Factory Jobs: Are They as Secure as They Claim to Be?

When I was growing up hearing that someone working a factory job like Ford or any factory job was a step up, but as times changed along with the economy things the sense of job security began shrinking drastically with cutbacks to specific departments to where it was the entire factory that was getting pink slips and that right there made me see that working at these places didnt exactly provide much security. Now with the change in economic factors many U.S. based factories have since closed their locations across the country and have relocated their facilities to places overseas so that it's producing the same product for less money because of so many employees they have to pay benefits to for the ones who've worked 15 years or longer and even offering them early retirement packages for those who are 3-5 years away from retirement so they don't have to keep paying benefits. Then you look at the employees who are at the 10-15 year mark who are getting weeded out systematically and many of the people who did start with companies like Ford back 30 years ago were fresh out of high school and started at 18 and some are now in their mid 50s and are slowly starting to see that their jobs arent as secure as they used to be since they used more manual labor then versus when the 80s hit when robotic engineers were the ones working the assembly lines putting cars together. Because of the changes that GM has gone through many towns and cities that were the blood of the factories has dried up and if you've seen pictures of Flint, Michigan in the last decade it looks run down and abandoned because when the factories had closed down their plants it also meant the end of the buisnesses that thrived in that town as well since most of their buisness came from the employees that worked at the factory. When job security is threatened this is where you start to see why some people do in fact need a master plan because factory jobs arent guaranteed like they were 35-40 years ago where you could work 25 years and retire with your pension and in some cases pensions could be affected with the changes that are taking place with strikes and conflict with the unions and representatives who are designated to protect the rights of workers. Ford employees who fought for years are represented by the UAW(United Auto Workers Union) for unfair working conditions and compensation. This in turn has created many strikes over the years with GM and it's workers trying to fight for job security for those who arent even at the point of retirement. The hard thing is that many who started did this straight out of high school so times have changed meaning you need more education to really do something to make a living since factory jobs are in fact drying up whole towns for example when USS(United States Steel) had closed the Gary plant the city of Gary, Indiana looked nearly like a ghost town since much of the buisnesses had dried up when the plant was shut down since the bulk of their buisnesses came from the employees of the steel mills. For everyday the strike happens it's money lost and GM's plants turn out a couple hundred cars a day and all their plants put together make thousands of cars from their product line created. If anything this is a clear sign that corporate greed is killing American workers, and after Enron many people wonder about their job security with companies like General Motors where workers are concerned with corporate mishandlings and other things that could affect their jobs and the security of that. Yet many people could be facing a pink slip at any given time from their jobs at General Motors, but this is the time many people are slowly forcing themselves to re-examine their lives in terms of the next step of their careers since who knows what the outcome could be for the workers of GM especially right now since a lot of people could be losing their jobs for this and that's not good especially if there's some who are relying on a steady income to pay the bills. I knew that early on working a factory job wasnt always guaranteed and growing up with family who worked factory jobs I realized I had to have a plan of action so I wouldnt be sitting there years from now wondering what I could have been doing since this is clearly obvious that it was the thing 25+ years ago,but now you never know if you'll even have a job to come to tommorow. The strikes are also showing signs that changes need to be made in terms of how the workers are treated and to ensure their job security.