CHAPTER TWO - HALFWAY HOME

I was hired at Bridgestone Tire Company at Lavergne Tennessee in the Fall of 1987. My situation at Cumberland- Swan had improved to the point that my boss called me into his office one day and asked me what it would take to keep me there. My salary was 20,000 a year at Swan but I would more than double my salary at Bridgestone. Starting pay there was 45,000 a year before built-in raises over a 6 month period until I topped out. My insurance package and benefits would be far superior to anything I had at Swan. After I told my supervisor this he acknowledged that there was no way they could match what Bridgestone was offering me. He shook my hand and wished me well. I was extremely grateful to him for believing in me and giving me the chance to prove myself.

 At Bridgestone I started off in Department 123, Stock Prep. We cut steel belt and innerliner stock for the TBR tire room. TBR stands for Truck, Bus, Radial. In the tire room they built tractor trailer and bus tires. When I started working there the company was expanding our plant to include a PSR plant. PSR stood for Passenger, Steel, Radial. When the plant became operational they would build passenger tires for cars and pick-up trucks. This plant did not become operational until sometime in 1988. We had four different eight hour shifts and I worked all of them at one time or another. There was a permanent day shift, permanent swing shift and permanent midnight shift. Then there was a Mad Dog shift that would give days off to the other three shifts since we were a 24/7 operation.

 I trained on day shift and I couldn't believe how laid back everything was. It was if I had died and gone to job heaven. Having been in management I worried about how lax everything was which was an indication that management was terrible at Bridgestone. I was making the best money I had ever made in my life and I was afraid that Bridgestone's management was going to drive the company into the ground. I wanted the company to prosper so I could prosper. Most of the stock cutting machines had a operator and a helper. I was a helper and not trained to run the machine. My machine was operated by a woman who was more concerned with her looks than doing her job. Many times when the machine stopped I would look back and see her checking her make-up. Or she would just walk off and be gone for anywhere from a half hour to an hour. We were lucky if the machine ran four hours out of an eight hour shift. 

 The supervisor would walk by and never ask why we were down or even act interested. Over time I finally moved to a machine that I operated myself and I didn't have to wait for anyone to get anything done. Each machine had a shift standard that we had to meet and I got mine almost everyday. Once we reached standard we were allowed to sit down until the end of our shift. After a while I developed a system where I could read and work at the same time. A maintenance man made me a book holder and I turned pages between cuts. Supervisors would walk by and never say anything because I was getting standard most of the time and my quality was good. I got a lot of reading done this way and I was in my own little world at work. After a while my cozy little world came to an end due to circumstances beyond my control.

  In the early 1990's the company was wanting to change our health insurance during contract negotiations with the union. They were wanting us to choose from their list of doctors. The union leadership was acting like it was the end of the world. I helped negotiate four union contracts at Colonial Baking Company and we knew that when the company came back with their final offer negotiations were over. We would then take the company's offer before the union membership. There would then be either an up or down vote. As a member of the negotiating committee I and the others would give our opinion on whether or not we should accept the contract before taking the vote. I always on the committee always recommended acceptance because unless the company's offer was totally unacceptable you lose much more than you gain when you strike. If you have leverage, then a strike is more feasible. For example, if all the union bakeries went out on strike at once. If your bakery is the only one walking off the job you have very little leverage and potentially much to lose. 

 By the time I went to work for Bridgestone I was more conservative and my fondness for Unions had waned considerably. Especially for the United Steelworkers Union. Even in my days as a union leader at Colonial I always had mixed emotions about unions. I didn't care for the mob mentality, thuggery, and socialistic nature of unions. In sweatshops like Colonial I did see that they were a  necessary evil. During election season for union officers at Bridgestone there would be an endless parade of people visiting your machine. They would hand out business cards and ask for your vote for various union positions. Once the election was over most of them would not be seen again until the next election. The exceptions were the safety representative and insurance representative. Both were good men and very conscientious about their jobs.

 The union representatives were paid their regular salary while they filled their office terms  at the union hall doing whatever it was that they did over there. Some took advantage of this time and used it to their personal advantage. One union president managed to get a law degree during the time he was in office. This was their ticket out of Bridgestone. They seemed to be more interested in everything but the union membership. Usually political activities like getting radical leftists elected president or supporting radical causes like Jesse Jackson's Rainbow coalition and abortion rights. When I went to work for Bridgestone my attitude was this. I didn't like the union and I didn't want to be a union leader again. If they were going to negotiate raises and benefits for me, however; I felt that it was only fair to pay union dues. 

 We were told to meet at Nissan's Union Hall on Murfreesboro road near Nissan in Smyrna. The UAW had been trying to organize Nissan for years without success. I was livid when I heard our union president say that he was not going to let the membership vote on the contract. They were taking us out on strike regardless of what we thought. The Union wouldn't even reveal what the company was offering us. I was so mad that I refused to walk the picket line and within just a few days the strike began falling apart. Primarily because so many union members were as upset as I was over how the union leadership took us out against our will. People were crossing the picket line left and right.

 The union had led us right into a trap. Bridgestone had pulled their offer off of the table and we were forced to sign a bad contract. We lost benefits, holidays, paid birthdays, and were forced to work twelve hour shifts. The thing that made me the maddest was our new insurance package was the better than what we had before the strike and the insurance package was the main thing that the union had walked out over. I never forgave the Union for their handling of this situation. The twelve hour shifts were a curse as far as I was concerned and I could never view my job the same after that. When we went to twelve hours I managed to keep the machine that I was working on but I was bumped to the grave yard shift which was 6 at night until 6 in the morning. I tried to adapt to the new hours but I couldn't sleep during the day. 

 In order to get off of midnight shifts I put in for a tire building job in PSR and got the job because work was so hard over there few people wanted those jobs. I built passenger tires for sixteen years after I landed in PSR. It was one of the hardest jobs I ever had and was fast paced but at least I was off of midnight shifts. We worked five 12 hour shifts one week and 2 the next, barring overtime. The long week was Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and the short week was Wednesday and Thursday. This schedule sounds great to many people but I worked so hard when I was there, especially on the long weekend, that I was constantly tired. I dreaded coming in on Monday morning so much, after the three day weekend, that It almost spoiled my time off because going back to work on Monday morning was all that I could think about. Working that hard and fast while pulling on rubber to build a tire takes a toll on your body. Many of the health problems that I have in retirement right now I can  blame to a great degree on those 12 hour shifts.