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12-26-2006, 11:25 PM
It was October 1956 and President Dwight Eisenhower was busy campaigning en route to his second term as president, Don Larsen pitched a perfect game in the New York Yankees World Series victory and federal minimum wage had just been increased to $1 per hour.
And on Oct. 19, 1956, an 18-year-old kid named Jimmy Roles from Brooklyn, Mich., began his career with Ford Motor Co. Fifty years later, on Nov. 1 to be exact, that same kid from Brooklyn has retired as a 68-year-old man with no one equal in terms of seniority from Ford's Saline plant.
"We call him No. 1," said Tom DeCook, Roles' supervisor for the last 23 years.
"I've been No. 1 for years," Roles said regarding his being Saline's top seniority hourly worker.
James Roles began his half-century career at Ford's Brooklyn plant just four months after turning 18. When he started 50 years ago, his pay was $1.69 per hour. Ten years later, that plant closed and its United Auto Workers Local 892 workforce moved to the just-opened Saline plant.
Now the plant, which was a Ford facility before it was spun off as Visteon and then acquired by Automotive Components Holdings, is up for sale. Roles said he was planning to retire soon in any event, but then Ford came along last month and offered buyout packages for all of its North American workers.
It was enough incentive for Roles, who took the $35,000 pre-tax cash buyout that allows him to retain all of his retirement benefits.
"I told them (at the plant), "I have 50 at Ford. I think I'll go to Chrysler or GM now," he said.
For the past 25 years, Roles worked the midnight shift. Since 1970, he has driven a forklift truck on the shipping docks, loading both semi-trucks and railroad boxcars.
"Jimmy Roles was a good hi-lo driver. I am going to miss him after that many years," said DeCook, who first met Roles when he was brought into the Saline plant as a supervisor in 1983.
Roles also spent 30 years on the plant's fire brigade, an on-call group of mostly hourly workers who serve as first-responder to fires and other emergencies.
Roles has been a diabetic for more than 30 years, but said he's entering his retirement years in otherwise good health. He said he quit smoking about 14 years ago and hasn't had an alcoholic drink in 25 years.
Roles expects to do fine financially in retirement with his house being paid-off and having his retirement income and savings off of which to live. Roles, who has been married and divorced three times, lives alone in a modest, older home in downtown Saline. He has one grown son who lives in Florida.
In fact, the 68-year-old Roles has been drawing Social Security benefits for the last three years while working. While his official retirement date was Nov. 1, his last day of work at the plant was Oct. 19.
Roles grew up in a Ford family in Brooklyn and moved to Saline in 1967.
"I think my whole family has worked at Ford — in-laws and outlaws," he said.
Roles spent the first year at Saline commuting from Brooklyn. During his tenure at Saline, Roles said the plant was expanded five times.
"All I've known is Ford. I enjoyed working there, but I have other things to keep me busy," he said.
Roles said he plans to continue working with his twin brother, Gerald, in their antique business in Irish Hills. In his basement, he plans to rehabilitate old kerosene stoves. He plans to continue hunting and fishing, as well tending to his small tomato garden behind his house.
He has a collection of vintage Fords that includes a 1941 Ford pickup truck, a 1960 Ford farm truck and a 1979 Ford Ranchero. He also owns an impressive collection of miniature Franklin Mint die-cast vehicles.
"Dust collectors," he panned.
Like most retirees, Roles said he has worked for a number of very good bosses and some who were not. At one time, he had six or seven co-workers with whom he socialized outside the plant, but they all retired long ago and most have died.
As for newer, younger co-workers, Roles says they don't form the camaraderie that older worker used to have.
"People aren't as friendly now. Everybody's got an attitude," he said.
Roles, who comes off good-humored and philosophical about his own Ford experience, is not so optimistic about the future of his younger, former co-workers.
"Ford has been great to me. I got in at the right time. Now everything's gone to hell," he said. "It's scary what tomorrow's going to bring. It's not just the car companies, either. There's not going to be any middle class. You're either going to be in poverty or you're going to be rich.
"There's no demand for our cars and that's not good," he added.
Roles said his final days with the company were pretty low key. He's spent a lot of his last three years with the company on voluntary temporary layoff, whereby higher-seniority workers stay home and continue to get paid the majority of their weekly salaries on unemployment, and through Ford and the UAW's Supplement Unemployment Benefits program.
The company didn't throw a party for him, he added.
"I thought maybe they'd be impressed at 50 years, but I haven't heard from Ford, so maybe not," he said.
Upon his retirement, DeCook presented him with a sweatshirt that reads, "I Survived Fifty Yrs. At Ford Motor Co."
