I know, I know, everyone’s opinion on the auto industry is that they got themselves into this mess with their mismanagement and whatnot, so let them get themselves out or go under or whatever.
I just can’t feel that way. Everything in me, ingrained in me my whole life, makes me want to scream out in agony at the state of the American auto industry. Let me explain.
I come from a family that’s been built on the auto industry. My paternal granfather retired from GM, after working there his whole life. My maternal grandfater retired from Oldsmobile, a GM owned brand, after working there since he was 17 years old! He spent his whole life helping to build that business, toiling away in a factory just to make a living for his family. Now, things are different. He wonders daily if they’ll cut his health benefits. What would they do if they lost their health insurance? Well, I can tell you that without the insurance my grandmother would have been in the grave by now. I can’t believe they’d even think about cutting out benefits promised to people who spent their lives building that business! I’m a bit pissed off about that part of things. Obama is a dick if he cuts those things with his “government taking over the auto industry” shit. Enough of that for now, that’s a whole different blog post.
My dad worked at Oldsmobile too. In the 80’s, when there were massive lay-offs due to the recession then, he was laid off. Do you know what GM did for him? They offered what essentially would be a buy out, though it wasn’t called that back then. They paid for him to go back to school. He’s now a corrections officer in Michigan, and has been for over 20 years. So, GM helped build my family at a very personal level too.
Want more? Paul worked at a tier 2 supplier that made auto parts and sound barriers before we moved to Indiana. We moved here because of the cut back in hours and work. We needed him to have a job that we could always count on the income. We couldn’t take the worry of whether there would eventually be lay offs or a further reduction in hours. When we met he worked 80 hours a week, when we left, he was working 40-45. That cut into the income immensely. So, here we are in Indiana.
There is more still to this story. I worked in the auto industry too before I hurt my back. I worked in quality control. My job was unique and often exciting and I rarely spent more than a few days in the same place before moving on. I went from factory to factory doing quality control on their parts and trying to figure out why they were having quality problems and fix the problems. Sometimes the job sucked too because sometimes I had to hand check every single fuckin’ part before it could get sent out the door. Do you know how tedious it can be to hand check seat belt bolts one by one to make sure that they are perfectly formed with no cracks or deformities? Well, I’ll tell ya, it fuckin’ sucks. But guess what else? Do you think that they’ll stick to those same rigid standard of safety when they can’t afford to hire people like me to do it?
Hell no. They won’t. They will do “spot checks” on their parts. They will check roughly 5% of the parts that go out the door and into the cars that you’ll one day drive. Would you want your seat belt bolted down with the one cracked bolt that someone like me wasn’t there to check?
How about your brakes? Don’t you think those things deserve to be hand checked to certify that they are up to standard? I know I want someone to check the brakes before I drive a car!
That’s how I got hurt by the way. Lifting brake drums made for trucks. Checking them one by one and putting my mark on them to ensure that not a single one went through without getting checked.
It’s sad to think how many people might die because of this kind of shit. There will be many deaths, I’ll guarantee it. How about all those auto families, just like the family I grew up in? How do you suppose that they’ll make ends meet when there are no jobs to be found? Do you think that they 300 and some odd dollars a week is enough to pay their bills. No, really it’s not. Their used to getting paid $15 dollars an hour or much much more. They are starving in Detroit, kids. Starving. I’m sad thinking about almost all of my friends in Michigan. Almost all of them work in the auto industry or they do some type of job that is related to the auto industry. This doesn’t just impact the auto workers. The state of Michigan is in total disarray. Everything is impacted, and impacted hard. Please keep them in your prayers, if you’re the praying type. Lord knows they sure do need it.
And once again, if Obama fucks with my people I’m going to be forced to get one of those “NObama” stickers for my car. So far, as cute as I think they are, I’ve refrained, but this would just push me over the edge.
The logic works for me, and my whining works on Paul, so there you have it.
