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Ex-Autoworkers Retool for Lower Paying Jobs

Industry vets remake themselves as truck drivers, nurses' aides

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 4, 2009 7:42 AM CDT

(Newser) – Hundreds of thousands of ex-autoworkers left adrift by the industry's implosion are having to learn new skills and get used to lower pay, the Washington Post reports. Community colleges in the auto industry's heartland are jam-packed with midlife workers aiming to qualify quickly to become truck drivers, computer technicians or nursing aides. "I've been humbled quite a bit," says one 39-year-old autoworker-turned-nursing aide who's living in his mother's basement.   

"What we're seeing is the death of the conventional middle-class life and an increase in the population of working poor," says the president of one Detroit community college. Some in new careers are enjoying the feeling of job security, despite the withered pay packets. "Of course, 20 years ago, people thought the auto industry would always be solid," says the new nursing aide. "But, for now, I feel good about it."

Workers leave the Chrysler North Assembly Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio after a shift.
Workers leave the Chrysler North Assembly Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio after a shift.   (AP Photo/Madalyn Ruggiero)
Ford Motor Company employees attend a jobs fair at United Auto Workers Union Local 600  in Dearborn, Michigan.
Ford Motor Company employees attend a jobs fair at United Auto Workers Union Local 600 in Dearborn, Michigan.   (Getty Images)
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I came out of high school, and they said, 'We have a job for you that pays $17 an hour to start.' At 18, I made $40,000. My friends who went to college were jealous. But now what? - Former autoworker Clyde Kubiak, 33

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 5 comments
Doctor-Zaius
Jul 4, 2009 3:49 AM CDT
Funny, the German and Japanese auto workers made about the same and the US auto workers but their CEO's average salary was around $1 million a year, compared to GM's CEO who made $17 million a year. And they earned it by designing a much shittier car than the Japanese and Germans were putting out there. Who ruined the American auto industry again?
Doctor-Zaius
Jul 4, 2009 3:47 AM CDT
Oh please Infidel, even Krauthammer didn't believe that bullshit about BDS. And do you really think spreading that disinformation is really going to get anyone to believe that it wasn't Bush's fault? Sorry, nobody is buying Republican bullshit anymore.
ABO_2012
Jul 4, 2009 2:07 AM CDT
Let's see...continue working in the factory at a job I like for a little less money, or be a block head and be forced to work as a nursing aide for probably minimum wage? Unions work wonders!

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