japan, or Taiwan. Most Japanese cars have taken over the American car market, Ford is in the process of moving to Mexico, General Motors has had a good chunk of the jobs in Mexico & Canada since the early 2000's, and Fiat Chrysler is in Canada and Mexico, with a small majority of the cars being built in the U.S. Any consumer item as in a Cell Phone, Television, Alarm Clock, pretty much anything you use on a daily basis is shipped from overseas, as the people predicted in this video the U.S. will reach a disaster in Unemployment, which it has and more Americans are on Government Assistance than ever, the government of the U.S. is so far in debt that an economic disaster, and a sellout to another county to settle the debt isn't very far off, maybe 20 years max. We will never see this time again, and if the minimum wage here is raised to $15.00/hour which they are considering all jobs like this will be gone soon after.
That's really not good to hear! Seems like we in Australia and probably many other places around the world are following suit. I really wonder where this will end. I hate to quote the phrase quite often heard, "Not everyone can be a lawyer or doctor", but seems relevant here. Where does that leave a country when every consumer product is imported.
Where does it leave us when all the factorys are over seas it leaves us where we are Now!!!
I wish jobs like these were still around
YOU'RE FORGETTING THAT THE WORLD IS NOT THE SAME AS IT WAS BACK THEN!!!
My parents owned a Zenith. As a kid, I thought it was the most space age looking device ever. It was so cool, it was a chromacolor. It even had a light sensor that could auto set brightness based on ambient light. I loved looking really close at the tubes honeycomb like mask. It was a great company.
Sad, Zenith was the last American retail electronics/Television manufacturer. Many more manufacturing companies have moved operations out of the US since then.
300% tariff on all imported goods. Save seasonal produce. Problem solved.
+Posen Auto Other countries would likely retaliate by increasing *their* tariffs.
I have TWO proven, and time-tested sayings for you:
1) "Trade wars have a tendency to turn into SHOOTING WARS", and-
2) "Whenever products don't cross borders, SOLDIERS WILL"
@@daleburrell6273 spoken like a true neocon
@@chetpomeroy1399 YOU BETCHER LIFESAVERS!!
@@wroughtironmgtow9558 ALL I'M DOING IS TELLING THE TRUTH- AND SHAMING THE DEVIL!!!
Sad, Zenith made some of the best radios in the world for decades. From the early tube models and the birth of the Trans-Oceanic to the transistor model TO's 1000, 3000, and finally 7000. The Trans-Oceanic really set the pace and most other manufacturers tried to copy it with varying degrees of success. To this day Trans-Oceanic radios continue to grow in value, often selling for more now than they did when they were new. Consumers missed the point of paying more for quality, yes a Trans-Oceanic radio was 200 dollars or more and the Japanese radio was 25 bucks but all my TO radios work perfectly even the H500 from the late 1940's. My newer TO's like the 7000 have selectivity that is hard to beat even by much more expensive new radios. And all of them have that amazing, warm Zenith sound. If you haven't heard your favorite radio show through a Trans-Oceanic your missing out.
@Joe Deats . What is the brand, make & model number of the watch on the heading of your UA-cam channel page? #thx for your time. Had an old tube radio once it was really neat to see the tubes light up it was my great grandfathers it got sold in a move.
The America shown in this film does not exist anymore. The Zenith brand brand is owned by LG of Korea, which was known as “Lucky GoldStar” back in the 70’s. Go figure.
WOW! It's interesting that in 1978, these companies were looking for foreign labor and look how those employees were affected, that was sad and devastating!
We sent business executives to Japan right after WWII. Foreign-made electronics started to seep into the US market in the mid 60s.
I remember going by it when we would go to sioux city
Blame the American public also ... I am guilty and millions of us are because we didn't want to spend top dollar for US made goods and so we buy cheaper priced products from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and other places ... I was trying to make a living like anyone else and with families etc there is only so much money to spend. The 1970s was hard and we had to save when we could. It stinks but thats the way it was sadly. : (
Im brithish but we to have lost nearly al our industry here thanks to the Asian f**k in ether case the government could have introduced import tariffs to make imported goods equally expensive and thus protect industry
@@jackhewitt7902 THERE'S MORE TO IT THAN THAT: TOO DAM MANY PEOPLE HAVE FORGOTTEN THAT THERE'S A DIRECT CORRELATION BETWEEN A GOOD CLIMATE FOR BUSINESS, AND THE EXISTENCE OF JOBS...AND INDUSTRY.
WHEN BUSINESS IS OVER-TAXED AND OVER-REGULATED- IT SIMPLY GOES AWAY!!
