One Year Plus
Yesterday, I spent the day with a former coworker. Talking about people we knew, the departments we worked in got me to remembering my first few months working at the Chrysler minivan plant here in Windsor, Ontario. I thought it might be a good writing exercise for me to tell of some of my experiences there.
Last July, Friday the 13th (not too ominous!) I walked out the gates for the last time. You see, I was fortunate to have received a buyout. There weren’t too many of us junior employees to leave, maybe 300 or so. It all seemed so surreal and the almost 12 years I spent there seemed to flash before my eyes. It felt as though it were only yesterday that I walked through that Center Gate for the first time.
In 1993 I graduated with a B.A. in English Literature. I never really thought about what I’d do for work. I went to my classes, read my books, wrote my papers and my exams. Before I knew it, I was graduating! I applied to Teacher’s College but in those days they only looked at grades. I had a B+/A- average but it wasn’t enough. What to do? I applied to the City of Windsor and got into the clerical pool on a temp basis, hoping to one day get in full-time. Easier said than done! I didn’t really care for working in an office so when I got the call from Chrysler asking if I was interested in doing the test I said yes.
I had no clue as to what would be expected of me. I never knew anyone that worked there apart from my father but, he was an electrician–a different echelon in the pecking order of Local 444 of the CAW. I had no clue that people would give their left arm or there firstborn for the opportunity to work at the plant. I would soon learn why working for Chrysler was a close second to winning the lottery.
The testing was spread over several days and consisted of several components. There was a written test (grammar, math, spelling–to work on the line?), spatial tests and hand/eye coordination tests, and finally a group exercise to see how you related with others. It took less than a month for me to be called in for my physical. I passed that and was told to report to the offices on a Monday in September, 2005. My number was 89899 and I was to go to the supervisor in Final Car. Oh, that sounded like it would be a nice place to work.
WOW! This place was enormous! What had I gotten myself into? Do you know that to this day I still can’t believe I actually took the job? I don’t think I spent much time thinking about it at all if you must know. I really should have run screaming from it. There was the line, stretching and curving for miles, loaded with shiny new minivans for the North American market. In 1995 when I started, they were running 6 days a week with the occasional Sunday. 3 shifts, each shift producing approximately 450 vans. Incredible! What was really amazing was how little I knew of how this place ran. Well, I would learn soon enough and boy, was there a lot to learn. A bizarre microcosm of the world outside with its own language, its own set of rules, its own reality.
My first supervisor’s name was Kevin. He was nice and I was told I’d be doing door fits. Okay (huh?) “Don’t worry, it’s easy”. You have no idea how many times I’ve heard that sentence and it would soon enough fill me with dread most of the times I’d hear it uttered. But, it was all a new adventure for me so hey, I was ready to learn all about door fits.
Let the games begin!
