Desolate Wasteland

The desolate parking lot remains empty in front of Factory #36 at Buick Motor Division. But for all who worked in that motor plant, the memories remain alive and vibrant.

Plant #36 is all that is left of the once mighty Flint Buick factory complex. The rest, including the blood, sweat and tears of thousands who worked throughout the Buick complex, has been removed and bulldozed into history.

Personally, I know two men from my childhood, both supervisors, who were carried out dead from heart attacks during the middle of the shift. Men and women sacrificed and left a lot of themselves in those factories – all in the name of providing a living for their families.

Chevrolet in the hole, as it was known, is a desolate wasteland. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)will never allowe anyone to build on these factory sites without complete clean-up of everything toxic that lies underneath the concrete slabs.

My grandfather spent more than 35 years working for Chevrolet, learning his welder/repairman skilled trade. Funny thing is he said although the union provided him with a good living and a comfortable pension, he always thought a man should be able to work one-on-one with the employer without a middle man.

He was raised in an orphanage in New York City, where the survival of the strongest ruled in the early 20th Century.Society amongst men was bully based. Working out one’s problems was a task unto itself. This philosophy carried over to farm life and then to the factory floor. He always said things were rough; however, there was never a day when he was asked to do more than he was capable of handling. Before the sit down strike, many Flint workers felt a union was unnecessary. Of course, I am relaying this information secondhand, as my grandfather relayed it to me.

My father worked both sides of the fence and pretty much felt the same way as an hourly rate employee and as a supervisor, he always felt more at ease working one-on-one with management, as well as with the laborers under his oversight.

We should never look back in anger or despair at the demise of Flint’s factories – only with admiration for the countless thousands employed. Let our spirit always look forward to what we can do in Flint, not what someone or a company can do for us.