YOU'RE DOGGONE RIGHT, I'M SAD TO SAY!!!
POGO: "WE HAVE SEEN THE ENEMY...AND HE IS US!"
all i would buy was zenith ... i collect an restore them now when they went to mexico they killed the name
Hi Doug ..... nice to see a new classic video , I think many of us would like to know how come you never respond to our posts ??? At least tell us that please. : )
You can thank philosopher and economist Adam Smith for Laissez-faire! see where that got us. I feel your pain mom. My dad died at his job, coal mining. My mom went into the workforce when women stayed at home. She raised my sister and I on her own.
I'VE GOT BAD NEWS FOR YOU: THIS WAS NEVER AN IDEAL WORLD, AND THERE ARE NOT PERFECT PEOPLE!!!
Capitalism has many positive aspects but also down sides and this is one of them. It's all about making the most money. This company and many others have found a way to make more money by outsourcing and they did it. The promise of more money and power tends to corrupt people. There is no guarantee of loyalty, community, and pride with capitalism. This problem isnt even a US only issue, it's universal. Eventually a very few will have all the money and everyone else will have nothing or very little. This can already be seen today. We have to figure out a way to fix this fatal flaw with capitalism.
+FelixTheHouseFreak Even China is outsourcing their manufacturing of products to Vietnam as Vietnam's labor costs are 1/3 of China's. The bottom line is about the pursuit of slave labor countries.
+FelixTheHouseFreak Well, when everybody's job has become automated or outsourced to other countries and nobody has a job, who will pay for the merchandise they produce? It seems to me that what goes around eventually *comes around* (karma).
Everything goes in cycles...and when things start going downhill, people start thinking in the short-term. Then they try to get their's now- because they think it might not be there later. Unfortunately, that's human nature...people will always act in their own self-interest.
I see the bigger problem is the lack of knowledge and foresight in our federal government system. For so long, starting back in the 60's, policy was more pointed toward sweeping things under the carpet by believing that American free enterprise would figure it out for themselves. The problem with that thinking is that it wasn't global. Our government was way too busy worrying about the possibility of nuclear attach, and so spent it's time and energy in that direction. Meanwhile no one was in charge of watching the store!
Neither Trump nor HIllary are going to be able to solve our bigger woes. Not until we as a people truly think globally and develop plans to fit into that globe.
We now have a new battery technology and the mineral to go along with it, knocking at our door of opportunity. BUT, I don't see any effort to develop that breakthrough technology on the part of American Corporations. We as a people must tell government and industry that we back them in the development of new technology and resources. We have the manpower, have the expertise, but need corporate and government to clear the path for us to compete again.
Wow, It seems like some things never change.
If todays tariffs remain company's like Zenith will return.
I WOULDN'T BET ON THAT IF I WERE YOU!!! ONCE SOMETHING IS GONE, IT CAN BE HARDER THAN HELL TO GET IT BACK!!!
Yay DRH is back! More seeburg! These vids make me so sad tho...
You haven't added new videos as of late, I hope life finds you happy and well.
This was an interesting documentary. I remember when people were very worried about manufacturing jobs leaving the United States. It was a big deal, and there were people who bought American in an effort to help those who worked in those jobs. I remember us making an effort to find products made in America. It's so long ago now. Do people even think about this now? It's bad for people who don't have more than a high school education. I don't know what kind of jobs people got to replace the manufacturing jobs they had. But it's an entirely different world now. There is still an economy, but it's all jobs in computers and in biotechnology. I know the electronics industry left the country earlier, but I still don't understand why the ENTIRE American car industry fell apart - so that there are practically no American cars around at all now. I remember when that was what the vast majority of people drove. And of course they were made here - now the Big 3 makes a lot of their cars in Mexico and in other countries. There were specific car models that were bad, but the majority of them were fine. They certainly weren't as bad as the critics in the magazines portrayed them as. But these pompous jerks at Motor Trend, Car and Driver, Consumer reports, etc. complained and complained and brainwashed everyone into thinking they had to switch over to foreign cars, and accelerated the whole situation to where now the Big 3 doesn't even make any cars! They only make trucks and SUVs. Does the younger generation of people even care? I think it's awful. Of course there were many other industries affected by globalization - the car and electronics industries are examples. But it's over now. It's DONE. And it's not ever going back the other way, no matter what anyone says. Something needed to be done 40 years ago before the companies left. It's too late now.
