With the exception of angry protests in Europe, where five factories were closed, workers greeted their termination with quiet resignation.
In downtown Los Angeles, where most of the dispensaries were included in the order to close, workers were renovating the storefront of the Downtown Collective.
Processing plants were closed, workers laid off and finances restructured, allowing Pilgrim's Pride to emerge from bankruptcy protection in less than 13 months.
In the 60s when a strike was organised because a plant was to be closed, workers had to speak first with their spouses.
"We're still dealing with the most basic of issues, apartments and businesses being closed, workers being laid off, people moving out," she said.
At the opposing end of each cylinder, which is closed, workers have drilled a narrow hole into which a.22-caliber blank cartridge, of the sort used in a starter pistol at a track meet, is inserted.
Now, with Venezuela's economy in the throes of its worst year in decades, plants have closed, workers have been laid off, and the grass is overgrowing in the industrial parks here.
Factories closed, workers were out of jobs, and economies shrank.
And however good for the environment, its decline casts a shadow on the coal-patch towns where mines have been closing and workers have been getting laid off.
In one sign that the conclave is coming closer, workers on Tuesday closed off to tourists the location of the vote, the Sistine Chapel.
