What is the importance of Mount Airy in the biography, Factory Man?

Bob Spilman, Bassett’s CEO, assigned John Bassett to run two merged plants in Mount Airy. He liked it when John wasn’t around. John Bassett ran the National Mount Airy plant and most former workers considered it a terrible place to work – low pay and bad conditions. The furniture makers in Mount Airy were craftsmen who resisted making furniture with machinery.