ABSTRACT
To review, in the 1980s a dramatic wave of lay-offs and plant closings among the
Connecticut River Valley’s largest machine-tool and metalworking manufac-
turers led to rapid industrial decline and massive dislocation for several thousands
of the region’s best-paid workers. The people who did the work and the trade
unions that represented them became extinct. Compounding the situation, there
were nearly two decades of hapless efforts by various local and state governments
to overcome employment loss and build some sort of sustainable economy.
Springfield, Massachusetts, the hardest hit city, fell into serious disrepair. Corrupt
officials exacerbated the problem and caused residents, already cynical about
their government, to become even more disenchanted with city leaders. Its
once-powerful agglomeration of skills and innovative firms depleted, Springfield
staggered, nearly bankrupt, into the new century.1
