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9 December, 2001Chris Duplancich is a metalworker in the USA and a member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).
BY LAILA LARSEN KILDESGAARD AND DORTE MOZZA
Chris rolls his car up in front of the gas station and exclaims: "When there was a war on in the Gulf, we helped Kuwait, so it really annoys me that they've put up the gas prices again - but that seems to be their way of saying: Thank You." He fills up his van to go to the centre of Chicago to watch a baseball game. To many Americans, their car is their home away from home - with room for both sleeping and eating. Although gas prices are low seen from a European perspective, gas does represent a fairly large cost to an American family.
Chris Duplancich is an American metalworker. He works at the Nabisco plant in Chicago, the producer of the USA's most famous biscuit - "Oreo". Nabisco in Chicago is the biggest bakery in the world. Other parts of the Nabisco group produce other food items - crisps, mustard, nuts and breakfast cereals to mention just a few. The Nabisco Company is an international group. It has 107 plants all over the world and employs 50,000 people.
In 1994, they talked about moving part of the production down to Mexico, but that project has been shelved for now. Many American companies have focused on Mexico ever since the USA, Canada and Mexico concluded the NAFTA agreement. This is an agreement that establishes a free trade area consisting of those three countries.
One of the effects of the formation of NAFTA was that it became easy for companies in the various countries to move their production. Mexico soon became attractive, because wages, health and safety regulations and workers' rights were poorer than in the US and Canada. Trade unions have complained vehemently about the relocation of companies to Mexico and the worst examples of employers speculating in wages and working conditions are being weeded out.
The employees at the company reflect the ethnic multitude of the US. Chris' family came from Croatia. Most of his colleagues have their roots in Lithuania, Poland and Italy. Many of them are third generation workers at Nabisco and the average seniority of the employees is 18 years.
THE AMERICAN DREAM IS ALIVE
Chicago is known as "the windy city", since the winds from Lake Michigan often swirl across the city. A great deal of America's traditional industry has been gathered in this area the last 100 years and the city still prides itself as the workshop of the country. As in many other parts of the Western world, however, heavy industry is being replaced by other types of work. In today's Chicago, the number of employees in the health sector equals that of the manufacturing industry.
Contrary to many Western countries, until recently there has been largely no unemployment in the US. Going through Chicago, one sees lots of big signs offering jobs to passers-by. You can be the master of your own good fortune. The American dream is very much alive.
USA is the world's leading industrial nation. Productivity has grown steadily in the last decades. The New Economy is a concept coined here, where new investments and the use of information technology have triggered enormous economic growth in the last ten years.
At Chris' workplace, however, new technology is not a key feature. Much of the company's production equipment is 50 years old. This also applies to many of Chris' tools that have been handed down to him from his father. However, the New Economy and growing wealth are not nation-wide features.
LOTS OF MAC JOBS
The other side of the medal is not hard to see. The great technological leap has led to a two-tier labour market. At the bottom is that half of the workforce that lacks training and technical skills. They get no wage increases and cannot afford health insurance or unemployment insurance. The many jobs offered in the streets of Chicago are in fact among the so-called "Mac jobs", i.e. working at minimum pay without any option of training or career, and with tips as the only way of making a bit extra.
The trade unions in the US are very much aware of the high pay increases that go to management, while their own members get none. Even for many reasonably well-off middle class families, developments are going in the wrong direction.
Many people see their credit card debts grow and they work longer and longer hours to make ends meet. Sometimes adult children move back to their parents, because they cannot afford to establish a home of their own. Many car dealers offer buyers a car against a pledge on the buyer's future wages. Chris and his family see the same thing where they live, but they make sure not to run up debts on everyday expenses.
WHAT ABOUT THE EURO-DOLLAR?
"What about that euro-dollar - is anything going to happen?" asks Chris, probably wondering whether the dollar is threatened as an international currency. As the totally dominant superpower, the US has many international commitments. The country is a member of all the big international organisations. One of them is NATO, where the US is the main force.
However, in their everyday lives, Americans are not all that interested in the world outside the US. Even if the Duplancich family loves to travel and Amy has her own booking agency, they have no plans of travelling outside the country.
To many American families, religion is a natural part of their family life. There are many activities relating to the church, and other institutions, such as schools and sports facilities, are connected with it. The Catholic church publishes a list of books and records that may be offensive so that parents can take the necessary precautions if they want to protect their children. However, some families have more than enough to do keeping their family and economy above the water. In the Duplancich family, there are strong values - seen clearly in their everyday life.
