More autoworker layoffs to go permanent?
A lot of you autoworkers and auto supply company workers in Monroe County just got back to work after recent production shutdowns and the short-term autoworker strikes.
Today we’re hearing that more autoworkers in the Detroit-Toledo region are expected to permanently lose their jobs … (Toledo Blade article , Detroit News article; Detroit Free Press article.)
I totally, totally, understand the frustration. My husband also works at an auto supply company. He was among those sent home for a two-week shutdown last month. And while he doesn’t make as much money as those who directly work for the Detroit Big 3, the pay is better than what he used to make. And, it’s a job. I’ve told the story before how my husband went through a downsizing / industry overhaul job loss five years ago, and worked at one temporary labor assignment after another until he was able to find a permanent hire. So we are not in the mood for a repeat set of circumstances.
Unfortunately, whatever affects the Big 3 affects a whole lot of other factory workers and their families in our community.
If you get any heads-up notice as to whether today’s headlines will directly affect your family, consider yourself lucky. The question for the day is, what can you do to prepare or cope in case this does involve you?
Here’s what Lynnae at beingfrugal.net wrote about “what do to when you lose your income.” The blogger’s husband lost his job Oct. 17.
Here’s what the blogger at Moolanomy wrote at “Does your family have an emergency plan?” This was one of the featured articles in the Oct. 29 edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance.
Also, check out the resources and links throughout my blog for news, sites and announcements specifically of interest to residents of Monroe County, Mich. The ones most directly helpful to this situation will be filed under layoff recovery plan.
Posted: November 1st, 2007 under In the Blogosphere, Layoff recovery plan.
Comments: 2
Comments
Comment from Paula Wethington
Time: November 2, 2007, 1:36 pm
Your advice is very practical. When I was a new college grad, I was smart enough to move to where the job offer was located rather than where I would have preferred to live.
Unfortunately, I think the SE Michigan residents who were most able to pack everything up and follow a job elsewhere have already left. Moving out-of-state gets pretty complicated if and when there are spouse’s jobs, kids’ schooling, elderly parents or a home sale to deal with.
Comment from Keith
Time: November 1, 2007, 4:53 pm
I was raised in Monroe and raised in an auto family. Some in my family are still in the industry, wheather for a Detroit Three or a supplier. I understand the struggles of the industry and the workers in the Monroe area. I will try and say this as delicately as possible.
I’ve moved around the country the last several years and can tell you from first hand experiance that the auto industry in the U.S. is not struggling. The auto industry in the midwest it in terrible shape.
A solution to your anxiaty and discomfort might be to look south where the auto industy is very strong and manufactures are hiring. It is not the same union labor rates you may be accustom to but the cost of living is not nearly as high as it is in the midwest either. Auto manufacting in the midwest will probably not continue as it is, even today, and will undoubtably regress even more. It will also continue to increase in the south where more and more plants are being built.
The souths workforce does not match that of the north but the jobs are down there, more will be created. They would welcome with open arms talented people with auto experiance to those jobs…
I hope I didn’t offend anyone as it was certainly not the intent.