Let Me Get This Off My Chest

This is my seventh and I think final post regarding the closing of the factory and the events following, beginning with the announcement of the closing in late July, and ending with me finding meaningful employment. It has been quite an emotional rollercoaster ride, with a few highs and a few more lows, lost sleep and tears shed. I feel like one of the lucky ones, I’m still on my feet and now putting my life back in order, if in a slightly different direction. Many of my former coworkers are still looking for their own personal different direction. I wish them all the best. I feel for them.

Let's call this a venting (although if I don't control myself, it could easily become a rant.) The events that transpired over the last seven or more months since the announcement of the closing have been, to say the least, a bit unpleasant and stressful for my family and me. I have largely kept my cool throughout this, but it has not been without effort. Much of what has transpired has been aggravating, annoying, and frustrating. I try to not place blame, but I've heard of so many injustices to some of my co-workers and myself, it drives me up the proverbial wall. I'll try to keep this mostly limited to my own experiences, however, when I use others’ examples I will keep those fellow sufferers anonymous. Most of my sources here are my own experiences obviously, but also a few are those I've gleaned from a private Facebook group of folks who are suffering the from same fate as I am.

Looking For Work:

It was 1989 when I last wrote my résumé, and I really only needed to add one item: my 26 years at Mitsubishi. But so much had changed in more than 2½  decades, job searching was an entirely different animal. More competition for each and every job, no matter how basic it may seem. More individuals, not just the 1000+ from my former workplace, seeking not necessarily a cadillac job, but just a means to put food on the table, keep a roof overhead, and keep the lenders at bay. At this stage in my life I found myself ill-prepared for a job search, despite all the hours spent at workshops on résumés, cover letters, interviewing, etc. As of March 1, I had submitted well over 50 applications, all but one of those on-line. Of those applications, I got the opportunity to interview for a grand total of three. Yes. Three. Perhaps some of the fault lies in me, I've avoided any position paying less than ten dollars per hour (there are quite a few of those), and sales positions wherein most of the pay is based on commission. Oh, and if I may, a note to those businesses who accept applications. Please, if I don't meet your expectations or qualifications, tell me. I promise, I don't consider it a put-down, but rather more of a common courtesy. While I eagerly await an email saying I can interview with you (or even better, an offer of employment), I would still prefer to hear a rejection over silence. This is my livelihood in the balance, and I just want to know. Something, anything, but please let me know.

Roadblocks:

Through this job search, a few disturbing things have come to light. While none of these statements that follow have been uttered to my face, they were all related to me by sources I consider very reliable. Strike One: One potential employer that a friend suggested to me accepted my résumé, read it, and promptly refused to consider me. Why? Because “He'll never be satisfied with what we pay.” I think that the decision of what I'll be satisfied with is up to me, and if you would give me a chance, I'll tell you that. I don't need the wages I was accustomed to receiving, in fact I am quite aware of the fact that I will never get near that level again. But at this stage in my life, I am financially stable as long as I can generate a reasonable income and a bit of insurance. Talk to me, don't assume you know what I will or will not work for. Strike Two: Another potential employer was eager to look at my application when hearing of my qualifications. Ah, but I had worked in a union shop. This business would have no part of a former organized labor worker in their place of business. Again, talk to me. Voice your concerns. Let me explain my desires and situation. While the UAW was an integral part of my previous workplace, I understand in these days that a union would not likely be a part of my future. Strike Three: (This one particularly vexed me.) Apparently an employer had hired several former Mitsubishi workers to fill holes in their workforce, hoping to benefit from the amazing opportunity to hire from an experienced, hungry, mature, and skilled set of workers. It turns out that these workers weren't hungry enough to work yet. For various reasons they all quit within two weeks. The result...this employer (understandably) will refuse to consider any former Mitsubishi workers. This doesn't help things, especially if that business owner talks to other business owners. Former co-workers, friends, let's not make this any more difficult than it already is.

Looking for Help!

Now, my former employer and my former union (Mitsubishi and UAW), for the past 26 and more years have been telling me and my fellow workers how skilled and qualified we were, while at the same time telling us exactly what we needed to do. Whether it was in what order to shoot these five screws or for whom we should vote for our country's president. Seriously, I'm pretty good at figuring this out by myself. Now, when I can really use some guidance and some assistance, where are you? No Monday morning meetings, no flyers on our break room tables, no micromanaging every facet of my professional life? I (we) could really use some help here! This silence is deafening and disheartening. I feel quite fortunate to have such a great group of friends who stepped up in the absence of support from my former employer. I can only hope that my fellow laid-off coworkers have the same.