I vaguely remember this. I was 5 lol
What I found interesting about the scenes shot in the plant was how each worker was focused on operating one machine that was specialized for one small operation in the production of a part. With the exception of the one lady who ran tests on chassis and loaded them onto a conveyor, I had a hard time identifying what was being made. An incredible amount of manpower was required to make these TVs!
First, these jobs migrated to Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and eventually China. At the same time, robots, machine vision, and chip shooters have increasingly made human hands and eyes unnecessary.
99% of the comments here are empathy filled, as they should be. However, I can’t help but wonder how many of the empathetic commentators have voiced different feelings around folks receiving welfare/unemployment in the decades that have passed since this specific tragedy.
I also find it fascinating that throughout the documentary men are commenting constantly about “the working man” and making reference to “taking care of his wife and family” yet over 70% of the zenith workforce was female, many of which were single mothers. I of course know this information because it was mentioned in the documentary, which did a great job, especially considering the era it was made, of being very inclusive in terms of providing the full spectrum of this story from those involved.
Ask yourself who forced women into factory jobs and why it became necessary for mothers to work a factory job in the first place. What happened and who was interested in putting men and women into a wage competition, essentially driving wages down? Who destroyed farming in rural states such as Iowa and Kansas, and who destabilized family structures, rendering children fatherless and forcing mothers into manufacturing? And don‘t give me that crap that these women worked a factory job for the purpose of „self empowerment“, that devils like Gloria Steinem used to hammer into peoples‘ minds.
I am with you Shango066. I watched this and am very sad.
It was both technology and the advent of the world wide economy that killed the US consumer electronics industry. Management at the time struggled to survive, but was overwhelmed by the reality of a changing world marketplace. We all enjoy the low priced electronic wonders of today because of it. If an iPhone, flat screen TV, or notebook computer were produced in the USA, the sale price would be ten times or more .
+Ken Bird Just for labor alone? I don't think so. computer parts come from all over the world.
+shechshire If you add it all up, labor costs make up the biggest part of any product.
Ken Bird world wide economy is just a nebulous phrase for anything that benefits the elite and screws over the average American
I used to go through Sioux City about every 3 months when I was growing up, as my grandma lived in Ocheyedan, Iowa and we drove through Sioux City on the way there. I didn't even realize there was a Zenith plant in Sioux City until seeing this video. I just remember passing by Sue Bee Honey plant on the way there. I wonder if that company is still there in Sioux City. OH yea, this is Walter Beers from and also on Video Karma. My middle name is James. I don't remember how I got posted as James on you tube, I am also a friend of Jamie's in Omaha NE.
Wow they sold us out back in the day. It might have been because they have money. You're a great American Doug! Thanks for posting video.
Very good documentary. I keep wondering what happened to these folks and their families.
I think eventually Zenith would have gone under, I used to work in a repair shop. Our customers would drop off a set for an estimate and while waiting go across the street to Circuit city to look at the new sets. They would come back and tell me for a little more they could buy a new set. Of course the newer sets were not nearly as good quality.
I grew up in SIoux City, and had a neighbor that worked there. The plant closed the year after I got out of high school. They had good products, to bad they didn't have the protections that other company's like sony, had.
Was there other big industries in Sioux City at that time?
How about capitalism with limits? No CEO can make more than, what, $500,000 a year? One million? Arizona "Public Service" controls electric utilities in most of the state. It's a subsidiary of a for-profit company. If memory serves, APS's CEO makes $6.3 million a year. As Jake Gittes asked in "Chinatown": "How much better can you eat? What can you buy that you can't already afford?" Take the extra $5.3M and spread it out among APS's, and other companies', lower-level workers. Capitalism With A Heart, comrades. Elect me as the beneficent Lord Overmaster of the U.S. and I'll make it happen. My salary? I'll do it for $75,000 a year.
Thanks for the vid. Doug, what year did LG take over Zenith?
Hey, I bought a zenith snooz alarm radio and it turns on but won't find any channels and we have a lot of AM channels here. What do I think is wrong?
Was the Zenith Taiwan the first factory outside the USA???
When was established???
Hello Doug glad to see you posted a video... Do you have any video's on daily Motion is a site like UA-cam
End of the American TV Industry
As recently as 1965, every color television set purchased in the United States was made by an American-owned company in a domestic plant. In that year, Americans purchased 2.6 million sets manufactured by companies such as Sylvania, Motorola, Admiral, Philco, Sunbeam, RCA, Quasar, Magnavox and Wizard.
Twenty-six years later, in 1991, sales of television sets to United States consumers soared to twenty-one million. But only one company was still making the sets in the United States-Zenith Corporation, at a lone domestic plant in Springfield, Missouri. By 1992, there were none. In October 1991 Zenith announced that it was ending production in Springfield in 1992 and shifting the jobs to a Zenith plant in Reynosa, Mexico.
