Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the closing of Ford Motor Co.’s 82 -year-old plant off Indian River Road in Norfolk. Since then, hundreds of former Ford workers have negotiated the delicate transition to new jobs. Here, you can read and listen to some of their stories.
CHRISTOPHER PEARSALL
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Christopher Pearsall said his income has been cut in half since leaving Ford, but he's happier than before.
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His salary has been cut by more than half. He’s got to pay closer attention to what he spends, what he wears, what he says. But Christopher Pearsall is happier these days.
Even before the shutdown, he enrolled at Old Dominion University, knowing only that he wanted “to stay out of manufacturing.” In the spring of 2007, Pearsall applied for a $15-an-hour internship at Concursive Corp., a software company in downtown Norfolk.
He became a full-time product manager in August, even before he got his degree from ODU. In the job, Pearsall scouts marketplace trends and helps decide which features to include in software.
At Ford, Pearsall said he earned overtime and annual pay of $140,000. His salary at Concursive is $60,000 a year.
He works fewer hours at Concursive – 40 hours a week. He can’t, however, leave his work behind, as he did at Ford, when his day is done.
“It’s fun and challenging, but it weighs on you. You’re constantly thinking about your job. The to-do list goes home with you.”
TIM TAYLOR
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Tim Taylor used his severance from Ford to open a hot dog restaurant.
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When Tim Taylor was a boy, his father joked all the time about wanting to start a hot dog place. But Tim became an electrician, and spent 14½ years at Ford, primarily helping maintain the heating and air-conditioning systems.
After the plant closed, he opened Tim Dogs , which serves Hormel hot dogs and fries in Moyock, N.C., about three miles from the state line.
He used “a lot” of his pre-tax $100,000 buyout from Ford to get the business going.
He opened too late last year to capitalize on the summer crowds, but he’s hoping the next few weeks turn around, with the rush of tourists headed to the beaches and students returning home.
“It’s been a long year,” Taylor said. “It’s had its good and bad. I really need for this summer to be a good summer. This is what I’ve been working toward all year.”
STEVE TISDALE
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Steve Tisdale has filed for bankruptcy and has completed most of a college degree since leaving the Ford plant.
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It’s been a rough year for Steve Tisdale, 44, of Elizabeth City, N.C., but he holds out hope for a better future.
Tisdale had worked at Ford for 11 years, ending as an inspector in the trim department in December 2006. Last July, the month after the plant closed, he and his wife separated.
The economic hardship “played a big role, and we kind of went our separate ways,” Tisdale said.
Then, last month, he filed for bankruptcy. Even after the $100,000 pre-tax buyout from Ford, he was more than $100,000 behind on his house and car payments.
The beacon that keeps him from depression is his pursuit of a marine biology degree at Elizabeth City State University. After he receives his bachelor’s degree next summer, he hopes to get a job in a secondary school, following in the teaching footsteps of his mother and two uncles.
CHRIS BARNES
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Chris Barnes finds his new job as a Virginia Beach firefighter exciting, but he missed the $100,000-plus he made some years at Ford.
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When he was at Ford, life was less nerve-wracking for Chris Barnes .
“I didn’t have to worry about a lot of things, like making sure the bills get paid every month,” said Barnes, 34, of Chesapeake. “Now it’s a struggle sometimes.”
Counting overtime, Barnes said, he sometimes made more than $100,000 a year in his factory job. Now he has a $38,000 -a-year salary as a Virginia Beach firefighter. His wife, Christine, whom Barnes met at Ford, stays home with their six boys, ranging from 9 months to 12 years old.
He likes his new job better – the excitement, the power to help people at their neediest. But he misses the money he earned at Ford. Barnes spent 13 years at the plant.
In October , he joined Station 2 on Haygood Road.
KEISHA JOHNSON and KIM THOMAS
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Kim Atkinson Thomas and two of her sisters have become entrepreneurs, opening a gym for youngsters in a former warehouse.
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Sisters Keisha Atkinson Johnson and Kim Atkinson Thomas plan to open Jungle Gym LLC in partnership with another sister late next month at the site of a former warehouse and baseball batting cage on Dean Drive in Virginia Beach.
They’ve sunk about $250,000 of Ford buyout and their own investment money into the business. They plan nothing but success.
