GM and Future Uncertainty

We have been in the throes of humid summer heat these past couple weeks. Living in Western New York for 45 years I think it is an inbred trait to want to be in the open air whenever possible. I was raised in not spending time in the house when it was nice outside. There was the entire winter and then some to be under “house arrest”. I remember back to how I hated having the storm windows installed in the fall as that meant I would no longer be able have my bedroom window wide open.

However, when the mercury is in the upper 90’s and the heat indexes are way past 100°, pushing yourself outside under those conditions can be dangerous.

These past few days I have been staying in the house and have actually had the air conditioning running. Long overdue cleaning has been my life.

Rumblings are going on that General Motors may be forced into chapter 7 bankruptcy. This bodes ill for my future. If the pension guarantee arm of the government takes over my pension, I’ll lose just about half of my benefit. I always expected GM to not fulfill the promise made of "30 years and out" retirement. I’ve been enough of a realist to have seen the writing on the wall.

When I first started writing here back in 2001 I chronicled much of my factory life as it unfolded. There were retrospective entries of the plants back in Lockport. This morning I was trying to locate an elusive note left on my journal many years ago. Rereading some of those early entries brought back a flood of memories.

What did not get conveyed in those entries was what working in that factory could do to a person. It was not till the early 1990’s at our plant things began to change. For example: making jobs ergonomically correct, and addressing noise suppression in the loudest parts of the factory.

There was no such thing as air conditioning in the NY plant. How many afternoons did we go into 100°+ heat to work the afternoon shift? Back then we were not allowed to have fans in out work areas because the agitated air could blow dirt into your eye. It was with reluctance I was issued ear plugs by the medical department. I threatened to call the union if they were not given to me. (Years later my area was reassessed for noise and wearing earplugs became mandatory for everyone for the entire shift. Because of my early intervention I still have pretty much all my hearing.)

Grinding fiberglass was the worst job in the heat of summer. Long sleeves, dust masks, safety glasses with side shields were the uniform. Even with taping up shirtcuffs, that fiberglass would work its way into your sweating skin causing rashes and itching.

Working a repetitive job day after day, year after year can atrophy your mind. Production workers in the shop were the bottom of the barrel. This was back in the “bad old days”. GM was the leader, the supervisors were full of themselves and any opportunity to shit on us was done with a vengeance. In high school the kids going to college looked down on us, we were people too “stupid” to get into a good school.

I realized factory culture early on and developed coping mechanisms that served me well for my 30 year run with GM. The light at the end of the tunnel was to be retired early enough to travel and truly enjoy life on my terms while I still had good years left to live.

Living below my means, along with saving and investing, I thought I’d be able to have all my bases covered no matter what happened. Who ever expected the entire economy and country to implode?

I think back on how I devoured the book Gone With the Wind back in the spring 1968. There are so many life lessons that can be learned from that tome outside the soap opera of Scarlett and her real and perceived loves and hates.

Scarlett has refugeed home from the burning of Atlanta. Ellen, her mother is dead, her father is bewildered and useless. Trying to run the plantation Scarlett realized how she was taught all the wrong things to survive in a world turned upside down. Well, our world has been turned upside down: I can relate to have been taught all the wrong things for the ugly mess were are currently living in..