For the American television industry, the end came with a swiftness that would have seemed inconceivable a generation ago, when more than two dozen American-owned plants were turning out all the television sets purchased in this country. That was before Japanese television manufacturers began dumping huge quantities of low-priced receivers on the American market.
When American manufacturers objected to what they called unfair trade practices, the Japanese claimed they were able to undersell American makers because their products resulted from greater cost efficiencies. But American television makers said there was no evidence to support that assertion. As proof, they pointed to the fact that the Japanese were selling television sets to Americans at much lower prices than they were selling them in Japan.
Zenith asserted in a 1977 report: "the fact that the Japanese manufacturers, whose lowest-priced nineteen-inch offerings in Japan are priced at about $500, are selling similar receivers to American private brand retailers at prices that permit resale in the United States at under $300, provides substantial support for the premise that those receivers are being dumped in the United States."
The United States Tariff Commission had agreed, saying in a 1971 ruling that the "television industry in the United States is being injured by reason of the importation of television receivers from Japan, which are being sold at less than fair value." Fines and duties totaling several hundred million dollars were later assessed against the Japanese television makers. But years of legal wrangling and diplomatic maneuvering followed with the Japanese companies ultimately paying only nominal amounts.
Zenith also filed a lawsuit against the major Japanese manufacturers, charging them with violating United States antitrust and antidumping laws. The case found its way to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the Japanese. By the time litigation and the regulatory proceedings were over, the American television industry was history.
Every American-owned company had either shut down its television production or been sold to the Japanese. Except Zenith. The company known for innovation and quality-"The quality goes in before the name goes on"-continued to maintain one production plant. Zenith's sprawling Springfield plant-it covered an area the size of twenty-nine football fields- was the town's largest private employer and a steady source of earnings for 1,750 local residents.
Until 1992. Having lost $500 million in revenue over the previous five years, the company announced that it had to cut costs. When labor contracts expired in 1992, a total of 1,350 employees would be let go and the work shifted to Mexico. In a statement that has become all too familiar to middle-class Americans, Jerry K. Pearlman, Zenith's chairman and president, explained that the Springfield shutdown, while painful, was necessary for Zenith to remain competitive: "This further consolidation of our operations is a necessary component of Zenith's programs to reduce costs and improve profitability."
The chief reason, Zenith officials emphasized, was Mexico's low wage rate. Wages ranged from $5 to $11 an hour at Springfield; in Mexico they were $1.60 an hour. Actually, the average wage rate at Springfield was $7 an hour. That translated into an annual income of under $15,000, meaning that, by national standards, that the force in Springfield was, on average, at the low end of the pay scale for the American middle class.
Robert W. Mingus, president of Local 1453 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents the Zenith workers, does not blame the company for the shutdown. He blames the last four presidents , the Commerce Department and members of Congress, both for not doing more to counter Japanese moves, and for making it possible for United States industry to locate to Mexico. "We're encouraging our industrial base right out of this country," he said.
"America: What Went Wrong?"
Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele
Andrews and McMeel, 1992
pp. 35-37
+Steve Oconnor "One of the clearest illustrations of how the Japanese system was set up to take advantage of American openness and its own closed nature is the television wars. The price that the American television pioneers paid for doing even a limited amount of business in Japan was sharing their technology. They had no idea what that price would ultimately cost them.
Immediately following World War II, American television manufacturers such as Motorola, RCA,and Zenith enjoyed a tremendous, perhaps insurmountable, technological and cost advantage over the rest of the world. It seemed certain that America would dominate the world's television industry forever.
The Japanese market, however, was closed to the U.S. producers. Japan's government wanted to give the fledgling Japanese electronics industry time to get off the ground. Despite the lower price of U.S. televisions, they were unavailable to Japanese consumers. Along with keeping out the U.S. rivals, this practice meant that the Japanese firms had a captive market for their inferior, more expensive products.
It was a perfect example of the Japanese reverence for the producer and the relegation of the consumer to a distant second - a telling contrast to the United States.
Television and the larger arena of electronics were viewed in Tokyo as a strategic industry. The government placed a far higher value on developing a domestic television industry than on serving consumers with the best products.
In order to gain access to Japan, RCA and General Electric were required to license the technology for television to Japanese companies in the early 1950's. The decision was encouraged by the U.S. government as an example of the American commitment to help rebuild its former enemy.
