I got laid off. It makes sense, though. I'll explain something here that I wouldn't have while I was still involved with the company. It has to do with the organization doing something a little amoral, and if it got too widespread, they might get in trouble. Not much I could do to sink them, though, even if I am famous enough to be a recommendation on Google, and it's not like they could ask us not to talk about it.
They had a contract with Ford that said they would have all the clutches and axles made by this machine they spent 7 million dollars on. But the machine didn't work from the moment it got in. So they had to hire temps to replace the machine. One day, someone from Ford showed up, and we all had to do different things sothe company wouldn't get caught.
Eventually, the machine got working, but, while it was faster than Afternoons and Days, it couldn't beat Nights, and Ford was asking for more parts than the machine could make. So they transferred the one guy they wanted to keep to Nights, and laid off everyone that wasn't Nights.
Well, yesterday, they got the machine running faster, somehow. This time, it was making 10 parts for every 8 that we could. They didn't waste time laying us off.
But, see, they used to have two teams of people making parts, which was what was considered the machine's competition. Six people vs. one machine. They never replaced the second woman, and they took a person off of assembly, meaning the machine's production was being compared to one team of four, instead of two teams of three.
I thought I might be okay, even if my ability as an assembler had become obsolete. It was nine days until my contract ran out, and on the fateful day, they pulled me and another guy with my seniority off to go about one of our other tasks. When my friends in assembly showed concern about getting laid off because of the machine's enhancement, I felt I had been put in another place because they thought I could still do something. Apparently not.
But... you know. This company was really running a risk having us around, and the fact that they never lay off regular employees means they're probably pretty picky, and they don't have openings very often.
They didn't even tell us to our face. They told the agency and the agency called us. I didn't get the call, because I was sleeping, but they left me a message saying that they had more work for me. I talked to another person who got laid off, and he said they'd already found him work.
Makes sense. I survived every layoff except the last one. Of the fifteen people who they originally sent, only four people made it that far. Nobody made it further, and it was one of those four's last day (he never told the agency or the company that, though. He must have been laughing when he got the call). There were also many replacements that got offed along the way. I've proven myself to them that I'm a profitable client.
On top of that, Guelph's reached pre-recession levels of employment. Remember the positive response to my applications when I came back? That had nothing to do with me!
The rest of Canada's still sunk, though. This success is Guelph-exclusive.
If I get another factory job, it'll probably be worse, though. I liked my coworkers, I got to sit down sometimes, got to talk. It was clean, quiet, didn't require much heavy lifting... It sucked, but for a factory job, it was the jackpot. Of the four factories I'd worked in, it was my favourite. It's all downhill from here.
CWY has given me the option of deciding my program focus and what continent I want to be placed. I didn't know they'd give me a choice! I wish they'd notify me, though, because they only slipped it into my file, and they put a time limit on it. It's got to be decided by the end of the month.
My focus options are:
-Environmental
-Agricultural
-Health
Agricultural focus takes place on a farm, where I'd participate in daily tasks.
Continent choices:
-Latin America
-Africa
-Eastern Europe
-Asia
Of the fifteen groups they showed, five were female exclusive. In Katimavik, even though gender was supposed to be balanced, every one had a majority females. I guess CWY is compensating for the female majority of applicants. I wonder why women are more interested in programs like these?
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That's not the only amoral thing the company is doing, but they have lots of company with it. Provincial law says that if a company hires someone for longer than 3 months, they have to provide benefits (paid sick leave, contributions on the worker's behalf to Canada Pension and Unemployment Insurance, maybe even dental coverage, etc.). So now many, many companies will only hire people for three-month contracts, even if they actually need those people all the time. Lynna has a friend who was caught in that trap; had worked for years for the company, as a bookkeeper, but just kept having his contract renewed. Finally he made some changes in procedure that only he knew about, and the next time his contract was up, he told them he would be looking for another job. Guess what? They hired him permanently. Unfortunately that sort of thing wouldn't work in a factory job.
ReplyDeleteYou have done very well sticking to that job, finding ways to make it bearable! A character-builder if nothing else ...
Of course US law is vastly different – I'm not sure there's any requirement at all to provide benefits for "temporary" workers – but I did work for about 6 months for a large company here in Indianapolis that had a surprising twist on that policy.
ReplyDeleteGranted, the time in question was much greater (I think it was 18 months), but that was the maximum amount of time you could have someone on a contract ... and once that time was up, the contract automatically expired, and you could not perform the same function or work in another capacity within that division for 3 or 6 months, I forget which. (The idea was to prevent exactly what you describe: setting up a series of contracts to create a "permanent" position without benefits.)
Given that it was entirely voluntary to do so, I thought it was a nice touch. Of course, that reflect on the state of society down here, doesn't it? It's "nice" that I couldn't work more than 18 months without benefits ... which, of course, covers basic things like vacation time and health insurance. (Most staffing agencies offer benefits in that situation, though. If you've worked more than 30 hours per week, I think, for 90 days, you're eligible for health insurance and such. Again, not impressive at all, but it could be worse.)
I never worked directly in a factory (I worked part-time in the cafeteria of one for a few months), so I can't say from experience, but it does seem like you got a good placement, this one that's just run out. Hopefully the next bit of work is along the same lines (or better) ...