Life after the line

About this book

From the Publisher's Website: As one sixty-year-old, thirty-and-out auto worker said, "My people came from Scotland, and they worked in the mines and we thought black lung was the worst. We came over here for a better life and work in the factories and now [GM] closes them down the same way." This is just one of the quotes Josie Kearns shares in her stories of thirty laid-off auto workers and their families. While some of the stories are heart-wrenching, the volume is not one of gloom and despair. Like Studs Terkel and his Working, Kearns gives special attention to he workers' aspirations, philosophies, and humor. For those who went through retraining programs or put their entrepreneurial spirit to work after their layoffs, Kearns discovers unlikely success stories and describes the dramatic changes workers realized upon entering new fields or becoming their own bosses. She precedes each interview with a brief biographical sketch and also looks at the effects of retirement and retraining on the former auto workers.