BUILDING A STEEL STAIRCASE
Christopher Duplancich (38), Chris for short, is a machinist and has worked since 1988 at Nabisco Biscuit Company in Chicago. The sparks are flying in the cold fluorescent light behind the plastic screen. Chris is building a steel staircase for one of the assembly lines to give the girls at the line easier reach. No daylight reaches the workshop, which is overfilled with machines. There used to be eight men working here. Now Chris works his shift alone. The room is dark with no windows, located at the centre of Nabisco's plant.
His assignments - four or five on each shift - are given to him by his shop foreman. In between he gets paged for emergency assignments over the radio, which he always carries at his breast pocket. However, since the production lines also have their own mechanics, that does not happen too often.
HIS OWN PRIVATE TOOLS
His work tempo is steady. He takes good care of the metal - and of the tools, which are his own private tools. Movements are deliberate and well-considered, there is no rush. That is the way people work when they have been at it since 2 a.m. and know that - again today - the working day will be 12 hours.
"I largely have a free hand in deciding how to solve my assignments. I take pride in doing things properly. That is why I appreciate this job, he says and pulls out a small notebook of work drawings," says Chris. It does not bother him to work such long hours. Almost everyone at the plant works these hours. And even if he would rather work a 40-hour week, there is no guarantee that he could. According to his contract and the agreement with the union, he is obliged to accept overtime work. This is an agreement much used by Nabisco and other companies.
The radio hisses and beeps. Chris has to go upstairs immediately to weld a hook to a plate. He rolls his tool trolley to the elevator. On his way, he exchanges a few words with a colleague on today's big news: Nabisco is the subject of an acquisition. Chris shrugs it off and cannot be bothered. "Well, it's the third time we have new owners while I have been here. It won't matter much to me anyway. I am not worried about getting sacked. There are so many things I can do, it would not be difficult to find another job," he says.
AN ADVANCED PLANT
The South Bakery is an advanced plant, featuring computer management and loads of bright steel. Working methods, on the other hand, are not all that advanced. At the production lines, the few employees sit and monitor that everything is going ok. Hour after hour. Autonomous groups are an unknown concept here. The same applies to job rotation. According to plant manager David R. Lamy, there are no plans at the moment to change that. The work in the North Bakery goes on in the same monotonous way, only at old, worn-down machines and ovens built in the fifties and sixties. The heat is nauseous and the work is hard. Signs have been put up all over the place - they deal with Nabisco Grand Prix 2000. According to management, this is an attempt at turning the company's objectives of better productivity, fewer faults, fewer accidents, etc., into a game. If you ask Chris, it's the workers' own fault that they get no more challenges at work. "Very few are prepared to assume responsibility. They are afraid of making the wrong decisions and getting sacked."
SELF-TRAINED IS WELL-TRAINED
Chris is back in his dark corner. He walks up to one of the other machines in the workshop and turns a lever. He knows how to operate all of the machines. And he is capable of carrying out all types of metal-processing - welding, soldering, bending, turning and all other elements.br> As most of his colleagues, he is not skilled. His father was a mechanic at an aircraft factory and had a small firm where he built industrial ovens in his spare time. He started training Chris when Chris was just 14. After high school, Chris attended a technical college for a couple of years to - as he puts it: "Get documentation of some of the things I already knew how to do". Since then, he has not attended any course or training program.
"I have always been eager to learn new things and I accept all types of new work assignments. It is important to know how to do as many things as possible; in that way you are better equipped to handle any assignment that comes up," he says.
FOUR WEEKS HOLIDAY
It is 11 a.m. Chris goes up to the very bright, almost comfortable, canteen to meet with colleagues from the other areas for half an hour's good-natured teasing during the meal. Having been employed for 12 years, Chris has just reached the level of four weeks holiday a year. After 20 years he can have five weeks, while after 25 years, he qualifies for six weeks' holiday, which is the maximum. New employees are only entitled to one week's holiday. Even so, Chris is considering to move to another job, where he can have about five dollars more per hour. Even if this means that he will only have one week's holiday a year.