The transfer of the technology provided the U.S. companies with some short-term profits from the licensing agreements. But the leap the transaction gave to the Japanese was priceless.
By the 1960's, the Japanese were inundating the U.S. with their black-and-white televisions. The Japanese sets were cheaper for several reasons. Labor costs were far lower in Japan, and the Japanese corporations had not had to invest the money in research and development that the Americans had spent, because they had been allowed to license the technology.
More significantly, the Japanese were dumping their television sets on U.S. customers. That is, they were selling them at below-cost prices in order to gain a foothold in the U.S. market. The tactic was successful, in part because the Japanese manufacturers could sell their sets at a higher price at home, where they had no fear of foreign competition."
Douglas Frantz, Catherine Collins
"Selling Out: How We Are Letting Japan Buy Our Land, Our Industries, Our Financial Institutions, And Our Future.", 1989
p.90-91
+Steve Oconnor "Since the Japanese had artificially inflated the prices of television sets sold in Japan, American TV manufacturers reasoned that they could recoup some of their losses by competing in the Japanese market, where domestic sets sold for twice as much as their American counterparts. But the Americans had yielded to the Occidental temptation to underestimate the Japanese.
When Zenith attempted to market TV sets in Japan in 1961, MITI became sorely displeased. Zenith first enlisted two major Japanese trading companies, C. Itoh and Nichimen, but neither was able to get MITI permission to export dollars to buy the U.S. products. In 1963, Zenith tried again, and Nichimen spent a sizable Zenith budget for advertising and publicity in the hope of selling a mere 500 sets. Nichimen reported back that although they had tried hard, the Japanese manufacturers had asked MITI to intervene against Zenith.
According to a report by the office of the U.S. Comptroller General, MITI had pressured Japan's leading department and appliance store chains and had jawboned Nichimen "not to indulge too aggressively in the distribution of Zenith Products." The ministry's implicit power soon became evident. In 1975, when Japan sold 5.5 million of its own overpriced sets in its domestic markets, it imported only 11,644 sets, or two-tenths of one percent. By 1978, the Japanese purchase of imported sets was down to 485 units, less than the number many individual Sears stores sell in one year.
Another major American company, Motorola, also became involved with the Japanese TV dumpers, to their chargrin. In recent years Motorola has spent millions advertising its competitiveness with Japan, accurately pointing out that Japan's trade policies are unfair and ethically dubious. A recent two-page Motorola advertisement proclaims, "When Japan Waives the Rules, Japan Rules the Waves." The text castigates Japan for "extreme protectionism at home and collective efforts permitting targeting abroad." The chief executive officer of Motorola, Robert Galvin, has been active in speaking on this theme to the government and industry groups. "Motorola finally got religion", says Arnold Kalman, "but they sure got it late."
Motorola, now the largest of America's dwindling roster of semiconductor manufacturers, has long been a leading U.S. producer of consumer electronics, including TV sets. Motorola established a branch office in Tokyo in 1959 at the dawning of Japan's reemergence as a powerful industrial nation. This office evolved into Motorola Service Company, Ltd. Later, Motorola formed a second Japanese subsidiary, Motorola Semiconductor of Japan, Ltd., and joined with Alps, a relatively small Japanese concern, in a joint venture known as Alps-Motorola.
In 1973, Motorola was hoping to conclude a deal with Aiwa to sell color television sets in Japan. Aiwa, a smallish company controlled by Sony, proudly announced it would market Motorola's big Quasar color consoles, made by the American company in Japan, to retail at 330,000 yen, or about $1,500. It was an attractive price alongside comparable models which Japan Victor and Matsushita were then selling for between 480,000 and 570,000 yen. But rival Matsushita, an enormously influential firm in Japan, decided that such a large American company as Motorola could not be permitted to gain a toehold in Japan's protected markets. The presence of an American company selling sets to Japanese consumers for less than inflated Japanese prices would not only endanger their high domestic prices but expose them to dumping charges in the U.S. Somehow, Motorola must be stopped. It was accomplished through an offer Motorola could not refuse.
In March 1974, Matsushita purchased Motorola's Japanese television manufacturing interests for $100 million in return for which Motorola agreed to abandon all its television manufacturing, including its plants in both the U.S. and Taiwan. Matsushita and Motorola announced plans to jointly pursue other ventures in "growth industries" at a later date. Motorola had received a sizable sum for a business that was only marginally profitable, and Matsushita had eliminated its only possible American competitor in Japan."
