Sympathy from one who’s been there
As I sat down to watch the news recently, I heard the all-too-familiar sound that around 1,200 jobs were about to be lost. This is becoming a weekly thing in this country.
Upon hearing these jobs were at your Carrier location, I started to feel all the same feelings again. I once stood where you are. I was an employee at the ICP Corporation in Lewisburg that Carrier, or shall I say United Technologies, chose to close down. It is hard for me to describe the feelings one feels when they learn their livelihood is leaving town. One year later, the anger and the sadness remain.
Our “family” was a lot like yours. ICP had been there as long as I could remember. Just about every family in town had a friend or relative who worked there. My mom and dad raised three kids on his job at ICP. It is people like him I feel the saddest for.
My 10 years at ICP cannot compare to the 38 years he gave to them. Half of his life was devoted to a place that gave him two options: losing his insurance and finding another job at 59 or keeping his insurance and taking a 42 percent cut in his pension.
Wow! Could you ask for anything better? You spend half your life trying to have a little something for when you get older only to have it wiped away by corporate greed. That is basically what it all boils down to – the dollar bill.
Let me see, I guess you all have an attendance problem at your facility. Or maybe you just don’t put out quality work. Sound familiar? It does to me. You see we had the worst attendance problem. But from what I have been told we were selling units. Perhaps that was the problem. Whatever the reasons, please rest assured we know it was not your fault. I doubt Carrier will tell you that.
I guess the main thing I want to pass along to you, as sad as it sounds, is that you are not alone. And yes, life can go on without Carrier or United Technologies.
As I drive by the empty parking lot, I try to think of the positive aspects of what has come from this. Sometimes they are hard to see, but trust me, they are there. Life was not promised to be simple. Thank God for allowing you to have a job like this, and hold your heads high to show the pride you have in your work. Thanks UTC, for just letting me find it out before I spent the rest of my good years working for someone who values money over people.
Thinking of you all,
Denise Miller
2788 Finley Beech Road
Lewisburg, Tenn.