Shop Talk Weather

The speaker recounts their experiences during a stormy week at work. They talk about the heavy rain and thunderstorm on Wednesday, and how in the past, the company provided socks but not shoes for employees working in wet conditions. They then describe their experience on Thursday when there were severe thunderstorm watches and tornado warnings. They share how they alerted their family and union rep about the approaching storms and express frustration with the lack of accountability and compassion from management. They also mention the importance of coworkers looking out for each other and end with a humorous sign-off. What we've got here is failure to mutate. Hey, good Saturday morning, Friday night. Hey, I'm B-Crew. It's Friday night, woo-hoo! What a week. What a week. B-Crew got to go home early. Where's the stuff? Don't know. Some people needed to communicate and just let the children go outside and play and let the adults talk. That's about it. Wow, what a day, yeah. But also what a week. Wow, Wednesday there was a thunderstorm and that was a bad storm and everybody got to leave, the tire hole had to stay in, we stayed and filled up the overhead because we can never keep up to the rest of the plant if everything runs smooth and we don't run smooth. So we stayed and it was downpouring, did it downpour on you guys, everybody else leaving? Because by the time we got done and we're leaving, the rain let up for some a little bit and it was a good lightning show. But there was rain coming in the back and wow, that was something. We had worse rains before. Don't let anyone say anything to you, but we had worse rains before and years ago, people in Chassis were stepping and walking in water to get to their jobs. So somebody in management thought it'd be a great idea to go to Meijer to buy, do you remember when Meijer was open 24 hours? Yeah, I did too. And they went out and bought socks, dry socks for the people to wear and the union leadership looked at them and says, what about their shoes? Their shoes are wet. Send everybody home. I just say, hey, this is kind of how important these vehicles are to the company. That, you know, management's trying to fight to keep it open and keep us running. But yeah, Wednesday night, wow. And then Thursday, Thursday, I got to tell you about my Thursday. You're all welcome. I saved your life. No, I'm looking at the radar. I love thunderstorms. I love meteorology. I've been fascinated with it since I was a little kid. And I'm looking and there's reports of thunderstorms coming by for round two on Thursday. And then I'm looking at the radar and like Lansing's about to get hit. Then there's reports Lansing got hit by a tornado. And I'm looking, this stuff's coming our way. So I'm texting my union rep, hey, we got severe thunderstorm watches and, you know, anything? And I didn't hear from them. And then it gets a little closer and there was a tornado warning in Lapeer County. And then about 10 minutes later, it wasn't there anymore on the webpage I was going to. And I was like, okay, well, it's gone. And so I'm texting the unit rep again and showing the radar, hey, you know, this is going to be bad. And, you know, when there was warnings going on. And then next thing you know, my daughter who lives in Belleville, she's sending out a screenshot. We got tornado warnings and telling us to take cover and everything in Belleville. And I just told her, grab your cats, go into the bathroom, you know, wait there about half an hour and let us know how things are. And so I sent that over to the union rep. He's like, let me get a hold of health and safety. Okay. And I get another screenshot from my son, you know, hey, tornado warning. And I'm, union rep, where's he at? He's in Chansey too. So I was going to the bathroom, I round the corner and I'm looking and everybody's walking off the frame line and axle line. Says to the team leader, hey, they're all leaving. And he gets on his phone and next thing you know, like we're all going over to the brick house there. Too many people inside, so people are gathering outside. I go into the pit where the box line is and, you know, letting my kids know, hey, we're okay over here and we're all doing inventory, my kids and I, and my granddaughter wanted everybody to report and check in, so I'm checking into a 10-year-old. But I'm asking people, like, do you remember when's the last time we had a tornado drill? And is anybody in management, you know, trying to do accountability? Because I don't think they know about tornadoes. Tornadoes don't just blow things around. They're a giant vacuum. And if you study tornado videos and, you know, there's one that was really bad years ago. It picked up a house, a house, and then it tore it all apart while it's in midair. Tornadoes, they have, you know, you can't tell the speed of, you know, if it's an EF0123, you don't know until after the storm is gone and, you know, you got to assess the damage. They can pick up semi-trailers, and we got a bunch of them. They can pick up those frames. We got a bunch of those. And nobody knew exactly where to go for accountability. There was no accountability. There was just everybody go over here and then, oh, we can go back to work now. Okay, did anyone's house get hit? Did anybody, you know, are their families okay? Something. There's no compassion coming from management. And that's my biggest complaint about all this. You know, somebody die in the plant and they want the line to keep running. Somebody, you know, dies at home, you know, and then later on that day, everyone's got to come into work. And they're all freaking out. Management just wants the line to run, you know. And another thing about, you know, the opposite weather, snow. You know that there's a storm coming and it's going to drop like a foot of snow. Some people got to travel, you know, 60 miles one way to get home. You know, they could...someone in management can figure, upper management can figure, hey, look, if we don't let these people go, they might get stuck in the snow and not make it home, you know. Slide off the freeway, something. So I figured that if management ain't going to give compassion, then it's up to the people on the floor to take it. When we had that 90 plus degrees and I told people, if you feel woozy, just step off the line. You know, they want to send you to labor, I'll stop by medical first. No one ever in my 27 years has come up and says, hey, you look like you need to sit down. No one's ever said that. Union, management, nobody. Coworker should say that. So we got to take care of each other. And yeah, that's the message for this week. See you all Monday, same bat time, same bat channel. One more time, let's go. And watch out for each other and have an awesome weekend. Don't make me come over there. I will not be pretty. See you later.