Roles likes the sweatshirt, even if he doesn't entirely agree with the sentiment on it.
"Survived it? Hell, I enjoyed every day of it," he said.
And on Oct. 19, 1956, an 18-year-old kid named Jimmy Roles from Brooklyn, Mich., began his career with Ford Motor Co. Fifty years later, on Nov. 1 to be exact, that same kid from Brooklyn has retired as a 68-year-old man with no one equal in terms of seniority from Ford's Saline plant.
"We call him No. 1," said Tom DeCook, Roles' supervisor for the last 23 years.
"I've been No. 1 for years," Roles said regarding his being Saline's top seniority hourly worker.
James Roles began his half-century career at Ford's Brooklyn plant just four months after turning 18. When he started 50 years ago, his pay was $1.69 per hour. Ten years later, that plant closed and its United Auto Workers Local 892 workforce moved to the just-opened Saline plant.
Now the plant, which was a Ford facility before it was spun off as Visteon and then acquired by Automotive Components Holdings, is up for sale. Roles said he was planning to retire soon in any event, but then Ford came along last month and offered buyout packages for all of its North American workers.
It was enough incentive for Roles, who took the $35,000 pre-tax cash buyout that allows him to retain all of his retirement benefits.
"I told them (at the plant), "I have 50 at Ford. I think I'll go to Chrysler or GM now," he said.
For the past 25 years, Roles worked the midnight shift. Since 1970, he has driven a forklift truck on the shipping docks, loading both semi-trucks and railroad boxcars.
"Jimmy Roles was a good hi-lo driver. I am going to miss him after that many years," said DeCook, who first met Roles when he was brought into the Saline plant as a supervisor in 1983.
Roles also spent 30 years on the plant's fire brigade, an on-call group of mostly hourly workers who serve as first-responder to fires and other emergencies.
Roles has been a diabetic for more than 30 years, but said he's entering his retirement years in otherwise good health. He said he quit smoking about 14 years ago and hasn't had an alcoholic drink in 25 years.
Roles expects to do fine financially in retirement with his house being paid-off and having his retirement income and savings off of which to live. Roles, who has been married and divorced three times, lives alone in a modest, older home in downtown Saline. He has one grown son who lives in Florida.
In fact, the 68-year-old Roles has been drawing Social Security benefits for the last three years while working. While his official retirement date was Nov. 1, his last day of work at the plant was Oct. 19.
Roles grew up in a Ford family in Brooklyn and moved to Saline in 1967.
"I think my whole family has worked at Ford — in-laws and outlaws," he said.
Roles spent the first year at Saline commuting from Brooklyn. During his tenure at Saline, Roles said the plant was expanded five times.
"All I've known is Ford. I enjoyed working there, but I have other things to keep me busy," he said.
Roles said he plans to continue working with his twin brother, Gerald, in their antique business in Irish Hills. In his basement, he plans to rehabilitate old kerosene stoves. He plans to continue hunting and fishing, as well tending to his small tomato garden behind his house.
He has a collection of vintage Fords that includes a 1941 Ford pickup truck, a 1960 Ford farm truck and a 1979 Ford Ranchero. He also owns an impressive collection of miniature Franklin Mint die-cast vehicles.
"Dust collectors," he panned.
Like most retirees, Roles said he has worked for a number of very good bosses and some who were not. At one time, he had six or seven co-workers with whom he socialized outside the plant, but they all retired long ago and most have died.
As for newer, younger co-workers, Roles says they don't form the camaraderie that older worker used to have.
"People aren't as friendly now. Everybody's got an attitude," he said.
Roles, who comes off good-humored and philosophical about his own Ford experience, is not so optimistic about the future of his younger, former co-workers.
"Ford has been great to me. I got in at the right time. Now everything's gone to hell," he said. "It's scary what tomorrow's going to bring. It's not just the car companies, either. There's not going to be any middle class. You're either going to be in poverty or you're going to be rich.
"There's no demand for our cars and that's not good," he added.
Roles said his final days with the company were pretty low key. He's spent a lot of his last three years with the company on voluntary temporary layoff, whereby higher-seniority workers stay home and continue to get paid the majority of their weekly salaries on unemployment, and through Ford and the UAW's Supplement Unemployment Benefits program.
The company didn't throw a party for him, he added.
"I thought maybe they'd be impressed at 50 years, but I haven't heard from Ford, so maybe not," he said.
Upon his retirement, DeCook presented him with a sweatshirt that reads, "I Survived Fifty Yrs. At Ford Motor Co."
Roles likes the sweatshirt, even if he doesn't entirely agree with the sentiment on it.
"Survived it? Hell, I enjoyed every day of it," he said.