Daily Times

There’s only one problem with living in a company town. When the company leaves, you lose something you could always count on.

In Tim Cullen’s new book, “Disassembled: A Native Son on Janesville and General Motors – a Story of Grit, Race, Gender, and Wishful Thinking and What it Means for America,” you get a good feel for the far-reaching impact.

Cullen will be in La Crosse on Wednesday to sign and discuss his new book.

GM had been making cars in Janesville since 1923, and at its peak employed about 7,100 employees there in the 1970s. When it closed in 2008, there were still 4,500 employees receiving good wages.

But Cullen reminds us that, in truth, that’s 4,500 families.

Add all the vendors and suppliers, and the closing sent pain throughout the community.

As a journalist and as someone who grew up in an industrial town in the Midwest, I well understand.

I covered the closing of agriculture-implement plants in the Quad-Cities in the 1980s during the era of high interest rates.

Through my reporting, I understood that these factory workers weren’t just losing a job.

For many at the International Harvester Farmall tractor plant in Rock Island, for instance, these were jobs that families counted on for generations. I interviewed third-generation Farmall workers who were suddenly adrift.

And psychologists who I interviewed told me that the loss included a sense of identity. “What do you do?” a person would ask. “I work at Farmall – like my grandfather and father did.”

I grew up in a west-central Illinois town (Galesburg) that lost huge employers to the economic winds and lower wages in Mexico – a transformation documented in the book. “Boom, Bust and Exodus – The Rust Belt, the Maquilas and a Tale of Two Cities.”

This is the second book by Cullen, who understood the loss in south-central Wisconsin from a variety of perspectives.

He found steady work at GM in Janesville during his summers off from college at Whitewater.

That’s back when a summer job could pay your tuition.

Cullen will be in La Crosse on Wednesday to sign and discuss his new book

But Cullen grew to have a community perspective as the state senator from Janesville.

He was appointed to the governor’s task force that worked quickly and tirelessly to convince GM to stay in Janesville.

He talked about Barack Obama’s visit to Janesville. (Obama visited my hometown multiple times.)

Ultimately, the recession of 2008, the challenges and subsequent bailout of GM – it was too much for those hoping to keep the aging Janesville plant open.

As the title says, Cullen’s book tells fascinating stories of race and gender equality in a manufacturing setting, featuring some real heroes who stood their ground.

Imagine being the only woman working in a manufacturing plant whose only restrooms is hundreds of yards away from your building.

Rest assured, she won many battles for equity, including pay.

Cullen also talks about the influence of the United Auto Workers and his admiration for UAW leader Walter P. Reuther.

Like most any native son, Cullen hopes readers won’t look down on his hometown.

He ends his book by writing: “Janesville and GM’s story of racial and gender bias are hardly an isolated situation. Who doubts that Janesville’s story and GM’s story in Janesville are similar to a significant number of other communities and factories in America? My hope is we are all making progress.”

Indeed. The plant was disassembled in 2019.