PROBABLY NOT THE BEST IDEA...

to blog right now.  But I'm going to do it anyway.

Life has been slowly but surely beating me down the last few months.  And though I've tried to put on a happy face and deal with it, I've reached the point where I need to break down so I can try to let it all go.

(forewarning:  this is going to be an extreme pity post.  stop reading now if you don't want to hear it.  I completely understand!)

A very good friend is in the midst of a health crisis.  And I've been thinking about her a lot lately.  I hope to be able to be there for her in any and every way I possibly can.

I have also been sick more than I have been well this year.  I've had cold, after cold, after cold.  Some were worse than others.  Several episodes laid me out completely for a couple of days.  Unfortunately, more often than not, I had to suffer through these colds at work because I couldn't afford not to go to work and risk loosing my job.  As has been the case with a lot of people I work with, which is probably why I kept getting sick in the first place.

Speaking of work:  the news there has gone from bad to worse really fast.  We started the year with my job being downsized and I got bumped to a new position.  I was glad to be able to stay on day shift, but had a really hard time getting used to doing a more physical job.  I did pretty good at getting used to it, and was even beginning to enjoy it, then BAM!  The announcement that our whole plant is being shut down permanently, and our jobs are being shipped to Mexico and the companies other plant here in MI.

The really confusing, sucky thing about this to me is, my new job had been created to supplement the fact that our Mexico facility couldn't keep up with their production requirements.  I wish someone could explain that mentality to me.  If they couldn't keep up with the partial workload they had, why would you give them all the work.  I'll tell you why, at least in my opinion, because you could pay them (Mexican work force) a third of what you pay us.  Money is always the bottom line isn't it!

For years we produced and recorded record profits for our company, but that wasn't enough.  They (company executives) wanted more, under the guise of what was constantly called being competitive in the "Global Market".  So a year ago we went on strike for 89 days to try to maintain some form of fair wage and got shafted.  Not only by our company, but also by our union representatives.  And now they are doing it to us one last time.  Our company has been fighting to re-open the contract they agreed to last year to get more concessions from us.  And without the workers ever being able to speak on the issue, our union representatives decided to fight to the death.  And the announcement of that death came two days ago.  It is over and we are done!  As of May 8th over 500 more workers will be out of work.  Needless to say we lost everything!

I am much more fortunate than most of the people I work with.  As a single woman with no children, my survival will be easier than most.  It's going to be hard, but not impossible.  This companies shifting it's business to Mexico is a major loss for the workers here, for the city the plant was located in (especially the businesses that relied on us as their customer base), for the state that already has documented the highest rate of un-employment in the US, and for the country as a whole.

I would never have thought that after fourteen years I would be over forty and out of work.  But here I am.  Some people think things may still change, but I'm not holding out any false hope.  This has been our CEO's agenda for quite some time, and I don't think he is going to change it now that it's actually become a probability.

Since I'm sure I have bored/ranted/and whined long enough for most of you to tolerate.  I'm going to shut up now, take some meds for my pounding headache, and go back to bed.

Pray for the future of us all!  We are all going to need it!