This One Is Personal

I don’t normally crosspost things I post on Reconstitution 2.0, but this particular story speaks directly to me, because I’ve been where these people are now, and I feel absolutely awful for them. You don’t get rich, or even comfortable, doing what they do for a living, and now they’re losing the minimal living they had.

This is so saddening, and infuriating.

Some of you know what I do for a living now, although most of you don’t. This post is about what I used to do for a living.

I actually worked for the sister company to the one highlighted in this CNN article for 4 years. The tightest it ever got for us was in the stock market crash of 1987, when the company wound up having to lay people off. Then, as now, there was a heavy GM component to the company’s business; the plant mentioned in this article did mainly leaf springs, while I worked in a plant that did things like horn caps, air bag caps, and brake check valves. I worked back in the warehouse, and when I left the company I was the shipping coordinator and the purchaser of raw materials, with 3 people reporting to me. That isn’t to say I spent all day in the office; I usually worked the floor for the better part of every day, and if something had to go early or late I generally either came in or stayed late myself. It could be a hard day’s work sometimes, but I enjoyed it. I probably would never have left if the pay had been better, or the benefits; as things were, neither was enough. But nearly 20 years after I walked out the door for the last time, I can still say that this was my favorite job, and the people I worked with were the best. I’ve never worked harder, but I’ve also never worked with better folks.

There is a dignity that comes from honest work that scum like Chimpy will never understand. Having to actually earn your money makes you feel better about it. It makes you feel better about YOURSELF. The flip side, of course, is that if you suddenly find yourself not able to work, it takes a toll on you as a person. The idiotic wingtards that talk about unemployment extensions or welfare benefits “discouraging” workers from working wouldn’t understand any of this, because many of them have lived their entire lives without knowing what honest work actually means to a worker. We don’t want unemployment benefits, and we don’t want welfare. We want the satisfaction that comes with making our own way in the world.

Of all the stories of misery coming out of The Bush Economic Miracle, this one is the most personal for me. I understand what these folks are saying, and I feel for them. I don’t have any trouble at all imagining myself in their positions.

The folks working at Jamestown Industries’ Moraine Plant 2 near Dayton, Ohio, have the weary, haunted look of terminally ill patients, only it’s their livelihoods that are about to die.

Jamestown Moraine warehouses prepare and deliver parts to the General Motors Moraine Assembly truck plant. When the GM plant closes for good on December 23, so will Jamestown Moraine. Sixty-four people will lose their jobs at the supplier, the last of a workforce that once numbered 200.

GM Moraine Assembly once employed about 5,000 people, churning out Chevrolet Trailblazer, GMC Envoy and even Saab SUVs. About 1,000 will clock out for the last time next month.

Thousands more worked for small suppliers in the Dayton area for whom GM was the only customer.

“I’ve got the house I’ve got to pay for. I’ve got the car payment, I’ve got clothes and I’ve got to give the dog a little food — and you throw in kids? It’s bad for everybody,” said Tony Murphy, a foreman who operates a forklift at Jamestown Moraine.

Murphy said he knows the pain goes well beyond his own family and even his own hometown.

“It’s going to be a big ripple effect on everyone,” he said, “because when they first closed the first two shifts down, it was devastating then, but this, right here, will seal the nail on the coffin.

“Not only is it going to affect where I work, it’s going to affect retail. It’s going to affect the mom-and-pop shops. It’s even going to affect people all the way up in Michigan because they bring those parts that are sent over there to GM,” he said.

Leaders of GM, as well as Ford and Chrysler, are lobbying Congress for $25 billion in assistance to stave off bankruptcy. Without federal help, they say, the pain of Moraine could be repeated across the country.

But even if Congress acts, Moraine is done two days before Christmas. GM announced its closure — along with plants in Janesville, Wisconsin; Oshawa, Ontario; and Toluca, Mexico — in June.

Anticipating unemployment, Kevin Howard, Murphy’s co-worker, said he’s cutting his own hair, skipping dental checkups, brown-bagging leftovers for lunch and wearing $5 T-shirts instead of sturdier work clothes. He said he used to wear a gold earring, but he sold it to raise cash.

Unemployment compensation is about 50 percent less than workers’ regular pay, and Howard said COBRA health insurance is beyond his means.

“All it takes is about two weeks falling behind, and I’m in debt. And a month — I’m really in debt,” said Howard, 55, whose children, grandchildren and mother depend on his soon-to-disappear income. “I’m a diabetic. I don’t know where I’m going to get my medicine after this.”

Moraine is the only GM plant in the United States represented by a union other than the United Auto Workers. Its legacy as a former Frigidaire appliance factory puts its workers, along with its suppliers’ workers, in an electrical union, the IUE-CWA.

GM employees received buyouts of as much as $140,000, but suppliers’ employees get no compensation when they’re cut loose, said Kaine Goodwin, the business manager for IUE Local 755 in Dayton.

“We get no severance pay, and they’re not going to bail us out,” said Howard, his voice rising and eyes widening. “Somebody should bail us out. We’re the ones suffering. … We don’t have a dime. We’re gone. Goodbye.”

Now I’ve heard wingtard morons like John Cornyn talk about the problem with GM being that workers are compensated too well. I can assure Cornyn, Shelby, and the rest of the worker-hating idiots in the Senate that THESE workers aren’t doing all that well for themselves. You might be able to make enough to get by at a place like JI, but you sure as hell aren’t going to get rich, and the benefits that come with the job aren’t all that, either. High deductibles, large out of pocket costs for things like prescription drugs, and a vacation system that is tiered, meaning you will work your first five years getting a week’s vacation a year. I know this is a generalization, but I’m betting it fits more often than not in the case of GM’s suppliers.

Folks like those at Jamestown Industries are losing their jobs, and there doesn’t appear to be anything on the horizon for them. There is nothing on the horizon for them because Chimpy’s policies have sucked the wealth out of all but about the top 2 % of income-earners in this country, so these days even the basics are hard to come by-FORGET about something like a car. Hopelessness as far as the eye can see, as the careers and lives of untold millions are permanently ruined.

Heckuva job, Chimpy. I hope you and your peers enjoy all the money you got from your policies.