by Johnny Guatemala
April 14, 2009
FLORISSANT, MO-- Ray Crowder used to get up for work at 6 a.m. every day to work at the General Motors assembly line. Then it was every other day. Pretty soon, he was laid off for four months while production stalled due to the worsening economy. Finally, the 30-year veteran was offered a buy-out of his contract, which he grudgingly accepted facing the prospect of losing his job.
General Motors was a family tradition, with Ray's father, Clem, moving from a farm town to Florissant to join the assembly line in the early 1950's. Also family traditions were putting all their eggs into one basket, not getting job training or education in any field, and waiting for a magic wand to make everything all better.
Although Clem and Ray were able to purchase oversized homes and wind out their working days blindly praising their union's every action, that guarantee doesn't extend to Ray's son, Matt. The 23-year-old, third-generation assembly line worker was laid off after only two years on the job.
Matt plans on applying for a job with the city or county in order to make more money than necessary for his diminished skill set and seems to be resilient considering the adversity. However, his grandfather appeared shaken by his grandson's loss of a place in one of the nation's sweetest rackets.
"I'm not at all comfortable that my grandson can't go out and knock up some random bar tramp and shrug his shoulders at the situation because of a good-paying job. He can't count on the $50,000 job that's the right of any person who can show up and fasten screws, like I could," said Clem.
Flipping through a family photo album, Ray became wistful at scenes of his kin enjoying fully-customized Harley Davidsons, stacks of $8 beers at Cardinals games, and comped Atlantic City hotel rooms following gambling binges. Coming across a picture of his wife, Myrna, reading an issue of People magazine, he grew teary-eyed.
"I know that her celebrity magazines don't pay for themselves, but I just don't have the heart to tell her we won't be able to afford it after unemployment is over," choked Ray, who must now start saving for retirement at age 53.