Abstract
The Last Cruze is a collection of photographs and interviews of workers and their families in the final days of the General Motors plant producing Chevrolet Cruzes in Lordstown, Ohio. The company had made commitments to manufacture the Cruze until 2021. However, in 2018, GM abruptly informed the workers at the Lordstown plant that the company would be shifting priorities towards other vehicle types, like electric, and overseas production. Workers were told that the company was “unallocating” the factory, a word fabricated to upend existing contractual agreements with the union.
The author, LaToya Ruby Frazier, successfully captures the final days of the Lordstown, Ohio, GM plant by concentrating on the workers and socioeconomical impacts of the plant closure. It provides a snapshot into the broader issue of well-paying union manufacturing jobs being lost in the United States. The reader is provided with not just narratives from the assembly line but also the consequences of labor loss to a community.
Frazier begins with photographs and interview excerpts from the exhibition from which this book is based. There are a series of conversations between the United Autoworkers (UAW) local members and leadership. The book then delves into perspectives of labor history from contributions of other authors. There is a section dedicated to a timeline of the labor movement (pp. 193–224) and another on “how to organize a union in your workplace” (pp. 225–228). Dialogues between leaders in labor and the author are shared, including a captivating discussion with Senator Sherrod Brown and academy-award winning filmmaker Julia Reichert (pp. 333–344).
You can hear the solidarity of the workers powerfully summed up, for instance, in the statement that “unions are the reason that you can’t say, I think I’ll take Diane's job today. No, you can’t, because my job is protected by the union” (p. 48). Readers are also drawn in with stories of not just the workers and representatives but also their families. One such example includes the daughter of UAW local 1112 President David Green sharing her frustrations on responding to a political tweet by then-President Donald Trump (p. 12). Along with stories of solidarity and family, there are accounts of grief: “I have to fight back my tears…I have to stay strong for my kids…I can’t really show emotion because I don’t want them to be scared” (p. 60). The workers often describe having to make the difficult decision to uproot their lives and take an involuntary transfer to a different location—if not, then they lose their benefits and pension: “They didn’t give us any warning…they gave us no time to save up money or make a backup plan” (p. 20).
Ultimately, Frazier finds a way to humanize The Last Cruze by focusing on the workers and the community. This is not a collection of just photographs of automobiles and people but a narrative that captures labor and struggle. Frazier uses the photographic lens and interviews to combat stigmas surrounding the workers, their trade, and unions in a way that will resonate with the reader long after the final pages. The Last Cruze provides not just an ideal coffee table book but also an instrument for labor organizers and a reflection of the labor movement.