(Author’s Full Name)
(Institution Name)
Factory workers are the backbone of the economy. They blend machine and manpower to provide steady industrial growth, economic prosperity and revenue inflow. In the United States of America, factory workers have represented and reinforced the concept of hard-working, middle-class Americans since the early 20th Century. The ideals of “Living the American Dream” has largely been inspired by the factory workers; a philosophy that epicenters hard-work, sacrifice and making an honest living. However, with the turn of the century, the conditions of factory workers have changed drastically and as we head towards modernization, computerization and globalization, the future of factory workers is like a deep and dark abyss.
I am an employee of Caterpillar Inc., a construction equipment provider. I work at the company’s plant in East Peoria, located in Tazewell Country (Illinois), and my job is to install fenders on tractors and to maintain the hydraulics line at the morning shift. This seemingly simple and attractive job sounds reasonable enough to anyone; however, the reality of the situation is far from what it seems to the third person. .
Currently, a father to a 7-year old daughter whose custody I share with my ex-girlfriend, I only earn up to $ 15.57 per hour. My employer does not provide me or my family with any medical allowance, benefits or health insurance. Such a meager pay is insufficient to make my ends meet. I’m barely left with anything after paying my rent and child support money. As a consequence, I often seek financial assistance from my parents and my close friends in other parts of the state to buy my monthly groceries and pay my utility bills.
The provision of water in East Peoria is inadequate with a lot of calcium deposits. This makes everyday cooking, cleaning and sanitation extremely difficult. We often live without bathing for two to three days. A large population of our town lives well below the poverty line.
Everyday meals primarily comprise of simple toast or porridge in the morning. That is the only meal I get to share with my daughter during the whole day when she comes to stay with me. My shift begins at 9am. My job is challenging, requires constant attention and working conditions are hazardous. Although our union has appealed to the management at Caterpillar to provide us with safe working conditions and a better remuneration package, they pay no heed. In fact, they’d rather remind us how grateful we should be for having a job in a time of the great recession.
As my shift ends at 5pm, I head down to the local grocery store where I work as a part-time employee till 9pm every day to earn extra. The grocery store pays $ 5 an hour. Furthermore, it does not provide any discounts to its employees on the purchase of groceries and, being the only grocery store in the vicinity, we have no other option, but to buy our groceries from here.
As I head back to my home by 10pm, my daughter is already asleep. I quietly open the fridge and seek out whatever I could find for dinner, be it toast, muffins or any other snack. I watch TV till midnight as our town hosts several commercial broadcasts centers such as Week-TV and Channel 25.
On the weekends (which is only Sundays for me), I like to hang out with my friends at a local bar, go fishing or sometimes drive down to the nearest city, Chicago.
Works Cited
Cancino, A. (2012, October 03). You Can't Lead A Good Life On A US Factory Job any more. Retrieved from Chicago Tribune: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-factory-workers-used-to-live-pretty-good-lives-but-not-anymore-2012-10
Kennedy, G. (2012, January 04). The Future Of The American Factory Worker. Retrieved from writingforgodot: http://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/78-78/9270-the-future-of-the-american-factory-worker
