On Apr 1, 10:07=A0am, "torresD" <torres...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=3D9E03EFD9133BF935A25752...=
>
> Blue-Collar Jobs Disappear, Taking Families' Way of Life Along
>
> By ERIK ECKHOLM
> Published: January 16, 2008
>
> After 30 years at a factory making truck parts,
> Jeffrey Evans was earning $14.55 an hour in
> what he called
>
> ''one of the better-paying jobs in the area.''
>
> Wearing a Harley-Davidson cap,
> a bittersweet reminder of crushed dreams,
> he recently described how astonished and
> betrayed he felt when the plant was
> shut down in August after a labor dispute.
>
> Despite s****adic construction work,
> Mr. Evans has seen his income reduced
> by half.
>
> So he was astonished yet again to find himself,
> at age 49, selling off his cherished Harley and
> most of his apartment furniture and moving in
> with his mother.
>
> Middle-aged men moving in with parents,
> wives taking two jobs,
> veteran workers taking
> overnight ****fts at half
> their former pay,
> families moving West --
> these are signs of the
> turmoil and stresses
> emerging in the little
> towns and backwoods mobile
> homes of southeast Ohio,
>
> where dozens of factories
> and several coal mines have
> closed over the last decade,
> and small businesses are giving
> way to big-box retailers and
> fast-food outlets.
>
> Here,
> where the northern swells
> of the Appalachians lap the
> southern fringe of the Rust Belt,
> thousands of people who long had
> tough but sustainable lives are
> being wrenched into the working poor.
>
> The region presents an acute
> example of trends affecting
> many parts of Ohio,
> Michigan and other
> pockets of the Midwest.
>
> Slammed by the continued decline
> in the automobile and steel businesses,
> Ohio never recovered from the recession
> of 2001-2,
>
> and blue-collar families who
> had made it partway up the
> economic ladder find themselves
> slipping back,
>
> with chaotic effects
> on families and dreams.
>
> Throughout the state,
> the percentage of families
> living below the poverty line --
> just over $20,000 for a family
> of four last year --
>
> rose slightly from 14
> percent in 2005 to
> 16 percent in 2007,
> one study found.
>
> But equally striking is the
> rise in younger working families
> struggling above that line.
>
> The numbers are more dismal
> in the southeastern Appalachian
> part of the state,
>
> where 32 percent of families
> lived below the poverty line
> in 2007,
>
> according to the study,
> and 56 percent lived with
> incomes less than $40,000
> for a family of four.
>
> ''These younger workers should
> be the backbone of the economy,''
> said ****loh Turner,
>
> study director for the
> Health Foundation of
> Greater Cincinnati,
> which conducted the surveys.
>
> But in parts of Ohio,
> Ms. Turner said, half or more
> ''are barely making ends meet.''
>
> One consequence is an upending
> of the traditional pattern,
> in which middle-aged children
> take in an elderly parent.
>
> As $15-an-hour factory jobs
> are replaced by $7-
> or $8-an-hour retail jobs,
> more men in their 30s and
> 40s are moving in with their
> parents or grandparents,
> said Cheryl Thiessen,
> the director of
> Jackson/Vinton Community Action,
> which runs medical,
>
> fuel and other aid
> programs in Jackson and Vinton Counties.
>
> Other unemployed or
> low-wage workers,
> some with families,
> find themselves staying
> with one relative after
> another, Ms. Thiessen said,
> serially wearing out their welcome.
>
> ''A lot of major employers have left,
> and the town is drying up,''
> Ms. Thiessen said of Jackson.
>
> ''We're starting to lose small shops, too --
> Hallmark, the jewelry and shoe stores,
> the movie theater and most of the grocery stores.''
>
> Shari Joos, 45,
> a married mother of four
> boys in nearby Wellston, said,
>
> ''If you don't work at Wal-Mart,
> the only job you can get around
> here is in fast food.''
>
> Between her husband's factory job
> and her intermittent work,
> they made $30,000 a year in
> the best of times, Mrs. Joos said.
>
> Since last fall,
> when her husband was laid
> off by the Merillat cabinet factory,
> which downsized to one ****ft a day
> from three,
>
> keeping anywhere near that
> income required Mrs. Joos
> to take a second job.
>
> She works at a school cafeteria
> each weekday from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m
> and then drives to Wal-Mart,
>
> where she relaxes in her car
> before starting her 2-to-10 p.m.
> ****ft at the deli counter.
I watch the jabbering heads on the financial network with
a smile on my face. The outsourcing of American industrial
production is going to come back and start biting *****.
Enjoy!
ted
http://www.vdare.com/
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