Rick Schock

“I feel like a dog whose owner has died.

“I grew up in Bartlett and my neighbor was a millwright. I broke my drive shaft on my first car when I was 17 years old, but he had a little shop and said he could fix it for me. He cut it, welded it, good as new. And I was like, ‘Oh my lord, that’s magic.’ I was hooked.

“I’ve been on third shift at CAT [in Aurora] for 12 years. I used to work at UPS and food plants, but I had a young son and needed insurance. That’s when I saw the job at CAT. They were offering $19 an hour …

“When I first started you’d go in to a local bar on a Friday morning at 7 a.m. and it was like a Friday night. It was nice, the camaraderie. We were a big family.

“But now with the layoffs my stress level has been so high. When I look at the people at work, everyone looks defeated. A lot of people are kind of still in denial. A lot of people have family here, so it’s hard to detach from that and go to Detroit. You can get a good assembly job there but it’s a big change. Kids are in school here, friends are here. But if they want to stay in the same profession I think that’s what they’ll have to do.

“There’s just not a lot here.”

Rick Schock
Streamwood, Illinois