3 posts tagged “cityplanttour”
The Chronicle's only printing plant will be moving to only one shift a week, so this is the very last tour they gave. They will be primarily printing the paper at the Union City Plant from now until it closes, and eventually gets cut into parts for scrap. The place was sad, beautifully dated, and smelled like old car. Our guide said this was the "cozier one" of all the plants.
We saw the remnants of decorated workstations, to help the workers pass the time, with faded 'Trans-Am' posters, and holiday themed Jack-in-the-Box figurines, while on the assembly line. The stations cold from minimal use.
Like an ancient and dying army, the C.P. workers ran the presses with the precision skill of a samurai, but with the same unfortunate obsolete skillset that a swordsman would have today. Some people were kind, and proud to have an audience. While others seemed bitter, and saw us as voyeurs. Both were true. With that said, it was one of the rare places I've gone where everyone really seemed to know what they were doing.
A day and a half's supply of paper. One roll is about seven miles long. That means it would stretch from the Chron, at 5th & Mission, across the bay bridge, roughly.
These robots were precise, creepy, were not attached to anything, and looked kinda old. Meaning this type of technology has been around for a while. They were good little worker bees, and just went about their day. Until they shut the place down...
