Introduction: Stress and the Life Course during Hard Times

Abstract

The 1987 General Motors plant closings represented a major upheaval for thousands of workers, for the union that represented those workers, and for the communities they called home. This book tells the story of what happened to workers affected by these plant closings. More generally, it deals with the stress of job loss and with possible ways of coping with that stress.

My elders used to tell me that you get in there and get some time in and you′re in with GM. But that′s not how it turned out to be. The way things are going, someday soon the only ones left working for them will be technicians and robot repair people. They won′t even need all the fancy management anymore. My kids will never work in a factory, I tell them to get an education—get into computers or something. No, it′s all over. And what call for labor they will have come from Mexico or Asia or somplace. —a closing plant worker

You have to know what it is like. We got the quality up. We did our share and more. They just closed us anyway. You hear about how we just didn′t care about the place or anything. We really did care and we cared about each other too. Nobody wanted this and we all pulled together to make it work. No one wants to just get laid off and end up grubbing. We were motivated. We exceeded even the company′s expectations. So why? All i know is that when you bust your ass and get kicked in the head anyway, it does something to you. You get depressed. In the end we were all depressed. —a closing plant worker.