Adam Ford
F L I N T O I D
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http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060825/AUTO01/608250354
The sad thing is this is probably in a better jobs area than Flint. If this were in Flint there might have been 8,000 applying. I heard councilman Ed Taylor once say there were hundreds that applied to work at the then new crispy cream donuts in the north end.
Many ex-autoworkers seek work at lesser wages
Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
STERLING HEIGHTS -- Six years ago, Fred Hibbard, 46, was making $22.50 an hour as a machinist in a tool and die shop.
On Thursday, he was among some 2,000 job-seekers who lined up for a chance at a $10-an-hour assembly job with no benefits with a French auto parts supplier. The jobs include medical benefits and 401(k) options.
Faurecia SA, which has facilities in four Metro Detroit communities, drew an estimated 4,000 people, many of them former auto workers like Hibbard, over the two days of its job fair Wednesday and Thursday, a sign of the times in a state where the unemployment rate hovers at 7 percent.
The long line of job applicants Thursday snaked through a city park outside the Sterling Heights Parks and Recreation Center, the site of Faurecia's job fair. It was just around the corner from where Hibbard used to work.
"That tool and die shop is dead," he said. "And now, I could really use this job. Ten dollars an hour is a lot better than living on your 401(k)."
Out of 17 job applicants queried by The News on Thursday, eight of them once had auto factory jobs that offered higher hourly wages and health benefits; 14 currently have jobs that pay less than $10 an hour; 11 have children; and only two have health insurance.
Many said they wouldn't have considered taking a $10 an hour job just a few years ago.
But times have changed in Michigan, with an unemployment rate among the highest in the nation and high-paying factory jobs dwindling by the month.
"I've pretty much given up trying to get a job that pays $20 an hour," said Pebble VanConant, a veteran toolmaker who was making that kind of money five years ago. Her firm closed, she said, because the company kept losing work to Chinese and Mexican firms willing to do the same jobs at a much lower rate.
"Five years ago, if you would have offered me this job I would have laughed at you," said Debbie Kowalke, a former administrative assistant who was downsized and now "just survives" on a waitressing job. She wants to work at Faurecia and still keep the restaurant job, she said.
"I really need this. And look, I'm not the only one," she said.
Hiring bright spot
It was unclear how many people the auto supplier would ultimately hire. Representatives from Faurecia could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The company specializes in automotive modules for interiors, such as seats and exhaust systems. It supplies its parts to General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler AG, BMW and Volkswagen.
The fact that Faurecia is hiring at all is the exception right now for the state's auto industry.
The high unemployment rate of the past year in large part is because of massive job cuts at GM, Delphi and Ford, which have trickled down to other industries.
Earlier this year, 47,600 union workers at GM and bankrupt supplier Delphi Corp. accepted early retirement offers or cash buyouts.
Last year, Ford eliminated some 3,000 white-collar positions in North America. Another 4,000 salaried jobs and as many as 30,000 factory jobs by 2012 are to be cut as part of its restructuring plan announced in January.
Ford is weighing a major expansion of its attrition program for hourly workers and could extend buyout or early retirement offers to all of its blue-collar employees in the United States.
By year's end, Michigan will have 20,000 fewer auto jobs than it did at the start of 2006, predicts Comerica Inc. Chief Economist Dana Johnson. Michigan has lost over 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 1999. |
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