"More money is more important than holidays. We have three kids and we want them all to get a good education. One year in college can easily cost 20,000 dollars," says Chris, who - for this reason - is also happy to work as much overtime as he can get. "In the American system, we always have to be worried about the future," he says. "Have we got enough money for our children's education? For retirement? What if I get fired? Whether you can manage, is all up to you. That is why I teach my children that whatever they want, they have to make sure to get it themselves."
HOME TO THE FAMILY
At 2 p.m. his shift is over. The next shift is coming in. Chris washes up, puts on his shorts and T-shirt and hurries to his car. Depending on the traffic, he is home in half an hour to three-quarters of an hour.
He is married to Amy (34) and has three children - Michelle (12), Tina (10) and Christopher (6), plus two-year-old golden retriever Tara. They live in their own house in Berwyn - a suburb of Chicago.
His wife Amy is still working in the basement. Not only does she have a hairdressing salon down there, she also sells family holidays for a travel agency. She works an average of 25 hours a week and those two jobs generate about 400 dollars a week when the costs of the salon and the taxes have been paid. Her income pays for the household expenditure, club memberships and other expenses like that.
"I have organised my work so as to be able to be there when the children get home from school," says Amy, stressing that it is necessary to have two incomes if the family is to make ends meet.
Amy does not have her own health insurance. The whole family is covered via Chris' work. The family was happy about that when their youngest child, Christopher, recently had a burst appendix. The hospital bill was well over 60,000 dollars.
Amy does not have her own pension scheme either, but that does not worry her too much. If she and Chris were to split up, she is entitled to half his pension.
TIME WITH THE CHILDREN
Today's meal is thick, well-grilled sausages with pasta and salad. For dessert, Amy made a verdigris green, extremely sweet marshmallow pudding. Today's meal might also have been a pizza from the local pizza bar. The family often gets food delivered to the house.
After the meal, Chris and his son are off to the baseball grounds. Chris is a coach. And if Chris is not the coach of a team where one of his children plays, he goes with them anyway.
"I won't leave my children to a coach unless I know him really well," he says. For the same reason, the children go to a private Catholic school connected to the local church where the whole family goes to mass every Sunday, if possible. The cost is about 6,000-7,000 dollars a year before church, school, school books and uniforms have been paid for.
"In a school in the public system, there is no way of knowing what kind of friends they would have. Those schools almost only have children from families that cannot afford a private school. In addition, it is important for us to know the values and morals that the children are taught," says Amy.
SPORTS ARE IMPORTANT
Michelle and Tina share a very cosy, pink girls' bedroom, while Christopher has his own room full of baseball trophies. Sports are very important in the children's lives. The two girls spend their summer holidays playing basketball at a nearby school every day. Chris and Amy both grew up in the area. Amy's parents still live in the same house where Amy was born, just a couple of hundred feet away. The couple married when he was 23 and she was 20. At that time they had been dating for five years and she was pregnant. Chris has renovated the house at Home Avenue himself - from top to bottom. His skills as a jack-of-all-trades are one of the reasons why the family has no fear of unemployment.
The assessment value of their house is about 190,000 dollars and their debt service for interest and repayment is just over 1,400 dollars a month. The house will be paid in full in four years' time.
"At that time the children are so grown-up that the costs of their education will really make themselves felt. That is why we have chosen to pay the house as quickly as possible," Chris explains.
HIS PARENTS DIVORCED
The next afternoon after work, Chris is quite ecstatic. The Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees, two legendary baseball teams, have a game at Chicago Stadium. Chris walks round the kitchen talking frantically into a phone that is "glued" to his ear. He is using all his connections to try to get tickets. He makes it! We go in his car - well, with its nine seats it is more like a small bus, really. Very convenient when you have three kids that need to be taken to all sorts of activities all the time. Amy has her own car and she brings the children to school and picks them up after school.
The White Sox, the home team, win the match. Chris is jubilant. Even if it is so late that he can barely stay awake on the way home. But tomorrow, fortunately, is a Saturday when Chris is not working overtime. So he can have a long lie-in, before he and his son have to prepare for the big event of the day: Christopher's baseball team is playing a match.
Parents, grandparents and children fill the green park. Christopher's face is all pale with the excitement. The adults shout and cheer their respective teams from the sideline.
Chris says that he has always been close to his now deceased father with whom he lived with his three brothers after his parents were divorced. "My father was fantastic. He taught me everything and I loved and respected him so much. So I had a good childhood, he says. "But there is no way I would put my own children through a divorce. Not that the subject is topical at all. I could not image a life without Amy. She and the children mean everything to me."
