My hometown of Dayton sits in the center of America's rust belt. For decades we relied on safe, middle-class factory jobs to build and sustain our community. And for a long time, we thrived.
Not anymore. Now, many auto jobs in the area pay so little that they have more in common with positions at Walmart or McDonald's. That's why auto workers at the Creative Foam plant here in Dayton are voting to join the United Auto Workers next week, so we can win back the good jobs that families in our city deserve.
When I started at Creative Foam two years ago I was paid just $8.75 an hour, despite the fact that I make auto parts for billion-dollar companies like Ford, GM, Mercedes, and Toyota. The pay was nowhere near enough to support myself or my daughter, but the company promised me that after 90 days, I would become permanent staff and receive a raise.
Those 90 days turned into 8 months. And other workers stuck at $8.75 an hour across the factory were asking the company the same thing: Where is the permanent position you promised? Where is my raise? Where are my benefits?
Eventually I was hired on as permanent staff, but the promise of a decent pay raise never came true -- instead, I got a tiny bump to just $10.50 an hour.
These same low wages are now undercutting factory workers all across the state: Today, one out of every four manufacturing workers in Ohio is paid less than $12.43 an hour. And as a result, nearly one-in-four manufacturing workers in the state now relies on public assistance programs like food stamps or Medicaid to support themselves or their families. If we had a union, we could come together to fight for the decent pay that auto workers at my plant, and at plants all across the state, urgently need.
A union would also give us a voice on the job so we can speak up when management tries to deny workers important benefits like medical leave, as I experienced last fall when I was diagnosed with lymphoma.
After my diagnosis, I was given three months disability leave to beat the tumors attacking my cells and to recover from the chemo that was killing everything -- good and bad -- in my body. After three months, my cancer was still not in remission, but the company said my options were either to return to work, or lose my job.
It seemed like an impossible choice, but my daughter relies on my paycheck, and so I did what any mother would do and went back to work. It was physically and emotionally exhausting to work, and my doctor feared I was hurting myself further from exposure to chemicals.
Management may not have supported me, but my coworkers did. They comforted me on days when I cried from the pain, and told jokes to lift my morale. They even went to management and fought for me to win another leave. I was reminded of my time as a union worker at a Chrysler plant, where my coworkers looked out for one another like we were family.
Now I'm returning the favor and fighting for them because no one should have to suffer through the humiliation, fear and pain that I did. I'm voting to join the UAW because I know that if we band together, we can bring about the changes in pay and benefits that we so desperately need.
The job I have today isn't the kind of job that helped build Dayton, or the rest of the towns throughout the rust belt. It's not the kind of job that I want my child, or the child of my neighbor, to inherit. But by coming together in a union, I know we can win back the good factory jobs that our community needs.