Thomas had been with Ford for 12 years, working on the trim line; Johnson for 13½, in chassis.
The idea of the jungle gym appealed to the mothers in them; each has a 14-year-old child. For Johnson, it also made lots of business sense:
“No matter what the economy is, kids will always be there. Second, most parents will do almost anything for their children.”
Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com
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It's amazing
It's amazing how some people who sit behind a desk in AC all day or are just unhappy with themselves and their situations can judge others. Imagine if it were your mother, sister, husband etc. the attitudes would be totally different. I've read these comments and everyone is hollering America. Americans are losing their jobs everyday. Did you know over half the employees at NAP have college degrees and had thriving businesses, another trade or skill before coming to the plant? Now I ask with that in mind, if you were offered a job at Ford making more money than with a college degree which would you choose? It's common sense and when did being in an union become such a terrible thing? So those of you who are hollering unskilled workers proofread your comments first,correct your typos and grammar before bashing others because you sound so "unskilled". Go back to school, relocate, do what you hav
I guess misery loves
I guess misery loves company. No matter which way you look at that is yet another good paying blue collar job will be lost and that will not be replaced by another job that pays anywhere close to what those people were making. I personally work for the railroad and we routinely work 12 hours or more and are on call basically 24/7. So here is what it comes down to work long and hard and have something to show for it. Or barely work and have nothing.
Hours
If the pay quoted is actually for 4080 per yr......they were working cheap. Hard to determine where time and a half stopped and double time started accurately but some simple math puts it somewhere between $19 and $22 / hr. Not exactly what I would call "high wages". Benefit costs must have been incredible for the company to have worked people at those hours instead of hiring more help. We examined many studies years ago in the construction industry and productivity falls so far off after 60 hours a week it isn't even worth it. I've seen attempts at this and after a few months the guys were literally useless, fighting amongst themselves, and accident incident rates went through the roof.
Sounds like many were wise with the severance payment. Kudos to em. Sounds like resiliant Americans to me.
Ford
Ford just announced they are eliminating a shift at the Dearborn Truck Plant that, as I recall, about 400 workers transfered to when Norfolk closed.
Get the facts straight, F-Series sales were off 30.6% last month and the more expensive non-union built Toyota Tundra was down 31.5%. When Ford was making record profits in the 90's I don't remember everyone giving credit for it to the UAW so how do they deserve the blame today.
And no, I have never worked for Ford but I don't understand some people that seem to enjoy reading about the plant closure and the loss of 2,600 good paying jobs from the local economy.
Hmmm
While I'm not super fond of unions holding companies hostage, and I do believe the unions have high overhead themselves, I believe the salaries earned by the Ford workers are probably more in line with what everyone should be making in the USA (without the 12 hour days). In case you didn't notice, corporate executive pay has risen very heavily in the past 10 years, while working salaries when adjusted for inflation has slid backwards. Costs are rising, and the American populace is making due with the tool of debt. Look at the sales price of the product produced, look at how many the people produce an hour, and figure out if the employees are really costing them that much. Heck, look at mutual fund managers that can't beat index fund performance that take home tens of millions a year.
Envious bitter people!
Who said I was a line worker at Ford? Sorry to bust your bubble but I was making $24 before Ford and 60k+ as a blue collar non union worker in the 90's. I also will not get out of bed to urinate for less.
Ford does employ many people who are not assembly workers!
So now I shall sling some mud back. Just got back from Iraq? SO WHAT, you signed on the dotted line!
IT! as in information technology, hope you are at the top now because that train left the station when they started advertising careers for $600 on the radio.
Patriot, I don't have a dog in this fight but must point out....
"Do you work 12 hours a day most days and 7 days a week most of the year to earn what you earn?
What you saw were top scale wages with overtime hours in the 2000 hour range, how many hours do you work?."
I hope you are not saying total hours in the 2000 hour range. A "normal" work year (40 hrs wk and 52 wks yr) is 2080 hours. Someone working 2000 hours of overtime would be working almost 79 hours a week or over 11 hours a day, 365 days a year, nonstop for holidays etc. Is it just me or is that a bit hard to believe? I've worked 12 hours a day 7 days a week for 3 months before and I doubt anyone could do that for a year without a single day off. Something doesn't wash.