THE PAY IS GOOD
We are at the dining table in the kitchen. Chris pulls out his latest pay sheet to explain about the family's economy in general. In a typical working week of about 60 hours, Chris makes just over 900 dollars for 40 normal working hours and almost 700 dollars for overtime. Before tax he thus makes up to 1,600 dollars a week. His tax percentage is 28 after deduction of interest payments as well as a deduction for the three children and Amy. Payment into a voluntary pension scheme is an added cost.
Chris pays 10 per cent of his income towards that scheme. This pension will be in addition to the one Chris will get from the company. The company helps the family save up money for the children's education. Chris pays over 1,000 dollars a year into a special education account. The company doubles that amount until 6,000 dollars has been saved per child. "It doesn't pay all the costs of an education - far from it - but it's a good help," he says.
THE MACHINISTS' UNION
Chris pays about 46 dollars a month for his union membership. Together with about 170 of his colleagues at Nabisco, Chris is a member of the IMF-affiliated International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), while the majority of the 1,900 workers at the plant are members of the Bakery, Confectionery & Tobacco Workers' Union (BCT).
Chris does not mind paying his union dues, even though he thinks it is expensive. "Without the unions we had no rights at all. But, on the other hand, the agreements they make are very rigid. I, for example, am not allowed to negotiate a better pay for myself. This means I get the same pay as a guy who is not as well-qualified as me and who, perhaps, does not care if he does his work properly," Chris explains.
Through the union, the family also saves up money; Chris pays 250 dollars a week into that account. This is money spent on the children's school and on vacations for the family. In addition, just over 300 dollars a month go into investment funds. That money will be spent on the children's education. With respect to the future, Chris and Amy agree that the children's education and general well-being are more important that anything else. Once the children have been given a good start, the couple dreams of working less and travelling more.
Note: The authors are Danish journalists. The text has been published in "The Global World of Metalworkers -- Six Portraits from a Changing World" which is obtainable in Danish from Dansk Metal, by e-mail on [email protected], or at P.O. Box 308, 1780 Copenhagen, Denmark, and in English, German and Spanish from the IMF in Geneva, by e-mail on [email protected] or at P.O. Box 1516, 1227 Geneva, Switzerland.
Chris rolls his car up in front of the gas station and exclaims: "When there was a war on in the Gulf, we helped Kuwait, so it really annoys me that they've put up the gas prices again - but that seems to be their way of saying: Thank You." He fills up his van to go to the centre of Chicago to watch a baseball game. To many Americans, their car is their home away from home - with room for both sleeping and eating. Although gas prices are low seen from a European perspective, gas does represent a fairly large cost to an American family.
Chris Duplancich is an American metalworker. He works at the Nabisco plant in Chicago, the producer of the USA's most famous biscuit - "Oreo". Nabisco in Chicago is the biggest bakery in the world. Other parts of the Nabisco group produce other food items - crisps, mustard, nuts and breakfast cereals to mention just a few. The Nabisco Company is an international group. It has 107 plants all over the world and employs 50,000 people.
In 1994, they talked about moving part of the production down to Mexico, but that project has been shelved for now. Many American companies have focused on Mexico ever since the USA, Canada and Mexico concluded the NAFTA agreement. This is an agreement that establishes a free trade area consisting of those three countries.
One of the effects of the formation of NAFTA was that it became easy for companies in the various countries to move their production. Mexico soon became attractive, because wages, health and safety regulations and workers' rights were poorer than in the US and Canada. Trade unions have complained vehemently about the relocation of companies to Mexico and the worst examples of employers speculating in wages and working conditions are being weeded out.
The employees at the company reflect the ethnic multitude of the US. Chris' family came from Croatia. Most of his colleagues have their roots in Lithuania, Poland and Italy. Many of them are third generation workers at Nabisco and the average seniority of the employees is 18 years.
THE AMERICAN DREAM IS ALIVE
Chicago is known as "the windy city", since the winds from Lake Michigan often swirl across the city. A great deal of America's traditional industry has been gathered in this area the last 100 years and the city still prides itself as the workshop of the country. As in many other parts of the Western world, however, heavy industry is being replaced by other types of work. In today's Chicago, the number of employees in the health sector equals that of the manufacturing industry.
