Posted on 02/08/2009 9:47:35 AM PST by Red in Blue PA
It is a well-known risk to lack diversity in an investment portfolio. Now, couples employed by the same company are learning a similar lesson, the hard way.
As layoffs mount across the country and in all sectors, couples who are co-workers are increasingly vulnerable to losing their families' twin sources of income at once. The lack of variety in job skills can also make it difficult to bounce back, especially in a struggling industry.
Such hard times have befallen Clarkston, Mich., high school sweethearts Victor and Lauri Cox, who married in 1976 and soon took jobs at the General Motors plant; Pam Podger and John Cramer, who met as reporters at The Fresno Bee in California in 1991; and Chad and Lindsey Lewis, who prospered while selling homes for a Tampa builder but now face a more than 60 percent drop in there combined income.
Chad Lewis said the experience "hit us really hard," forcing them to dip into savings in order to afford health insurance and other necessities. But they have found a silver lining: "There is someone there to rely on, to go through this with you."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
We just lost 800 jobs at a local GM plant. At first, we were sympathetic to their plight, as was the local media.
Then it was discovered that they get 4 YEARS of 75% of their pay, full health benefits plus free tuition to go back to school to train in something else.
If you can’t get back on your feet with THAT kind of ‘assistance’ then you really are one of Life’s Losers.
Read the fine print before you start sharing your tears, canned goods and bottled water with these poor, laid off union workers. ;)
I notice too that the poor souls are going to have to give up their "Job Bank" benefit--some time next year.
How is the company saving anything with those kinds of perks?
During one of the Detroit slow downs quite a few years ago I was in an auto repair shop when a job applicant came in. He had worked for an auto manufacturer for sixteen years before being laid off. He wanted a job as an auto mechanic. Seems that most of those sixteen years had been spent installing door handles on a certain brand of car. He called himself a "door handle mechanic." I guess the shop didn't have enough work in his specialty, he didn't get the job.
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Chances are that most of these union types will sit on their asses for 4 years and then cry foul.
They’re not. It’s General Motors. One of the Big Three we’re bailing out! Grrrrrrr!
And if you read to the end of the article, the GM guy and his wife have both worked at GM for THIRTY YEARS. They’ve not saved/invested a dime in 30 years? They could both take retirement right now, but they can’t ‘afford’ to, so they’re being re-located to another state.
These people aren’t LOSING their jobs. What a dopey article! *Rolleyes*
Blue states Michigan, California and Florida...Perhaps they should have lived in red states...
Then it was discovered that they get 4 YEARS of 75% of their pay, full health benefits plus free tuition to go back to school to train in something else.
Wow! If this is true sign me up.../sarc.
ROTFLMAO. He has been in office 18 days...
What kind of you know what is that? No wonder the auto companies are broke. They are made by our government to use the same tactics they use. No wonder this country is broke.
Have these people never heard; Don't put all your eggs in one basket?
If you can’t get back on your feet with THAT kind of ‘assistance’ then you really are one of Life’s Losers.That's assuming that there is job for them to fill when they finish training for it. In a depression you have people out of work who would gladly take a job (and at some point any job), if there was one to take. In small cities and towns where a large employer shuts down, the displaced workers frequently have to leave — which sends a shock wave through the local economy.
How is the company saving anything with those kinds of perks?The cost of labor is only 10-15% of the cost of running a car plant. Shutting down the plant means no more paying for materials, power, and all the other overhead of running a manufacturing plant. If they were workers at an insurance company, you would be right, but manufacturing has high operating costs.
Another reason not to date co-workers.
It’s hard to feel sorry for my fellow Americans who voted for Change-O and now, suddenly are unemployed.
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