Doubt re-tooling for small cars would make a difference
I doubt re-tooling the plant for small cars would have made any difference. They have a lower margin and companies like Toyota are building them in the US at around 65% of the labor cost. People will always need trucks as there's always stuff to haul around. Try to do any significant work on your house and you'll be wishing you had one.
Knowing is half!
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
Warm feelings
This story touches my heart (sniff, sniff) poor X ford workers. Billy Joel is in town maybe he’ll sing Allentown you know the part “and the union people crawled awayyyyy”
hard work
They (the Ford employees) worked hard. It was bad managements who could not plan for the future who was at fault. Imagine if the Norfolk plant manufactured Ford electric or hybrid vehicles instead of the Truck. The plant would still be open.
Right on DUKE....
Put the so called "Patriot" in his place. Down with the money hungry union. And I'm an IT consultant so I doubt any of these EX union workers will effect my job :)~
As far as deserving the money, please, there are teachers, firefighters, police, EMTs, nurses and plenty of other skilled professionals that make half that. Just because you screw a bolt in 115 degrees for 12 hours doesn’t mean you are worth 100,000 a year.
This is why everyone is in this mess...
ENVY...everyone wants what someone else has. My comment was deleted because someone could not stand that i took my Ford Money and tripled it by being smart. Maybe if people worked harder and complained less, you would see a better quailty of life and more commas in your bank account. Again...don't you people watch Suze Orman? LOL
Union No
The reason the Ford Plant shut was the greedy UNION not corprate for once.. We all know who the union support so expect the country to follow Ford.. I am glad it happened to the Ford Plant>>> as are most I know.. Thank you union
Just say NO to unions
Now you know why the car that you purchase is so expensive. This is just another example of what voting democRAT costs each and every one of us. Just say NO to unions, vote NO for democRATS!!!
Patriot You Are Absolutely Right!!
Only the people who worked there know how much of their time was put into the plant and the product to make the kind of money reported. I do not think anyone is looking for sympathy here!
Ford Plant Worker
For many years I saw my dad come home so physically exhausted from working at the Norfolk Ford Plant that he could hardly get from his truck to the house. Working at the plant was very demanding work that I truly believe a lot of people have never done before. One of the previous comments mentioned the quality of American made vehicles, the plant was able to stay open from 1925 until last year making nothing but AMERICAN made vehicles. The plant fell victim to location, supply prices, and other cirumstances. The plant did suffer several shut downs during those years but like I stated that was due to economic situations that all businesses suffer.
My dad had to endure extreme indoor summertime temperatures in excess of 120 degrees and working conditions that were less than ideal. He earned EVERY PENNY that he received. I am extremely proud of my father for retiring from the Norfolk Ford Plant . He is a man of integrity, a man of pride, a man with a wonderful work ethic , and a man who his children and his grandchildren look up to because we all know how hard he worked to have what he has. He keep food on our plates, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our head and he did i
David.
The number one selling vehicle for over 25 years was the F150 truck built in North America (NORFOLK). Proves your statement wrong.
How much do you earn?
I hear the complaints about salary and have to ask are you satisfied with your salary and do you deserve more or not? Would you turn more money down if it was bargained for on your behalf? Do you work 12 hours a day most days and 7 days a week most of the year to earn what you earn?
What you saw were top scale wages with overtime hours in the 2000 hour range, how many hours do you work?.This plant closed because another was built to build the same product in Michigan, home of Ford and the UAW.
Do not think this is an auto worker issue alone because it is not and anyone in the manufacturing industry has or will be effected by unfair trade laws and the trickle down effect will get everyone in some way.
Ask your customer service rep on the phone next time where they are?
you people just love to hate on the union wages!!!
But if you people knew the physical toll that working at that plant took on one's body, you wouldnt be so quick to throw the salary comments. not only is it a very dangerous environment with all the robotics and equipment, forklifts, standing for 10-12 hours, repetitive movement, but there was no air conditioning...temperatures would reach 112 and 115 degrees in there in the summer... not to mention the STRESS these men and women endured in the name of workmanship, ensuring that Norfolk Assembly Plant remained NUMBER ONE QUALITY PLANT in the COUNTRY.
I make no apologies for my husbands salary, and i find your comments shrouded in hate and jealousy. His blood, sweat and tears made that plant what it was.