Workers who had jobs related to the General Motors Chevy Cruze factory stand in front of the Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant. Left to right: Cicero Davis, 54, worked at GM for two years. Scott Mezzapeso, 47, worked at Magna, a GM supplier, for eight years before he was laid off last summer. Nicole Thompson, 24, worked at GM for a year and was laid off in 2017. Mike Bajnok, 58, worked at GM for nearly 10 years. He tried to do a retraining program but dropped out after the first week.
“To be 100 percent honest, I thought I would be laid off for a few months and then go back to work,” Mezzapeso said. “At 47, I’m too old to go back to school.”Most jobs Mezzapeso sees pay half of what he used to earn. His 1999 Chevy Tahoe gets lousy gas mileage, making it difficult to take a low-paying job a long drive away.
When Mike Bajnok lost his $30-an-hour GM job last summer, he followed the state of Ohio’s advice and used TAA to enroll in a program to become a “CNC machinist,” the technical term for a computer numeric controlled machinery worker who can do a little programming to run big robots in factories.“I just didn’t get it. From Day One, I was lost,” says Bajnok, who is 58. “The instructor told us to put in the flash drive. My skills are so bad, I had to ask him how to do that.
The state of Ohio has set up a fully staffed transition center at the United Automobile Workers Local 1112 union hall in Lordstown, where experts such as Alexander help people through their options for life after GM. Many workers he meets walked out of high school and into the factory. They have never made a résumé before, let alone filled out an online job application.
A GM spokesman said that these were “tough decisions” and that “virtually any employee who wants a job will have a job” at another plant, although that does not apply to suppliers, and he mentioned only 2,700 available positions right now — amid layoffs at five big plants. But Davis was at GM for only two years before the layoffs hit, and he was still considered a temporary worker, meaning he was paid about $20 an hour versus $30 for permanent employees. He felt less loyalty to the company and was one of the few workers at the plant driving a Honda, not a U.S. brand.
'It takes time to sink in' At the union hall transition center, Alexander, the workforce development assistant, asks workers a litany of questions about their skills, how far from home they are willing to travel for a job, whether they would consider going back to school and how much money they need to pay their monthly mortgage, car payment, child care and more.
Old news
As usual Fake News
MAGA really? realDonaldTrump VP GOP
Current economic data shows that the economy is look warm at best. Only truck sales showed growth in 2018 but not enough to stem very weak car sales. Only one quarter of decent gdp in 2018.
Ya, the 98% of America!
Kaacee352 realDonaldTrump All this winning; I don't think we can stand it much longer. I have an idea, why don't you threaten Angela Merkel with tariffs on German cars built here in the USA....that'll help a lot!
It will get worse. Unskilled labor becomes replaceable with automation, further lowering the value of the unskilled worker. Those screaming for a higher minimum wage are simply pushing the unskilled below the level of employability.
Where's that $11 million you still owe us, chumps?
No. Times are great!
'Hot economy' for profit-takers on Wall Street, maybe. The rest are paying their utility bills at Walmart.
Keep voting for the Fraud president..
Automation will take away millions of jobs in the near future & people need to prepare. The Walmart near me got rid of 90% of Cashiers & put in self-check out lanes. Those jobs will never come back. Young people need to make smart decisions when choosing a career path.
Wow, So what part of the “trickle down” economic model is this? We have a saying in Kansas “Don’t Piss Down My Back and tell Me it’s Raining”. I do believe we’ve have an answer. P.S. in the 90’s I went from 27 to 15. Hard to think I spent the last 20 climbing back
The Cruze was a loser!
Is it the economy or the product that is driving this. U.S. automakers have to produce products the public wants.
but the Donald sai—
Wasn’t GM bailed out with our tax dollars? They are betraying their workers now but it’s a lesson for our government to stop interfering with private businesses- especially bailouts.
Unions my friend, unions!!! They are natural job killers in this country and establish today so that union leaders & politicians can get rich off of hard working Americans.
Sometimes it's hard to see the writing on the factory wall behind the rust and the selective memories of the past...
More tRumpty Dumpty winning?
It is not the economy, it is incompetent management at the top
So much trickling.
Unions suck
Smh
So how do we justify $15 for flipping burgers?
What!?!?! You mean the trillion dollar tax cut for the top 1% and random tariffs didn’t fix it all I don’t understand!
Wow 😮
But the tax cuts?
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