Contrary to many Western countries, until recently there has been largely no unemployment in the US. Going through Chicago, one sees lots of big signs offering jobs to passers-by. You can be the master of your own good fortune. The American dream is very much alive.
USA is the world's leading industrial nation. Productivity has grown steadily in the last decades. The New Economy is a concept coined here, where new investments and the use of information technology have triggered enormous economic growth in the last ten years.
At Chris' workplace, however, new technology is not a key feature. Much of the company's production equipment is 50 years old. This also applies to many of Chris' tools that have been handed down to him from his father. However, the New Economy and growing wealth are not nation-wide features.
LOTS OF MAC JOBS
The other side of the medal is not hard to see. The great technological leap has led to a two-tier labour market. At the bottom is that half of the workforce that lacks training and technical skills. They get no wage increases and cannot afford health insurance or unemployment insurance. The many jobs offered in the streets of Chicago are in fact among the so-called "Mac jobs", i.e. working at minimum pay without any option of training or career, and with tips as the only way of making a bit extra.
The trade unions in the US are very much aware of the high pay increases that go to management, while their own members get none. Even for many reasonably well-off middle class families, developments are going in the wrong direction.
Many people see their credit card debts grow and they work longer and longer hours to make ends meet. Sometimes adult children move back to their parents, because they cannot afford to establish a home of their own. Many car dealers offer buyers a car against a pledge on the buyer's future wages. Chris and his family see the same thing where they live, but they make sure not to run up debts on everyday expenses.
WHAT ABOUT THE EURO-DOLLAR?
"What about that euro-dollar - is anything going to happen?" asks Chris, probably wondering whether the dollar is threatened as an international currency. As the totally dominant superpower, the US has many international commitments. The country is a member of all the big international organisations. One of them is NATO, where the US is the main force.
However, in their everyday lives, Americans are not all that interested in the world outside the US. Even if the Duplancich family loves to travel and Amy has her own booking agency, they have no plans of travelling outside the country.
To many American families, religion is a natural part of their family life. There are many activities relating to the church, and other institutions, such as schools and sports facilities, are connected with it. The Catholic church publishes a list of books and records that may be offensive so that parents can take the necessary precautions if they want to protect their children. However, some families have more than enough to do keeping their family and economy above the water. In the Duplancich family, there are strong values - seen clearly in their everyday life.
BUILDING A STEEL STAIRCASE
Christopher Duplancich (38), Chris for short, is a machinist and has worked since 1988 at Nabisco Biscuit Company in Chicago. The sparks are flying in the cold fluorescent light behind the plastic screen. Chris is building a steel staircase for one of the assembly lines to give the girls at the line easier reach. No daylight reaches the workshop, which is overfilled with machines. There used to be eight men working here. Now Chris works his shift alone. The room is dark with no windows, located at the centre of Nabisco's plant.
His assignments - four or five on each shift - are given to him by his shop foreman. In between he gets paged for emergency assignments over the radio, which he always carries at his breast pocket. However, since the production lines also have their own mechanics, that does not happen too often.
HIS OWN PRIVATE TOOLS
His work tempo is steady. He takes good care of the metal - and of the tools, which are his own private tools. Movements are deliberate and well-considered, there is no rush. That is the way people work when they have been at it since 2 a.m. and know that - again today - the working day will be 12 hours.
"I largely have a free hand in deciding how to solve my assignments. I take pride in doing things properly. That is why I appreciate this job, he says and pulls out a small notebook of work drawings," says Chris. It does not bother him to work such long hours. Almost everyone at the plant works these hours. And even if he would rather work a 40-hour week, there is no guarantee that he could. According to his contract and the agreement with the union, he is obliged to accept overtime work. This is an agreement much used by Nabisco and other companies.
The radio hisses and beeps. Chris has to go upstairs immediately to weld a hook to a plate. He rolls his tool trolley to the elevator. On his way, he exchanges a few words with a colleague on today's big news: Nabisco is the subject of an acquisition. Chris shrugs it off and cannot be bothered. "Well, it's the third time we have new owners while I have been here. It won't matter much to me anyway. I am not worried about getting sacked. There are so many things I can do, it would not be difficult to find another job," he says.