Marvin J. Wolf
"The Japanese Conspiracy: Their Plot To Dominate Industry World-Wide, And How To Deal With It", 1983
p. 23-25
+Steve Oconnor "The television dumping case," Nevin continues, "provided instances in which the U.S. Treasury itself has been as deceitful as the importers and as responsible as they for long delays in the enforcement of the law. In 1977 the customs service finds out that there's fraud. And they go out and start a major investigation. They know there's massive fraud and President Carter signs an agreement with the Japanese limiting television imports. Secretly they tell the Japanese that they will stop the ITC investigation of customs fraud and of dumping and that the Department of Justice -- and this is incredible -- will remove itself from any investigations of antitrust activities that are associated with dumping, because dumping is Treasury's prerogative."
This covert American promise to the Japanese is contained in a letter dated May 20, 1977, over the signature of U.S. Ambassador Robert S. Strauss to Fumihiko Togo, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan. "That letter was read into the Congressional Record because Danny Rostenkowski, who was then on the Trade subcommittee, asked Strauss during his testimony if it was true that such a letter existed," Nevin says. "The only reason Rostenkowski found out the letter existed is that when the Japanese protested the dumping assessments, they described them as being completely inconsistent with the side letter given the government of Japan by the government of the United States. So the Japanese blew their own cover."
Marvin J. Wolf
"The Japanese Conspiracy: Their Plot To Dominate Industry World-Wide, And How To Deal With It", 1983
p. 28-29
+Steve Oconnor www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...919017,00.html
KICKBACKS IN LIVING COLOR
June 13, 1977
"The flood of Japanese TV sets on the U.S. market has long been a sore point with American TV manufacturers and labor unions. By one estimate, 70,000 jobs have been lost to Japanese imports, which last year accounted for 2.9 million sets, or 38% of the domestic market.
Illegal Rebates. The kickbacks supposedly work this way: if a Japanese manufacturer sells a TV set in the U.S. for a price lower than it charges for the same set in Japan, that constitutes "dumping" under international trade rules and subjects the manufacturer to a penalty tariff. So the Japanese manufacturer quotes the U.S. importer an official price equal to the Japanese price, then makes under-the-table payments -in effect, illegal rebates-that allow the U.S. company to offer the set at prices that undercut U.S.-made TVs by $100 or more. Sometimes the payments are disguised as rebates or "credits" for advertising or shipping."
It's not the governments job to provide jobs. The main fault of the demise of American manufacturing lies directly on the greedy shoulders of the stock holders wanting more and more profits and returning nothing back to the workplace. I too lost my job as a result of downsizing when GE took over RCA and sold out for easy and quick profits. I survived because I took my savings and got ab education then changed fields. I did decry oh woe is me.
Apparently you didn't learn to type and/or spell with your new education.
Family love Captain Crunch they have boxes everywhere of it
I can't blame Zenith management. I blame free trade and lack of tariffs. That means we have to vote for the right elected officials. Bernie Sanders is the only one talking about trade barriers again and he's right. Don't believe Trump, he'll talk big but then will sell you out in the end.
+Herbert Susmann In all fairness, Mr. Trump did not accept donations from the Super-Pacs and corporate fat-cats who seek to outsource jobs to cheaper labor markets. Without exception, all of his opponents are accepting donations from these same entities.
Herbert Susmann this comment didn't age well 🖕😂🇺🇸
Welcome back!
Seems like the company really took advantage of workers in Mexico etc. Not only did they get min wage but without a union I doubt they had much in the way of benefits. I don't know who made out here I guess the stock holders in company.
Technology is gone in the USA ...1990 when I graduated as an electronics engineer ...Many jobs now none
I really hope you make some new videos soon!
Interesting stuff
I think the person I felt worst for was the lady interviewed at 18:57 - 23:55. She has to raise 3 kids alone and work. She got divorced. Where did her husband go? Why isn't he helping with the kids? She has to do everything! What a jerk!
It's so sad...
Thats sad :(
my Bose wave radio was around $350 15 years ago. I think it was built in the US. It’s great, still works perfectly, just like a zenith was 40 years ago. But a sangean radio (China?) is 1/3 the price of the Bose. Hard to resist such a low price for a nice radio. So the unfair trade deals of the past (e.g., nafta) were one (of several) reasons we don’t manufacture here as much. I think people would pay a 30% premium for American built products but not 300%. Of course the would have to be as good or better, as zenith was and Bose is.
Also, great videography work. Wow that was so cool. Yeah the factory workers were a bit frumpy, but maybe the styles back then exaggerated that appearance.
how many men kids are in the family that the mother has to go out alone and tend to the farm.
