Mother Jones: No Country for Middle-Aged Men

[marmar]

No Country for Middle-Aged Men


Tom Hazel worked for three decades in a blazing hellhole to get his pension. But the financial geniuses who took over his plant had other ideas.

— By Sasha Abramsky



TOM HAZEL had six months to go. He'd been at his job at the aluminum plant in Longview, Washington, for 29 years and six months. Under his union contract, he was eligible to retire with a full pension—about $1,000 a month, or $37.50 for each year of employment—when he hit his 30th anniversary.

It was a promise that had kept him going for decades in a job that otherwise had little to recommend itself. Temperatures in the foundry soared well past 100 degrees; workers were required to wear respirator masks, into which they tore holes to smoke cigarettes as they lugged massive iron studs and jackhammers. Once, a guy was effectively cut in half when a piece of machinery fell on him; other men were electrocuted, or burned to death by molten metal. Aluminum workers are also at elevated risk of leukemia and a host of lung diseases. "I don't know how many times I thought about quitting," one of Hazel's colleagues admits. "But I thought, 'Boy, I've got too many years invested here. I can't afford to give up those years.'"

The attitude was common: Aluminum offered men with no college a ticket into the middle class, into one of the cozy wooden houses lining the town's side streets, and eventually into a comfortable retirement. Young men were brought into the factory by fathers, uncles, brothers. "They used to call it the mill flunkies. You'd hire in, show up every day, do the job you're supposed to do, and you thought you were going to be taken care of," recalls Hazel's union president, Bill Hannah, who joined the company at age 19. Less than an hour's drive north of Portland, the town of 35,000, originally designed by the Long-Bell Lumber Company as part of the World War I-era City Beautiful movement, retained a close-knit working-class culture; even the restaurants were unionized well into the 1980s.

Hazel spent a lot of time thinking about what he would do once he got that pension at age 50. "I would have maybe worked part time somewhere, moved up to Hood Canal or the coast," he says. "I like clamming and crabbing and getting oysters. You just walk right out on the beach and rake 'em up; take out your boat and drop your crab pots." ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/05/no-country-middle-aged-men

[midnight]

1. Can you imagine those candy ass bankers working for a living like this?

[leveymg]

2. The banksters should all be put on $1000/mo retirement.

Let's see them manage.

[Enthusiast]

3. I was a victim of this kind of thing.....twice.

This something the white collar guys will never understand or give a damn about.

[eilen]

4. Yeah, I'm waiting for some schmuck to ask

"what did he expect with no education?" Attitudes like that are why many Independents view Democrats as elitist.

[Enthusiast]

5. You're right about one thing.

They would be a schmuck. But they wouldn't necessarily be a Democrat.

[eilen]

13. Maybe in name only but honestly

have you read some of the rhetoric that has been spouted off on here about the UAW workers? Some people have the idea that working in a factory just involves the ability to turn a widget all day long.

[Dr.Phool]

8. Likewise,

Me and a few thousand others. The PBGC pays less than a third of what I was supposed to get. My wife still works so we have health insurance. But, she pays a large percentage of her wage to cover me.

If I had to buy insurance, I couldn't because of pre-existent conditions, and I don't qualify for Medicare for another 8 years.

Meanwhile, all the management had their pensions secured in trust funds, that couldn't be touched in bankruptcy.

[jotsy]

6. Wasn't the intention of America's design about equal opportunity and equal justice?

And didn't the founders provide instruction as to what to do when that ceases to be the case?

The idea that as a public, we are prepared to accept such staggering inequities just boggles my mind. How has it come to this and why is it okay that bait and switch tactics over the efforts of a lifetime are considered in some dogmatic circles as good business, nothing personal.

This is not like two guys struggling over which of their families will eat next week, the opposition to the folks we've read about here are fighting for things like outfitting the corporate jet with some new bauble.

[MineralMan]

10. Which founders' instructions did you have in mind,

and how would that help this guy? Seriously. Please expand on what you wrote. How do you help this man and others like him. Glittering generalities won't cut it.

[jotsy]

11. The Declaration of Independence, second paragraph, third sentence...

which calls for the citizenry to "alter and abolish" a form of government obstructive to the well being of the governed. Our elected officials are standing idly by while the corporatocracy continues to shake us down and squeeze us dry. If they aren't there to see to the will of the public, they shouldn't be there.

As for glittering generalities and what cuts it, is that really for an audience of one to determine?

[MineralMan]

12. I see...the call to "revolution..."

That's what I figured. Well, come the "revolution" we'll all have pie in the sky, for sure. Not. A "revolution" isn't going to help this poor guy who has lost his pension. Not at all. Revolutions are disruptive.

You want to know what will do it? Defeating the obstructionist Democrats in Congress and replacing them with more liberal candidates. You want to do something. Work towards that goal. Give up the "revolutionary" slogans and do something useful.