AN ADVANCED PLANT
The South Bakery is an advanced plant, featuring computer management and loads of bright steel. Working methods, on the other hand, are not all that advanced. At the production lines, the few employees sit and monitor that everything is going ok. Hour after hour. Autonomous groups are an unknown concept here. The same applies to job rotation. According to plant manager David R. Lamy, there are no plans at the moment to change that. The work in the North Bakery goes on in the same monotonous way, only at old, worn-down machines and ovens built in the fifties and sixties. The heat is nauseous and the work is hard. Signs have been put up all over the place - they deal with Nabisco Grand Prix 2000. According to management, this is an attempt at turning the company's objectives of better productivity, fewer faults, fewer accidents, etc., into a game. If you ask Chris, it's the workers' own fault that they get no more challenges at work. "Very few are prepared to assume responsibility. They are afraid of making the wrong decisions and getting sacked."
SELF-TRAINED IS WELL-TRAINED
Chris is back in his dark corner. He walks up to one of the other machines in the workshop and turns a lever. He knows how to operate all of the machines. And he is capable of carrying out all types of metal-processing - welding, soldering, bending, turning and all other elements.br> As most of his colleagues, he is not skilled. His father was a mechanic at an aircraft factory and had a small firm where he built industrial ovens in his spare time. He started training Chris when Chris was just 14. After high school, Chris attended a technical college for a couple of years to - as he puts it: "Get documentation of some of the things I already knew how to do". Since then, he has not attended any course or training program.
"I have always been eager to learn new things and I accept all types of new work assignments. It is important to know how to do as many things as possible; in that way you are better equipped to handle any assignment that comes up," he says.
FOUR WEEKS HOLIDAY
It is 11 a.m. Chris goes up to the very bright, almost comfortable, canteen to meet with colleagues from the other areas for half an hour's good-natured teasing during the meal. Having been employed for 12 years, Chris has just reached the level of four weeks holiday a year. After 20 years he can have five weeks, while after 25 years, he qualifies for six weeks' holiday, which is the maximum. New employees are only entitled to one week's holiday. Even so, Chris is considering to move to another job, where he can have about five dollars more per hour. Even if this means that he will only have one week's holiday a year.
"More money is more important than holidays. We have three kids and we want them all to get a good education. One year in college can easily cost 20,000 dollars," says Chris, who - for this reason - is also happy to work as much overtime as he can get. "In the American system, we always have to be worried about the future," he says. "Have we got enough money for our children's education? For retirement? What if I get fired? Whether you can manage, is all up to you. That is why I teach my children that whatever they want, they have to make sure to get it themselves."
HOME TO THE FAMILY
At 2 p.m. his shift is over. The next shift is coming in. Chris washes up, puts on his shorts and T-shirt and hurries to his car. Depending on the traffic, he is home in half an hour to three-quarters of an hour.
He is married to Amy (34) and has three children - Michelle (12), Tina (10) and Christopher (6), plus two-year-old golden retriever Tara. They live in their own house in Berwyn - a suburb of Chicago.
His wife Amy is still working in the basement. Not only does she have a hairdressing salon down there, she also sells family holidays for a travel agency. She works an average of 25 hours a week and those two jobs generate about 400 dollars a week when the costs of the salon and the taxes have been paid. Her income pays for the household expenditure, club memberships and other expenses like that.
"I have organised my work so as to be able to be there when the children get home from school," says Amy, stressing that it is necessary to have two incomes if the family is to make ends meet.
Amy does not have her own health insurance. The whole family is covered via Chris' work. The family was happy about that when their youngest child, Christopher, recently had a burst appendix. The hospital bill was well over 60,000 dollars.
Amy does not have her own pension scheme either, but that does not worry her too much. If she and Chris were to split up, she is entitled to half his pension.
TIME WITH THE CHILDREN
Today's meal is thick, well-grilled sausages with pasta and salad. For dessert, Amy made a verdigris green, extremely sweet marshmallow pudding. Today's meal might also have been a pizza from the local pizza bar. The family often gets food delivered to the house.
After the meal, Chris and his son are off to the baseball grounds. Chris is a coach. And if Chris is not the coach of a team where one of his children plays, he goes with them anyway.
"I won't leave my children to a coach unless I know him really well," he says. For the same reason, the children go to a private Catholic school connected to the local church where the whole family goes to mass every Sunday, if possible. The cost is about 6,000-7,000 dollars a year before church, school, school books and uniforms have been paid for.
"In a school in the public system, there is no way of knowing what kind of friends they would have. Those schools almost only have children from families that cannot afford a private school. In addition, it is important for us to know the values and morals that the children are taught," says Amy.