Unemployment:

This ordeal has presented some unexpected obstacles. When we were separated from the company, the understanding was that we would receive a certain amount of unemployment to help tide us over while we searched for our next job. Ah, but the fine print (actually no print) was that if we accepted our severance package, our unemployment would be reduced. Catch-22: do I want to get the money from my severance or from the unemployment. I opted for the severance, as it afforded me a few dollars more per week. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate having some cash-flow coming in, but we were told that we would be eligible for our full unemployment benefit in addition to our severance package. And then, there was the (implied) promise of education at the local community college for up to two years to get us on a new career path. While I chose to focus on looking for employment because my meager severance would only last a short time, some others chose to go the educational route. After applications, testings, interviews, everything seemed to be in order for them. One individual who had put her home up for sale even decided to take her house off of the market to have one less distraction through this. Then, she gets a call from CareerLink, the state agency that was tasked with helping us through this transition. Her application was denied. Their reasoning: They wouldn’t approve the career track because when finished with the program, the job would not pay at least 80% of the wages we were receiving at the end of our previous career. In her words, “...if I choose to get a CDL (truck driver’s license) or HVAC (heating and air-conditioning), it will be paid. But I'm a 60 yr old woman.” If we choose a career for which we neither care for, nor are suited for, nor have any desire for, we get help from the state? So, we are effectively being penalized for having made too much money, AND for being too old.Then there are the hoops we all have to jump through just to collect our unemployment. We were all given information regarding how to file our unemployment claims. We could either go directly to our local Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) office with the papers provided, or we could file on-line. I chose the latter, and on my first day after the official separation I sat down and filled out page after page, navigating from form to form. I managed, but I heard stories of many who had less success than I did. It took me about three hours, and I got a confirmation that all was well, but IDES would not tell me how much I would receive.

Severance:

The subject of my severance package has come up in conversation with friends from time to time, and I’ll try to clear the air a little here. The general perception of the public (and of myself prior to this) is that there is some sort of magical formula tied into years of service and current pay level that will determine our “payoff.” The most-quoted formula was [(Years of Service) x (2) x (40 hours wages)]. In my case, this would work out as such: [26.5 x 2 x (40 x 24)], or roughly $51,000. Not having gone through anything like this previously, this seemed like a reasonable number. Divided into my years of service, I would have earned less than $2,000 per year of service. Divided hourly,  it averages to almost one dollar for every hour I worked over those years. Considering that we had collectively given up about four dollars per hour some eight years ago (not sure of the exact year on this), this number appeared reasonable. When our severance package was finally unveiled to us, the numbers were not so kind. The package was a complicated, convoluted mess. I’ll spare you the details of the entire agreement, but I will relate what I received, and could have received if I was just a little older or younger.

The formula I listed above was simple, apparently too much so. The employees were granted packages based upon their age at the end, not by their seniority. This is a huge change from common UAW past practice. Traditionally everything: pay, job bidding, shift, lay offs, etc. are all done by seniority. Nobody has sufficiently explained to me the reason for this diversion from policy, but this is what I was given: Workers 54-56 years of age (I was 56, six weeks shy of my 57th birthday) received $5,000 minus taxes, plus full pension. (Full pension amounts to about $1,300 minus taxes for most of us.) Workers 53 years of age and with similar seniority to mine received $45,000 minus taxes plus 50% of full pension. (Approximately $650 monthly minus taxes.)  Workers 57-61 years of age received $35,000 minus taxes, plus full pension. I was 45 days too young, so I got $30,000 less than that group. The explanation I was given, “You are more marketable in the workplace, so you require less.” I'm 56 and a desirable commodity? Somebody tell that to prospective employers, please! If I were three years younger I would have received $40,000 more, but only half of my pension. I understand that in time my full pension will more than make up that difference, but now, today, that disparity means I don’t have the luxury of not going back to work quickly, or possibly going to school. I have to find work now. That $5,000 won’t last long paying my mortgage and other bills. As complicated as this sounds here, it is actually even more complicated, but I will leave it as thus, just to give you all an idea of my situation. That $5,000 I was given divided into my time of service there averages out to $188 per year of service, or about 9 ½ cents for every hour I spent on the line.

Epilog: Closure on the Plant closure

I want to say, now that I have this bit of nastiness all behind me, I do appreciate all the support you who are reading this have shown me. Between all my friends, and most especially my supportive wife, I managed to survive this ordeal with my sanity mostly intact (I hope.) Thank you to you all, and thank you to my new employer, Bloomington Cycle & Fitness. Between my pension and my new paycheck, I think we’ll be okay. My life will continue largely as before, with minimal changes. I'm happy to move on with this new chapter in this book that is my life. Cheers!