Zenith sold out to foreign companies such as Goldstar/LG electronics
So true, shango066; very sadly, nothing has changed . Six GM auto plants are closing and most of their product will now be manufactured in Mexico. The bottom line (stocks, etc. ) rule, not the whole beautiful families who suffer when jobs are sent to cheap labor countries. Not a thought is given to their suffering by the CEOs who earn huge six figure salaries. Their jobs are not going to be transported to Mexico! It's always the "little guy" who gets the shaft!
loved the video bro
This is what happens hen you have one of the highest cooperate tax rates in the world, smothered in regulations and cheap foreign products being dumped in this country.
What about Bob Dilworth. Was he a boss there?
What most people seem to ignore or forget, is that, even if those people had been able to hang on to their jobs a it longer, they would have been ousted later on through automation of the production cycle (which back then was still largely done via manual labour). Either way they would have lost their jobs, via relocation to cheaper labour countries, or because of widely automated production processes. In any case, it's often the so-called "lower qualified" people who have to deal with the brunt of "reorganisations" or relocations. That's why we have to make younger generations aware, it IS important to get a degree. More knowledge is more liberty of choice
Ever hear of H1B1 Visas? Your "education" is worthless. Cheaper labor is coming for your job too.
certainly... very few jobs are "safe" where automation is concerned. But until that's the case, it's still important to get a degree of some sort. The higher your qualifications, the more possibilities and choices one has in finding a job one likes. As I said in my previous post: more knowledge is more liberty of choice
You are peddling Mailorder-degree-globalist BS. Even today automatization in Electronics is only suitable for certain tasks, therefore semi-automated processes free up personnel for more sophisticated and less straining tasks. Automatizing 100% will kill off your process and quality - that is why Roger Smith/GM failed with the introduction of robots while other car makers succeeded. Pushing people into worthless paper degrees and eroding the manufacturing base will lead to fake economies based on funny money, which is what we have today, basically. People don‘t have a „free choice“ today, either. They are forced into this financial hamster wheel when they enter college. It‘s time to break this cycle, even at the cost of being accused of being antisemitic or communist.
No, it's not going to be OK, America is finished.
Ahh, those were good paying jobs that Americans don't want! :P
The same thing is happening with Boeing, among many others now in 2016
Work force participation is now at an all time low. Feb.2021.
Gee, do you think the China virus might have something to do with that?
That, plus the fact that our government has been paying people not to work.
It's sad what America has become we need to go back to having jobs here made in America
Jason Cruz I understand how you feel but those days are never coming back.. the country is a part of a global economy now and Industry has become mechanized.. Factory jobs will never come back
@@TheTechnocrat78 THAT'S THE TRUTH!! NOW, IT'S A QUESTION OF EITHER ADAPT- OR BECOME EXTINCT.
Drh, where are you!
What a disgrace! And noting has changed from then to today! Where does it end? My only conselation is that the ones who do this to us will all roast in hell! And rightfully so.
WHO EVER TOLD YOU THAT THE WORLD WAS FAIR?!!
Isn't anything made in the USA anymore? This is depressing. If we care then we should demand and buy American.
John Deere is following Zenith's lead and is off shoring hundreds of jobs from Iowa.
I found out that it was because the dial cord was broke
25:06 is he talking about me?
You should have seen automation coming and retrained at your own expense, instead of buying that boat, motorcycle and vacation home.
NOBODY IS INFALLIBLE.
The single mother with 3 kids didn't have a motorcycle, a boat, or a vacation home. The family from the Reservation had 11 kids to take care of and had a wood burning stove to heat their house, the family at the start of the video lived in a dilapidated house that was obviously a work in progress. These were all people living withing their means or just getting by in very modest circumstances. And they got hosed so some stock holders could see a small gain in their holdings.
shango 066 brought me here my how things changed fighting to keep an American company in America no such thing today
just a peek at the disaster that was coming for the American worker.
Pre Michael Moore
Too hell with wall street and the banking sector
While one must have compassion for those who lost jobs in Sioux City, they were only a fraction of millions of American jobs that were lost over many decades, because of the failure of Washington to take the needed steps to keep jobs and trade within the USA. There is nothing we need that we shouldn't produce on our own. On the other hand, the union ideal that the purpose of business and government is primarily to *provide* jobs is totally false - that is a certain road to either fascism or socialism, which a free market cannot be. Remove the regulations from business to let it succeed, that's the beginning of the road back.
Great comment.
Why would any sabe person support domestic manufacturing? Tv used to be an expensive luxury item and now common to the masses
By 1978 98 % of US households had a TV. They became common place while being manufactured domestically.
