Files

Download

Download Full Text (307 KB)

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Randi Storch

Abstract

My essay discusses the end of Brockway Motor Company in Cortland, New York in 1977 and the events that lead to the shutdown of one of America's most dependable and iconic brands of heavy duty trucks. The death of Brockway Trucks represented not only a tremendous loss for the Cortland community, but also trends throughout the United States of consolidation and deindustrialization in American industry in the 1970s. Through an examination of local newspapers and employee accounts of labor disputes and conflict with Brockway's parent company, Mack, this essay explains how the company that produced "the most rugged truck in the world" so quickly disappeared and left an entire community feeling slighted and uncertain of its future.

Publication Date

5-2020

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Cortland NY, deindustrialization, manufacturing, Brockway Truck Company, Transformations, History

Disciplines

History | United States History

Strikes on Central Ave- The Closure of Brockway Motor Trucks and the End of Huskietown, USA

Share

COinS