SPORTS ARE IMPORTANT
Michelle and Tina share a very cosy, pink girls' bedroom, while Christopher has his own room full of baseball trophies. Sports are very important in the children's lives. The two girls spend their summer holidays playing basketball at a nearby school every day. Chris and Amy both grew up in the area. Amy's parents still live in the same house where Amy was born, just a couple of hundred feet away. The couple married when he was 23 and she was 20. At that time they had been dating for five years and she was pregnant. Chris has renovated the house at Home Avenue himself - from top to bottom. His skills as a jack-of-all-trades are one of the reasons why the family has no fear of unemployment.
The assessment value of their house is about 190,000 dollars and their debt service for interest and repayment is just over 1,400 dollars a month. The house will be paid in full in four years' time.
"At that time the children are so grown-up that the costs of their education will really make themselves felt. That is why we have chosen to pay the house as quickly as possible," Chris explains.
HIS PARENTS DIVORCED
The next afternoon after work, Chris is quite ecstatic. The Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees, two legendary baseball teams, have a game at Chicago Stadium. Chris walks round the kitchen talking frantically into a phone that is "glued" to his ear. He is using all his connections to try to get tickets. He makes it! We go in his car - well, with its nine seats it is more like a small bus, really. Very convenient when you have three kids that need to be taken to all sorts of activities all the time. Amy has her own car and she brings the children to school and picks them up after school.
The White Sox, the home team, win the match. Chris is jubilant. Even if it is so late that he can barely stay awake on the way home. But tomorrow, fortunately, is a Saturday when Chris is not working overtime. So he can have a long lie-in, before he and his son have to prepare for the big event of the day: Christopher's baseball team is playing a match.
Parents, grandparents and children fill the green park. Christopher's face is all pale with the excitement. The adults shout and cheer their respective teams from the sideline.
Chris says that he has always been close to his now deceased father with whom he lived with his three brothers after his parents were divorced. "My father was fantastic. He taught me everything and I loved and respected him so much. So I had a good childhood, he says. "But there is no way I would put my own children through a divorce. Not that the subject is topical at all. I could not image a life without Amy. She and the children mean everything to me."
THE PAY IS GOOD
We are at the dining table in the kitchen. Chris pulls out his latest pay sheet to explain about the family's economy in general. In a typical working week of about 60 hours, Chris makes just over 900 dollars for 40 normal working hours and almost 700 dollars for overtime. Before tax he thus makes up to 1,600 dollars a week. His tax percentage is 28 after deduction of interest payments as well as a deduction for the three children and Amy. Payment into a voluntary pension scheme is an added cost.
Chris pays 10 per cent of his income towards that scheme. This pension will be in addition to the one Chris will get from the company. The company helps the family save up money for the children's education. Chris pays over 1,000 dollars a year into a special education account. The company doubles that amount until 6,000 dollars has been saved per child. "It doesn't pay all the costs of an education - far from it - but it's a good help," he says.
THE MACHINISTS' UNION
Chris pays about 46 dollars a month for his union membership. Together with about 170 of his colleagues at Nabisco, Chris is a member of the IMF-affiliated International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), while the majority of the 1,900 workers at the plant are members of the Bakery, Confectionery & Tobacco Workers' Union (BCT).
Chris does not mind paying his union dues, even though he thinks it is expensive. "Without the unions we had no rights at all. But, on the other hand, the agreements they make are very rigid. I, for example, am not allowed to negotiate a better pay for myself. This means I get the same pay as a guy who is not as well-qualified as me and who, perhaps, does not care if he does his work properly," Chris explains.
Through the union, the family also saves up money; Chris pays 250 dollars a week into that account. This is money spent on the children's school and on vacations for the family. In addition, just over 300 dollars a month go into investment funds. That money will be spent on the children's education. With respect to the future, Chris and Amy agree that the children's education and general well-being are more important that anything else. Once the children have been given a good start, the couple dreams of working less and travelling more.
Note: The authors are Danish journalists. The text has been published in "The Global World of Metalworkers -- Six Portraits from a Changing World" which is obtainable in Danish from Dansk Metal, by e-mail on [email protected], or at P.O. Box 308, 1780 Copenhagen, Denmark, and in English, German and Spanish from the IMF in Geneva, by e-mail on [email protected] or at P.O. Box 1516, 1227 Geneva, Switzerland.