I wish people had common sense. I like a Bentley and the price is to high we should pass a law saying Bentley needs to make 100,000 Bentleys . And every dollar they make is taxed 100% . Bentley will survive lol
This is how businesses close. Unions destroy productivity: ua-cam.com/video/m8IckAsGh1I/v-deo.html
I get 5:00 minutes in, & there's this union lackey telling these doomed workers , "they have
rights". WTF kind of rights can you sell or trade on wall street. in the market place, or anyplace else. You will always run the risk of being confronted by a "Bigger Fish".
WITH THE CRONA 19 YOUCANT BUY A FLAT PANIAL TV CHINA NOT SHIPPING THIM WHY CANT THE USA MAKE TVS AGIN.
This is what happens if you vote DEMOCRAT. Businesses leave. Congratulations... Democrats. Zenith should have relocated to the South. Texas or Mississippi would have been ideal. None the less, I feel sorry for those who lost their jobs back then.
+AgentPepsi1 If you do some actual research, you will find that if there is any blame to be attributed to a certain political party, you'll find that the culpability belongs to the other party.
+Dominic Martinelli Look at what happened to Detroit...YOU CAN'T BLAME THAT ON THE REPUBLICANS-! The DEMOCRATS had been running that city for decades and decades! For that matter, look at ANY city or state that has been under long-time control by the DEMOCRATS...draw your own conclusions!
Right, and look at poor Mississippi, a Republican state vs California, the richest state in the US, which is also Democrat voting. This really has to do with trade policies and education, both of which the Republicans are bad at.
Prathamesh Kulkarni if it had to with trade policies and education why did Zenith build it's plants in places like Iowa and not Boston or Stanford?Because Zenith at one time believed in its American employees and not outsourced them to dotheads like yourself
@@wroughtironmgtow9558 Nazi Trump Voter no doubt.
thank God we have Trump now where things like this are no longer going to happen America first
RIIIGHT, how's that been working out?
Thank you!
GTFO, it's only been 8 months and so far, Trump has over-delivered.. Trump 2020!
What's gonna happen after he's gone? Some corrupt politician will eventually take his place and start up the same, corrupt bullshit all over again.
2 years
Go ahead, blame it on Bush!
I have said this before and still it amazes me. You Americans publish a lot of, let's say nostalgic videos about a lot of things that are no more: Zenith, Pontiac, Pan American, you name it. But it were the very same Americans who let them die by preferring foreign brands and foreign made goods
+Alfons Llana , You don't understand nostalgia and looking back at the past? No one does that where you are from? For some people that post such things, it's a love of the brand by fans (such as Pontiac people), then there are people that post such things to remember their childhood and times when they were younger. I don't think drh4683 uploaded this for that specific purpose though, likely more because of his interest in old electronics and perhaps because he found it interesting and some of the people's comments still relevant today. I believe those that turned to Japanese cars in the 70's and 80's did so because they were not satisfied with the products being produced. Waving the flag only goes so far, average people look for the best quality for the best price. There was some anger then and much more now leveled toward corporate America.
As far as Walmart it isn't the only place with mostly foreign made stuff. Target stores are Walmart just a bit better window dressing. They sell the same stuff from China and other places. Look at the name brand clothes and where they are made. Stores that sell higher end clothes also have imported goods. The TV, your phone, the computer, all foreign made. When people continue to see great percentage rises on small items (say in the grocery store) while at the same times seeing the content being reduced one only feels anger at the slimy conglomerates in this country. If you want to point fingers and blame there is plenty to go around beyond that of the consumer, don't forget government policies, greedy corporations, and bad management decisions, when you speak on this topic.
*****
I didn't mean it to come across as ranting. Just stating my opinions too. Certainly most people are self absorbed into their own little world. And iphones, facebook, twitter have only made that worse. I guess "my rant" was just disgust at how things have become. I do feel sorry for people that try hard and only end up farther behind. I was reading an article about a guy going across the country asking people about their life and asking them about the "American Dream". Most folks born here viewed that as something unattainable. The most optimistic people were the illegal and legal immigrants. Anyway no anger meant toward you and your thoughts.
Sitting back high on your ass when the good times roll is Americas problem. Cheap labor is the result of stockholder greed.
Daddy Trump'll get those jobs back, fer sure!!! Just listen to what Dick Sturgeon thinks at 13:00.
Is that Al Sturgeon's brother?
I live about an hour from Sioux City and I can tell you that everyone calls it "Sewer City" and it's been called that for many decades.
Why did I keep picturing toilets while watching this?
Kermit the frog?