The Rise And Fall Of Izzet Gunday | Workforce training through one worker's eyes
In early May, Suzanne Bump, the state’s secretary of labor and workforce development, came to Worcester to announce a grant of $4.3 million in federal stimulus funds for the Workforce Central Career Center.
Among other things, the money will help fund job training for laid-off workers.
To some, this seems like a great idea.
To others, it’s woefully inadequate. To Izzet Gunday, who was sitting at a Workforce Central class when Bump showed up to make the announcement, it’s both.
American Dream
The Auburn resident says he grew up in Turkey, where he dropped out of school after the 11th grade. After spending time in England, he came to Central Massachusetts in the late 1980s and quickly found a $6-an-hour job as a machine operator at PresMet Corp., a local family-owned auto parts manufacturer.
He quickly rose in the company, and after a few years got a job in expedited shipping.
He enrolled in special training classes, learning about various business practices including lean manufacturing. By 2007, with the help of two hours a day of overtime, he was making $65,000 to $70,000 a year.
Meanwhile, in 2001, PresMet was acquired by GKN Sinter Metals, a division of a British company. In 2007, the company closed the Worcester plant, and Gunday was out of a job.
“Decades you go up, then all the sudden you nosedive like an airplane going down,” he said.
Now, Gunday is gamely making new plans. With the help of the Career Center, he’s working toward his GED, relearning math that he hasn’t thought about in decades, and improving his good, self-taught English with formal lessons.
Starting Over
He says he’s very impressed with the center’s programs, but he has no illusions about what sort of job it’s preparing him for.
He’s seen advertisements for jobs like his old position at prominent companies like Genzyme Corp., but they’re looking for candidates with Master’s degrees. After getting a GED, he says, he knows there won’t be any great position waiting for him.
“I’ll have to start somewhere and try to climb up again one notch at a time I guess,” he said. “I don’t know how I’m ever going to make how much I was making.”
And that doesn’t even get into the benefits he had at his old job, which included five vacation weeks a year.
“To make five weeks vacation, I’ve got to live to 100 years old,” he said.
Gunday said he’s pleased about the new funds for the workforce training programs, and he hopes they’ll expand even further.
But, to him, the bigger issue is government policies that make it easy for manufacturers to produce products overseas and then sell them back to U.S. customers.
“I understand free enterprise, all that, but there’s a limit,” he said.
Meanwhile, he’s keeping in touch with others in similar situations, including a friend who worked at PresMet for decades, and, after being laid off, got trained as a truck driver.
Recently, Gunday said, the friend told him he can’t find a driving job, and his unemployment benefits are going to run out soon.
“He was almost crying,” Gunday said.
Got news for our Labor Pool column? E-mail Staff Writer Livia Gershon at lgershon@wbjournal.com.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments