Plant Closing
Professor Goodman interviews a group of workers and union leaders who worked at a high performance Nabisco bakery plant in Pittsburgh until its closure in November 1998.
The video explore the workers’ expectations from the time they started working at Nabisco thirty years earlier to the sudden closing of the plant by a new top management team. The workers explain how, just before the closure, they were encouraged to give suggestions on how to improve production and cut costs at the facility. At the core of the video is the notion of psychological contract, that is, understandings regarding the obligations between employees and employers.
The video is broken into 3 parts: 1. Formulation and development of the psychological contract. 2. New forms of labor and management relationships. 3. Impact of high performance on the psychological contract. The video also includes photographs of the workers’ protests.
See also: Plant Opening, on the reopening of the facility under new ownership.