Quote:
Originally Posted by ISUKappa
Dee, I really appreciate your perspective, especially since you live so close to the situation.
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Well, keep in mind that I am biased

My dad was a GM man and almost everybody in the city where I grew up worked for GM. When he had to go on disability, he was the head administrator of marketing for the parts division. Since he was always in either marketing or market research for parts (Delco, when it was still Delco), we had some interesting stuff around the house growing up. We had a massive Delco spark plug inflatable pool toy that three or four kids could sit on. We had a fly shooter, like a pop gun almost, but with a fly swatter type circle on the end so you could sit a distance away and shoot a fly on the wall that had Delco on it. Weird marketing stuff..lol.
GM raised me, I owe them my health, my dental care, my college degree, etc. I do have a fierce sense of loyalty. In fact, I admire the loyalty that our parents had to their employers and vice versa. That's lost in my generation. I don't think anybody starts with a company these days and expects to be there until they retire. And, there are few rewards for doing that. You tend to move up the ladder and make more money by changing companies. Then again, the demands put on my dad.. the crazy travel, the hours he worked, etc. greatly exacerbated his heart condition to the point that his cardiologist said "You're never going back to work again". He had his first heart attack while on a business trip to Arizona. Even after that, he would go on crazy 10 day trips to Sidney and Tokyo and back home. He traveled about 75% of the time and when he was home, he worked 60 hour weeks pretty regularly.
It's very hard, it's very depressing around here. Every day you hear about someone else who is laid off in all industries because we are so dependent on the auto industry. It's what we did in Detroit. I don't know anybody who doesn't qualify for the employee discount for one of the Big 3. And, we know it's not done yet. There's a part of me that wants it to just be over.. let's get the cuts done, let them file bankruptcy if that's inevitable at this point, let's get it over with. It's kind of like watching a cancer patient die a slow, painful death and you get to the point where you want it over so you can try to pick up the pieces somehow. And yeah, I want to know if my oil changes and car washes are still going to be free for my new Saturn!