Michael Hanley, GM Autoworker, Commutes 1,000 Miles To Keep Job

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Michael Hanley, GM Autoworker, Commutes 1,000 Miles To Keep Job

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/22/michael-hanley-gm-autowor_n_471304.html

SHARON COHEN | 02/22/10 08:38 AM | AP



JANESVILLE, Wis. — In the early dawn, after another week building cars, Michael Hanley leaves his job in Kansas. He quickly zips into Missouri, then heads up a ribbon of highway past grain silos and grazing deer, across the frozen fields of Iowa, over the Mississippi River and into the rolling hills of Wisconsin. Finally, he pulls into his driveway – 530 miles later.

It's one heck of a haul: more than 1,000 miles roundtrip, 16-plus hours of driving, every week.

"I like to say I gave up an eight-minute commute for an eight-hour commute," he says wearily, running a hand though salt-and-pepper hair as he watches his two sons play basketball for the first time this season.

After the aging General Motors plant where he worked for 23 years was idled about a year ago, Hanley faced a Hobson's choice: Stay with his family and search for an autoworker's salary ($28 an hour) in a county where more than 40 percent of its manufacturing jobs disappeared from 2006 to 2009. Or hang on to his GM paycheck and health insurance and follow the job, no matter where it leads.

[Brickbat]

1. So sad.

K&R.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I met this guy at a union rally

Our local media has also covered him.

IIRC, the cost of living is more reasonable where he lives in Wisconsin than here in KC. So he decided not to uproot his family.