May 17, 1998
I no longer have to hide under semi-trailer trucks to
shoot news pictures of major industries...and that is a big step forward
in overcoming the seemingly traditionally adversarial relationship between
big business and working journalists.
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While this photo of assembly line workers at Chrysler's Kenosha,
Wisconsin, Engine Plant seems innocuous, it might not have been
possible to shoot 10 years ago. This time, all I had to do to
get into the plant and spend a half hour taking pictures for the
local angle of the historic Daimler-Benz/Chrysler merger was to
pick up a phone and work out the best time to have someone guide
me through the plant.
It was not always this easy. This plant used to be the American
Motors auto assembly plant. In 1986, in another historic agreement,
AMC agreed to build Chrysler M-model cars (the Chrysler Fifth
Avenue, Dodge Diplomat, and Plymouth Gran Fury) in the same plant
as its Renault Alliance models. Chrysler bought AMC a year later,
and closed the auto assembly line in 1988, but at the time this
co-production was our big story.
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Dale Soden, right, and Ruth Bebo work on one of two engine assembly
lines at the Chrysler engine plant in Kenosha, Thursday May 7.
1998. They are assembling 4.0 litre, in-line six-cylinder Jeep
engines. Some of the engines will be exported. Auto giants Daimler-Benz
and Chrysler announced a merger Thursday.
Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine Journal Times, ©1998
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We got a letter advising us that Job One would come off
the line on a certain date, and we were invited to photograph it. That
was the only time and way we could get into the plant to cover this
aspect of the story. Great...except that a week or two before that date,
we learned that M-cars had been pouring off the line for weeks. It seemed
that Job One was a fictitious "photo op."
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This is the photo that was taken from the sidewalk outside the
AMC plant, through an open door, because of restricted access
to the assembly plant in 1987: A Chrysler Fifth Avenue is given
a final inspection at the end of the American Motors assembly
line February 23, 1987 in Kenosha, Wis. American Motors and Chrysler
signed an historic agreement in September to have AMC build Chrysler's
"M" body cars in the same plant as its own Renault Alliance
model. Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine Journal Times, ©1998
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I was assigned to go to Kenosha and photograph the lot full of
Chrysler products being loaded onto those auto transport trucks
across the street from the plant. I did that...and then noticed
a garage door at one end of the plant which opened to let the finished
cars be driven out to the parking lot. The door stayed open long
enough so that I could stay on the public sidewalk and shoot into
the plant, showing the final inspection at the end of the assembly
line. Bingo! We had our own assembly line photo without waiting
for the company handlers to steer us toward the fake Job One photo
shoot. The photo ran in the paper and on the Associated Press photo
network. I got a worried call from the plant manager the night the
photo ran. He demanded to know who had let me into the plant. He
was getting heat from somewhere On High. He was relieved when I
explained that I had been shooting from the sidewalk, and not from
within the plant. |
But what about hiding under semi-trailers, the hook I
used to bring you into this story? We used to have a terrible relationship
with the Case Corporation, manufacturers of farm tractors and construction
equipment, and one of Racine's biggest employers. One day a decade or
more ago, our then-photo editor got a tip that Case's latest product,
a monster of a machine, would be rolled out of their AV facility at
a certain time for a photo shoot. Case would never agree to let us on
premise, so after scouting the area, I found my vantage point...I sat
for hours under a semi-trailer parked in the Army Reserve lot next to
the Case AV facility.
No one at Case could see me, and with a long lens I could
make out the outline of my prey inside the building. It was too dark
in the building to get a photo, and I waited in vain for it to be driven
outside. I didn't get my picture...until a week later when I happened
to catch one being driven through town on an uncovered trailer and grabbed
a shot of it.
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Let's jump ahead 12 years with Case and see how much things have
changed. Laura Sumner Coon, our business editor, learned in late
1995 that new jobs were coming to Racine with a new product, the
MX tractor line. This new tractor represented just the tip of
new product development, and was to be jointly developed and built
with Case folks in Doncaster, England. It was a world product
to be introduced to dealers in February, 1997.
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Jeff Loken, left, Don Dillonaire,and Malcolm Bloodworth, who
is from the Doncaster, England plant, lower the cab of a prototype
tractor in the Blue Room in the Racine plant August 30, 1996.
Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine Journal Times © 1997
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Tim Loucks, center, project manager, leads an MX product launch
meeting October 29, 1996 at the plant in Racine. One of the topics
discussed was the logistics of shipping prototype tractors to
California where they would be photographed for publicity and
advertising purposed under tight security. Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine
Journal Times © 1997
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An MX 120 is put through its paces as dealers and customers test
drive MX and other tractors in a dusty desert field on the Gila
Indian reservation in Chandler , Az., Thursday January 30, 1997.
Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine Journal Times © 1997
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She persuaded the company to let her
tell the story of how such a product comes about, embargoing the
story until the dealer introduction. She even flew to England in
March, 1996, to watch prototypes being hand assembled in a secret
area of the plant, and being field tested by selected farmers. But
what about photos? I proposed that if Case would let me in the plant
in Racine I would leave my film behind with Case folks, to ensure
that the photos would not get out until an agreed upon day. They
accepted the offer, and I started shooting the new tractor in its
developmental stages in August, 1996. |
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Laura and I covered the first dealer intro at a spectacular show,
with pyrotechnics, in the desert near Phoenix in early February,
1997...weeks ahead of the trade press. Three weeks later we went
to press with a six-part series that told the story of this new
tractor.
Cooperation and trust between the companies and us became a win-win
situation...they got their news out, and we got our stories and
photos.
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The Case MX series made its debut amid a shower of pyrotechnics
at a dealer show near Phoenix, Az., Wednesday January 29, 1997
Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine Journal Times © 1997
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I do have one more industrial photo story, one in which
I was a real sneak, but, hey, what could I do? In the mid-80s a reporter
and I were invited to the AMC test track to cover the dealer intro of
the Renault Alliance. The signage at the track was poor, and we got
lost. There was no one to guide us through the complex and we suddenly
saw a prototype of the current Jeep, which was then a year or so from
introduction. Sorry, AMC...you should have had better signs and security...I
got a few quick frames off before anyone saw us, and continued on our
way. Surprisingly, we never heard a peep from AMC after the photo was
published.
Mark Hertzberg
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