Yesterday my family joined the ever-growing group of Michigan families who now face an uncertain economic future due to lay-offs in the auto industry.
My dad's employer, once part of The Big Three, offered their employees age 50 and over a puny buyout package, with the hopes that 300-400 people take them up on it. Whispers around the office led most to believe that if the buyouts weren't taken, they'd still most likely be without a job, and the measly benefits. So as of August 1st, my dad will stay in Michigan, unemployed, with a mortgage, bills, and a very uncertain future. His job, like so many others, is heading to Mexico.
The news broke my heart and my spirit, just as it has for thousands others.
Here's what worries me most - like many other laid off auto workers, my dad's in his late fifties, with a bad back, arthritis starting to set in, and a minimal college education in auto repair, no thanks to the GI Bill. He can send me email, watch the funny YouTube videos I send him, but that's about as far as his computer skills go. With a crummy economy, how does my dad compete with all the hungry, tech-savvy college graduates that don't have families to support?
This is not the American Dream, this is the Auto Industry Nightmare.
My parents are surprisingly resilient. Their email to my siblings and I talked about how they knew that their faith would get them through this tough time, just as it had the other tough times, but even if it's the size of a mustard seed, we're going to need more than just faith to get through this.
This is a guy who spent his 19th birthday trapped in the jungle during monsoon season in Vietnam dodging bullets and bombs and who now can't even get the VA to pay for hearing aids from the damage.
This is also the same guy who, that despite getting the short end of the stick on a college education after returning home (also courtesy of the VA) went to work and got laid off as a state employee in the early 80's when the recession hit, later laid off in the early 90's by one of the other auto giants, and history repeats itself, yet again.
He's also the same guy that worked three jobs to make sure that us kids had clothes to wear and food on the table when times were tough.
More than anything, he's my hero - sacrificing time, money, and energy to be there for me when I was sick for over 10 years as a kid. And now this.
I'm smart enough to know this is not happening just to my dad. It seems like we hear about massive cuts and layoffs on a weekly basis in the Detroit Free Press and News, this plant's closing, another's cutting a shift. We hear about the cuts, we get that people are losing their jobs, but until it happens to you or someone you know, you rarely actually think about it.
I poignantly remember John Sternhagen's story as told by Governor Granholm during January's State of the State Address. John was a worker at the Electrolux plant in Greenville who lost his job when the company packed up and moved to Mexico. As the Governor described how John used the 'No Worker Left Behind' program to get retraining and now was making double his old salary as a registered nurse I remember instantly thinking of my dad, and wondering what he would do if he got laid off.
His buyout package will give him a little time to find something, but he's an extremely proud man, and I can only imagine how difficult it's going to be for him relearning how to write a resume, visiting the career center, and mostly just having to ask for help.
So many of my generation grew up when the Auto Industry was king, and a job in the sector meant that you had job security for life. It meant that if college wasn't for you, you could join your dad, mom, or other relative at the plant, on the line, and know that you had a good paying job. Now that's just a distant memory.
When we spoke last night, it killed me to hear my dad's false optimism, there solely for my benefit. He talked about how the local hardware store and Home Depot were hiring, and how maybe this would give him more time (but not money) to work on his projects around the house.
And yes, it's not just him. It used to be that almost 4 out of every 10 Michigan residents were employed by some sector of the Auto Industry. Now it feels like 4 out of 10 us know someone who's been laid off.
Being the eternal optimist I am, I need to find a silver lining somewhere in all of this. Being the bleeding heart blogger, I'm putting my family's story out there because I need people to remember this and to think about the people in your life who are in the same painful situation.
My family and I are hurting, the pile of tissues in my garbage can is evidence of that, but we're not foolish enough to blame it on the Governor or the current Legislature. This was a long time coming, set in motion many years ago.
So to the legislators, the policy-shapers, and the decision makers reading this - you've got a state budget to finalize. When you're voting to cut social programs like worker retraining and unemployment benefits, think twice about my dad, his co-workers, and the thousands like them, especially those you know. Think about them when you're about to vote on giving giant corporations special tax breaks that serve to line the pockets of CEO's making millions while the middle class slips right down the drain.
To the rest of us - remember this story and others like it when you go to the polls in the coming months. Who will truly fight for you in office? Is it the millionaire who's only slogan is tax cuts, war and thinly-veiled discrimination? Or is it the guy or gal who's been laid off before, or who has kids and knows what it's like to be without insurance, or who's been openly discriminated against?
We may only be individuals working hard every day to stay afloat, keep our jobs, food on the table, roof over our heads, but together we're a powerful force to be reckoned with, and we exercise it best when we head to the polls.