I Had a Very Sad Talk with my Aunt Today-GM Bankruptcy

[kayla9170]

This is a blog that I posted on Daily Kos on Tuesday, May 27, 2009. After much encouragement, other there suggested that I share this blog. I check out Democratic Underground almost daily but do not post very often. Thinking long about it....this is a story that needs to be heard for every UAW retiree across this country when it is stated "They did not earn their lifelong benefits"...I hope you enjoy. Thanks!!

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My late Father and Aunt left the south in the early 1960's along with many other former Southerners from the great state of Arkansas. My Daddy, who graduated Valedictorian in his high school class of about 75 folks when on to Shorter College in Arkansas on a full basketball and academic scholarship. The first person in my family to graduate from high school and college. My Aunt-who did not graduate from high school moved to Flint, MI. This is a blog about how General Motors has been a part of my life for 40 years.

Daddy graduated Cum Laude from Shorter College. He wanted to be a Laywer and I think he would have made a great one too. My Grandma and Grandfather worked hard but never had the money to finance his continuing education. Then my Daddy got drafted in Vietnam. Upon his return, he decided to move to Michigan were my Aunt and Grandparents had already relocated.

My Aunt was first to get her job at General Motors. She worked at the Flint Buick Plant for many years. It was a blessing for her because she had eight kids and with a limited education, she was able to support them and my Grandparents. My Grandpa did finally obtain a job as a caretaker at a local Funeral Home. They took good care of him and even gave him a Free service upon his death. That funeral home no longer exist in Flint like many other things in that city but this is another story for later.

My Daddy, upon returning from he war, worked for a car wash, then the University of Michigan, while living with my late Grand Aunt. He heard about all of the people that were obtaining employment at General Motors and was very reluctant to take a job there instead of going back to college. Then, he married my mother who had three children that he adopted as his own. With a new family to support, he stopped his dream of law school one day and went to work at General Motors.

Then came me and the family of four became five. He worked on the line for the first three years making no more than $2.50 per hour. I remember seeing those checks, years later after Daddy passed and laughing that I cannot believe he worked for such a little amount of money. Then I had to remind myself that life was less expensive then and he could take care of a family on that wage, back then.

I wonder how he felt. Smart as a whistle, graduating Cum Laude from college and working on the line. He did what he needed to do to support his family. He settled. He could have done so much more but he did the right thing to support us.

Then, a opportunity came. With Daddy's education, he took and passed the test for the skilled trade program. Daddy was GREAT at math and he happened to be one of the first African American Toolmakers at General Motors in the early 1970's. He worked hard to finish the difficult program over two years while working on the line at the same time. Talk about dedication.

My Aunt continued to work for Buick and support her family. Everything was not smooth with such a large family and supporting her parents but she never had to take welfare or government assistance, thanks to General Motors. Not bad for a non high school graduate. She brought a home and raised her kids.

Daddy was so PROUD of his trade. He used to say, I make more money as a Toolmaker than he would as a lawyer. Over the years, with COLA pay increases and the UAW, Daddy made upon retirement about $32.00 an hour. Not bad for a non-laywer, Valedictorian and college graduate. He did obtain a teaching certificate while in college and always spoke about after retirement going to teach school but he did not get the opportunity. He was PROUDEST of his name being on the wall at the U.S. Department of Labor as a Skilled Tradesman. He talked about it all the time.

Both my Aunt and my Daddy were able to achieve different dreams by being a employee at General Motors. They worked 40 and many times 60 hours a week to provide for their families and EARN their benefits upon retirement. Whenever I hear of people say General Motors workers are lazy and undeserving, I immediately become upset because these "folks" do not know the backstory of many of these workers.

My Daddy worked for 40 years for General Motors. My Aunt took a Medical Retirement in 1992 due to a heart condition and worked over 20 years before that. Daddy, who finally retired in 2005 (after much insistence by me) had the opportunity to partially enjoy the Retirement Benefits he clearly earned. In June of 2007, my Daddy was diagnosed with Tongue and Throat Cancer. On August 15, 2007, he passed.

To this Day, I do not know if those many years of him working in the plant played a part in his cancer. I know as a Toolmaker he fixed the machines in the plant. Over the years, he breath in many toxic fumes and chemicals while working under many 1000's of tons machines. If Daddy came home with black oily material all over his hat, shirt and blue jeans....you knew he worked under or on a machine. I remember many broke and cut fingers from Daddy's work but he always went to work and rarely missed a day. This was from the smartest kid in his high school class.

My Aunt heart issues never better and in 2005, she had to have a quadruple bypass open heart surgery. She barely made it out alive but luckly, we still have her today.

Speaking of today, I was at home, in S.E. Michigan watching the local news. A section of the news broke to a view in front of a UAW union hall, with a reporter speaking to some retirees. They had just left a meeting at the Union Hall with Union Officials speaking with them. These retirees, well above 60 years ago by looking at them spoke of the news of the latest UAW concession to save some of there retirement benefits that they have earned, which was to cut all of the retiree dental and vision benefits. I thought of these retirees and pictures of my Daddy and Aunt immediately popped within my mind.

