Darin Gilley of Pacific, MO

Darin Gilley, 45, worked for Integram St. Louis Seating in Pacific, Missouri for more than 17 years before he was laid off last October. President of UAW Local 1760, he’d worked almost every job at Integram and had risen to a production operator.

Integram made seating for the Dodge Chrysler minivans, a historically profitable, stable company that won numerous awards using an Integram’s exclusive system that molded foam and fabric to make comfortable, state of the art seating.

“There were actually 509 different types of seats that you could choose from in a Chrysler minivan,” says Gilley. “This was the most complex seating program in the nation.”

It came as a surprise to Integram workers, therefore, when the plant had to cut the first set of shifts. Called the “Valentine’s Day Massacre” by some of the employees, the 2007 cuts caught people by surprise, says Gilley, because they had been working a lot of overtime. In 2008, the plant finally closed.

“Chrysler is a huge employer and with Integram employing about 800 people, the plant was the largest employer in [Pacific] in general,” says Gilley. “The next largest was the school district.”

Many workers at Integram had worked there as long as Gilley, and the crews had become tight friends and were each other’s social circles.

“It was difficult to see them walk out [on the last day],” says Gilley. “I had tried to make sure that they received all the benefits that they were able to get, but some people have not looked for work for 18, 19 years.”

“In a regular economy, this wouldn’t be a problem,” Gilley continues. “But Ford closed in 2006 and there are many others. So there are not a lot of suppliers and a lot of unemployed people.”

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Diane Walsh of Dayton, OH

As worker for Delphi for 32 years, Diane Walsh, 52, worked in just about any job the plant had: ball joints, seat pads, motor mounts, brake hose, and in the lab.

Her first job, though, sounds the best.

“I started out working on the Camero dash pads,” she says with a laugh.

Before the Delphi plant closed in December 2008, it produced parts for GM. When Diane first started she says there were close to 8,700 people working at Delphi; when the plant closed, there were only about 300 left. And Delphi is not the only plant to have closed. Dayton has seen around five plant closures in the past year.

“The the last day we had what we called a ‘Last Supper,’” says Walsh, laughing. There wasn’t much to do in the plant during that last week, she noted. But up until the last minute people were sure that the plant would pull through.

“I think people were still in denial, they couldn’t believe that a manufacturing plant that large could close their doors. But they did,” says Walsh.

While Diane now works as a full-time babysitter for her grandchildren, a job with which she is pretty happy, she’s looking into going back to school and getting her nursing degree.

“I’m still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up,” she says. “I never thought I would go back to school at my age.”

Many of Walsh’s friends and former colleagues are in the same boat, looking for work in job sectors they never thought they would enter. And with all the plants closing, the city of Dayton is suffering.

“The foreclosure rate here is awful,” Walsh says. “It worries me what kind of town this will become. It used to be that if you wanted tools, you came here. We had a lot of production and you could go from one good job to another. Now, there is no industry left.”

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Dennis Leazier of Fort Wayne, IN

Dennis Leazier, 48, has worked at the Dana Corporation in Fort Wayne, Indiana for 19 years. The president for USW 903, Leazier works as an electrician at the plant, which produces parts for Jeep, Ford and GM.

Leazier’s has deep roots to the USW, his father was also once the president of the union as well when working in the auto industry was a bit more secure.

Over the past couple of years Leazier has watched the Dana Corporation, a once bustling company, cut its employee ranks from 2,000 to 200. While Leazier is grateful to still be employed at Dana, many of his friends and colleagues are having trouble finding other employment in Fort Wayne.

“They don’t have anywhere to go,” he says, noting that while the auto industry has been particularly hit in recent months, the current economy is not hospitable for those who are just now seeking employment after working at one job for 20, 30, sometimes even 40 years.

“I had people around 40-years old going out to train on computers,” Laezier says. “How can they compete [for a job] with a young person who has used one all their life?”

With many of the other industries in Fort Wayne hit hard as a result of the economy and the decline in the auto industry, union members are pulling together resources to build a food bank for laid-off workers.

Floor workers at Dana recently donated $1,200 so that Leazier could go by food and other essentials to distribute to families facing hard times.

“I try to keep our guys out of the food-banks out there for everyone else,” says Leazier. “We’re going to try and keeping helping ourselves.”

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