Between the left and right folks calling for "revolution," we're wasting a lot of time and a lot of opportunities. Go work to do something that matters, instead of jabbering about "revolution."

[jotsy]

19. As revolting as matters of mass meaning are, no. What I'd like to stage is something of

a bloodless coup, as I am a lover of people and not much of a fighter. At least not in the traditional sense anyway. There doesn't have to be death in the streets for people to be more active in the governance of their lives.

I don't have the market cornered on the perfect or only route to how a public asserts itself, I'm still clumsy with the language, but do try to speak genuinely and from the heart, if that's a waste of time, so be it. I speak because I'm not sure how much more of the hallowing out my community can take, or how it will avoid unraveling before the next election cycle if the staples of viability aren't seen to.

I'm told by my young adult offspring my earlier response was over the top, defensive and down right bitchy to be frank. A senior DUer deserves more respect than I offered, for that I am proud to part with a 'my bad'.

So I'll continue to jabber and hope I learn how to speak my mind more productively so as not to be so hard on your ears.

[Bennyboy]

7. This is a story repeated all across the US of A....

and as a fifty something male, nobody will hire you.

I ahve had friends that had a simiar story. They killed themselves. I ahve a couple of friends that this happeend to and they are never ever going to retire....

[exboyfil]

9. It happened to my dad

His company went out of business (sold off) which froze the defined benefit plan in place just when it was going to grow tremendously in his last 5-10 years of work. He was more fortunate that most since he was able to continue working for the new company (which then got bought out). It did take a real beating on retirement (got a miniscule lump sum payout into a 401(k)), worked in the factory until 60, retired early, and died of cancer at 65 (probably related to the factory). My mom is not in great financial shape because of this, but at least my did had about two years of retirement before he started battling cancer.

Another cute thing. My dad went out the door with medical benefits (plan subsidized by his employer). When my dad died my mom was 63, and she was immediately kicked off the plan. Of course 2 months before going onto Medicare she gets to pay for a bunch of "testing" that her crappy insurance would not cover.

Thank God for Social Security.

This is why I like defined contribution pension plans. It is your money and you control it. In addition to a defined benefit pension plan (which I completely discount because it is just promises), my employer matches my 401(k) contributions (10% employer to my 6% employee). My three defined benefit plans in my past did not work out so well - I got some cash which went into the IRA when either I left, was let go, or the company converted to defined contribution.

The law needs to be changed so that pension and medical promises are put ahead of the line for these companies (better acturial funding of the plans would also make sense). Assume a more reasonable growth level of 4%/yr. and not the 8-9% that has been assumed before.

Not to get flamed but all employees in the future need to be very suspicious of all promises. Put no stock in long term promises. If you have other opportunities with the cash up front, take them first. Use a high rate of return expectation when calculating promises.

[diane in sf]

16. Most of the people I know who are under/unemployed are 50ish, one of my friends

is in India, living at a Tibetan monastery teaching English until he can collect social security, he used to run a network of 400 computers. His problem? 50s, fat, California 20% unemployment rate--no one cares how excellent he is at his work. Another friend, used to be a partner in a book store, now can't even get a retail clerk job, her problem, wheezes from her asthma--makes her not interview well, also of course the fact all the book stores are going under and retail's not so great either. Etc.

[Yavapai]

18. It happened to me also.

I worked for Kaiser Steal corporation (no, I didn't misspell steel), for 20 years. With the promise of a good retirement with full medical benefits it seemed to be security even though the working conditions sucked. Rotating shifts every week, breathing acid fumes every shift, palm oil grease that went through my clothes and stained my skin. Using solvents, that when any spilled on my legs, I would soon get a sweet taste in my mouth, Assholes for supervisors, days off often split so you would never feel rested and much more.

But, we felt that if you put in your time and sweat, you would get a decent retirement and a little security out of the deal. Kaiser management took every asset they could out of Kaiser steel, and then separated it form the rest of Kaiser Industries. Then, in 1982, they closed the steel mill and declared bankruptcy, screwing every worker to the maximum extent they could.

My pension from the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, is $258 per month, a far less amount than I was promised.

I was very lucky and went back to school and found a career that I loved, but most of the people that I have remained in touch with, never have recovered from the experience.

I just hope that when our people wake up, the will not use foreign made guillotines!

[Skittles]

14. um......this happens to women too

[Bennyboy]

15. This happened to a couple that worked

at the same place. She has been unemployed for over a year after finding menial work at a call center for the four years after they got "ENRON'd".....

She is grossly overweight and now nobody will hire her. Too young for Medicare her heatlh is deteriorating. My friend got a job after a year and he ahs finally got back to his former wages. But they just sold the company so...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. Yup, I know a bunch of people who are too old to be hired and too young

to collect Social Security. They are just hanging on by their fingernails. By the way, these are people who have worked all their adult lives at jobs they were good at.

Three of them turned 62 with great relief, because even though the amount of money they collect at that age is low, it still takes some of the pressure off.