Daddy would have been so upset to see this happen. He was so proud of the work he did at General Motors. I still have his retirement gold watch and picture from receiving his retirement award. He had a smile on his face from ear to ear.

Then I called my Aunt. In the past couple of years she lost both my Daddy and my Grandmother. My Grandfather died in the early 1980's. I wanted to tell her what I heard today and lend a ear to talk.

She told me she went to her UAW hall today and that is what they told her too. Also, she stated, she would need to go back tomorrow because the retirees are having a meeting with Major Union Officials regarding what is going to happen to their retiree health care. Yes, the health care that allowed her to survive that heart surgery years before.

My Aunt sounded defeated. It hurt so much. I tried to make her feel better by saying I would drive down to the General Motors building in Detroit and take a rock against one of the glass windows of the building if they took her health care....and she laughed, a little. Then, she stated to me, "I do not know what I am going to do....they are probably going to take everything".

I had no words to say but "Auntie, it is going to be alright, I will be here to help." Meanwhile I am operating a business that I fighting hard everyday to keep food on the table at my home.

This is unfair for her and all of the other UAW Retirees that have earned their benefits and put in their blood, sweat and tears. What about our kids and young people, besides ourselves in the "X" Generation that will have to carry the increased taxes and who knows what else to cover the 100,000 plus retirees that soon will no longer have vision and dental benefits and probably no health care. What about the dental personnel and vision centers surely layoff more employees (General Motors active workers and retirees are there bread and butter) to add the the ranks of the unemployed in Michigan. Finally, what happens if my Aunt heart fail on her again and she has no medical insurance.

I am sick and tried of hearing about how lazy the Auto Workers were, how greedy the UAW was and how more they made then foreign counterparts. I am ANGRY at the management at General Motors that could not manage to run their corporation better than this!! I am pissed at the bondholders that refuse to take the deal offered by the Obama Administration. I am sad for all of MY GENERATION that will suffer in the future in Michigan because another resource that supplies jobs in surrounding industries is leaving our state and probably our nation.

To all the people that say that General Motors Retirees have not properly EARNED what they have received....I say bullcrap. Look at my late Father and look at my Aunt. These are two stories and their are many others soon to be told. It amazes me everyday how we as Americans are so short-sighted and do not look at the long-termed impact, until it is in front of our faces.

I will do my best to help my Aunt though this. As my last older direct relative left (It was her, Daddy and my Grandparents) I feel as if my duty to help her the best as I can, if the worst do happen.

Thank you for reading this blog.

UPDATE---Thanks so much for all of your support for my Aunt's situation. I will keep everyone here at DK updated on the long termed impact. It has been a small deal on behalf of the bondholders but the media is still stating that bankruptcy is a great possibly. Again, thanks so much!!!
Body

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. And this is why we need single payer

to transfer all these retirees to a single payer program and keep industry going... that would be the best of all worlds.

Short of that we are breaking the social contract PERIOD!

[truedelphi]

6. I remember reading in some magazine that one of the reasons that

GM and the other auto makers started putting the jobs in Mexico (and in other countries) was because of their cost of supporting the medical side of the benefits of the workers' packages.

So indirectly, our NOT having Universal Single Payer helped send our industries abroad.

We need that so badly, and I have my fingers crossed. But this government of ours is all about the Corporate Elite and not the working class.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Yes the cost in the US is 1500 average

over production in places that have a health care system

Canada or mexico does not matter.

[csziggy]

2. Your family's story should be shared with the entire country

So people will be able to understand who is paying for this mess. The car companies got so little help compared with the financial institutions - and it is not going to hurt the people at the top, it hurts the people who worked hard all their lives just to have a decent life.

Thank you for sharing with us - maybe you should send this to President Obama!

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. True stories about true people

who worked hard and deserved everything they got. No one gave them anything they didn't earn.

Meanwhile, the fat cats on Wall Street get their bonuses out of taxpayer money and then quit their jobs.

This is America today, and I don't care for it.

K&R.

Thank you so much, and good luck to you and your sweet, great Auntie ...............

[aquart]

4. I thought, after 9/11 that we would stop looking at working people as less.

As "losers." I remember my readers and coloring books as a child, that listed all the work that daddies did and how important it was: there was a picture of the policeman and the fireman and the milkman, the carpenter and the postman, the mechanic and the farmer.

But sometime while I was growing up, all those people became "losers," the ones who didn't "make it."

On 9/11 when the uniformed services saved our lives and so many lost theirs, I thought maybe that would change back to the way it was. But the CEOs kept getting paid more, and to pay them, Americans had to be paid less or nothing at all, with their jobs going overseas.

I am a proud granddaughter of the ILGWU and nothing, not god nor country, is more sacred to me than a worker's hard-earned pension. I don't know how anyone can think otherwise.

My grandmother's retirement was full of grief, but the rock of her life was her union and the pension and benefits she earned working from the age of 15.

[omega minimo]

5. As if corporations not keeping their promises and responsibilities is the workers' fault

:thumbsdown:

[DemReadingDU]

8. afternoon kick