This Newsnight feature reports on Hoover's decision to move vacuum cleaner production from Dijon in France to Cambuslang in Scotland.
Sadly Cambuslang is now closed and all production has been moved to China.
Below is an article taken from www.rutherglenreformer.co.uk.
THE final chapter in the history of Cambuslang's Hoover factory is underway.
Three years after the once-bustling plant closed its doors, work is now underway on the demolition of the building.
Having once employed 5600 people at its peak in 1974, before the final production line employees ceased work on Friday, July 22, 2005, as the line moved to China.
The closure of the Hoover factory brought an end to 49 years of an association with Cambuslang.
In 1943, the Ohio-based Hoover company moved into the Farme Cross area of Rutherglen, operating a factory that made equipment for Lancaster and Halifax Bombers.
But three years later, the worldwide expansion of Hoover saw the opening of the Cambuslang plant.
A total of 428 people were employed at the 85,000-square foot factory, producing horse-power motors.
Then, in 1956, manufacture of the basic canister vacuum cleaner was moved from Perivale in London, to Cambuslang.
After this, production of the company's domestic appliances would be centred on Cambuslang.
The plant doubled in size to 176,000 square feet four years later, with almost 1700 locals employed by the company.
In 1974, after almost three decades of expansion, the Hoover factory in Cambuslang reached its zenith, with 5600 people relying on it for employment.
The massive workforce also brought economic benefits to the surrounding area. For the last 10 years, the factory had been expanding at a rate of 80,000 square feet per year and it was estimated that one million square feet of Cambuslang belonged to Hoover.
Things took a turn for the worse in 1974/75, as arguments over pay schemes threatened to end production at the Hoover factory and an eight-week strike brought with it a warning of things to come.
1978 was a bleak economic year for the company again threatens jobs at the Cambuslang factory, with high absenteeism among the workforce also causing problems.
In the preceding year, 635 jobs were axed at the factory in Hoover's first major round of redundancies. The following year was no better and, by the end of the decade, the workforce had been halved to just 2950.
It was a dark year for the Cambuslang factory in 1981. It started brightly with the prospect of more full-time jobs at the factory. However, over the following 12 months, nearly 1000 people lost their jobs.
The plant, which only six years previously boasted a workforce of over 5000, had only 1700 workers left. Workers were also left stunned when the company informed them they face wage cuts of up to 10 per cent and many employees saw their hours slashed.
There was a small glimmer of hope in 1982 when the company moved production from their Perivale plant in England to Cambuslang, guaranteeing the immediate future of the plant.
A workers' roll showed 1714 people employed in total by the Cambuslang factory in 1985, which now covered 750,000 square feet. But by 1991, this number read only 1160. Two years later, the Cambuslang factory celebrated a victory when Hoover decided to switch 400 jobs from their Dijon factory to Cambuslang.
In 1995, workers were left in the dark when the company was taken over by Italian group Candy in a deal worth $170m. At this stage, the plant employed 1500 but the new Italian owners started to slowly erode the workforce. Only 350 workers remained at the once-great plant in 2003. Competition from China looked set to finally end Cambuslang's 47-year association with Hoover and in October the company enter into consultation with workers. With the end seemingly nigh, the workers rally and local politicians brokered a deal to keep around 100 production jobs in Cambuslang.
But in 2005, Hoover announced the final end to production at Cambuslang as the line was moved to China.
On July 22, 49 years after it first opened, the Hoover plant closed its doors for the last time.
Glasgow-based Dawn Developments own the site of the former Hoover plant.
It is understood they are looking at the creation of a new residential development. They are in discussions with Cambuslang Rangers, whose Somervell Park backs onto the Hoover site, to build the junior club new premises.
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