I started this once and lost it so I'm trying again.
This is my story, I'm not sure I'll be good at it but I'm sure I'll feel better after I get it off my chest. I'm what you call displaced I guess, that's what I'm told. I'm 57 years old and I worked the same job for 30 years until my world came crashing down.
I worked all kinds of jobs when I was young, bar jobs, nursing home jobs, just your run of the mill, hard working, low paying jobs. I always had a job, I've worked since I was probably 13. This particular job I begged for, I tried as hard as I could for this job, I was 25 when I got this job, still not too smart I guess. I called Bruning Hydraulics every Thursday for two years, I don't remember why it was on a Thursday but there must have been a reason. Finally the H.R. manager said "I think we have a job for you," I couldn't believe it, I was so excited, it was the grave yard shift but I would be making $4.00 and hour and 10% incentive for working that shift. I thought I was something getting that job, I had a daughter at that time that was 4, it was tough leaving her every night at bedtime to go off to work, drive 25 miles in the dark ,by myself but my husband was there with her, I remember so many times driving home at 7:30 a.m. after working all night, driving east and having the sun in my eyes, trying to stay awake so I could go home get my daughter up and take her to a sitter so I could sleep and then go pick her up again. I worked nights for a couple of years, I was lucky most my coworkers worked for years before they could bid off and get a day job. I was laid off a couple of times, once for a short time and then again when I was pregnant with my son in 1982, that was a longer time, they cancelled my medical insurance when I was 7 months pregnant, they had told me no problem, you can keep your insurance but for some reason I was cancelled and it was rough. My husbands job had been bought out so he had just changed insurance companies, thank God they were good enough to carry me, I don't know how we would have paid for a baby, even back then it wasn't cheap. Anyway, that all worked out and I was called back in 1983, I gladly went back, I was probably making over $6 an hour by then.
This company had been bought and sold 5-7 times until it was bought by a big company in 1988, I think the buying and selling in those years was mainly for these companies to have a tax write off. I don't feel I can name the company that bought us in 88, they would probably sue me, seriously..... We were a well known company for hydraulic couplers and cylinders used in agriculture and constructions by big name companies. We were good at what we did. They sold off the cylinder business after a few years because they only made about 7 million a year on that, pretty much everyone that that was a bad move but we had no say. That caused a lot of people to be moved to different areas and take pay cuts and lots of discontent among the workers. It was rough to say the least.
I hurt my back there in probably 1990 and was sent to shipping as a light duty job, now you might think shipping? Light duty? Right you are, made no sense to me either but I worked back there for a long time, anyway, cut to the chase, sometime in June of 2010 it was posted we were having a meeting, it's mandatory, even if you are on vacation, you need to be there, it's a much. right away I started to have a funny feeling, like maybe something really bad was going to happen, but many times before I had heard rumors about the place closing or a layoff so really I wasn't too nervous. That day, I will never forget, it's burned in my memory. There were about 4 or 5 guys that walked in, these guys like to dress alike, I'm serious, dark pants, light blue or white shirts and a tie. I always thought of them as like the Stepford Wives but only the male version. Most of them were too wrapped up in themselves to even talk to you, the common worker, I have to say we had one division manager that was really nice, he moved up quickly, back to my story. They walked in, all eyes were downcast not looking at anyone. Pretty much they told us that the plant was closing, they were moving everything up North where all the other plants are. I think I was in such shock I don't remember much except to think what the hell am I going to do now? I'm 55, no job and I've pretty much ruined my body because of the hard work and being on cement all those years. The told us not to say we were fired or let go but that we were displaced, I still wonder where they placed me except in a bad, bad, spot.
I guess our Division Mgr. came up with a great plan to move everything north and have all the factories up there, I was told and I don't know if this is a fact, but that it cost a fortune to get it all done and things are not going that well up there with the products we made in Lincoln. Where they move our line of products they only made a few different things, we made hundreds in Lincoln. I am told we got a good severance package, I don't know how you put a price on a lifetime of work but I guess they did. There were many, many people that had been there longer than I had. If you wanted to move up north they would give you $15,000, you had to stay a year to be able to keep that money, I'm not sure how many moved, not many, maybe 10 out of 200. To be honest, I haven't really talked to anyone that went with them but I hear it's not easy for them.
This is the beginning of my story.
No comments:
Post a Comment