JOE Wollaceski's worst nightmare finally came true . . .
- By l.t. Dravis
- Published 11/24/2008
l.t. Dravis
I created and have written the nationally distributed marketing newsletter, BOTH SIDES NOW, since 2003. I authored two books, BOTH SIDES NOW, Sell Like Professional Athletes Win and DEATH OF A SALES MANAGER. In 2008, I introduced a daily column for national syndication to newspapers.
You know how it is when you get your paycheck; even though you know
it’ll be the same old amount, you kind of hope there’ll be more there just this
once . . . and if there was more, you’d be happy . . . real happy!
But not Doug.
Not at all.
His check included two weeks’ severance pay.
After nineteen years as an equipment operator for Wollaceski
Underground Contractors, Inc. (not the real company name), Doug ran a Wollaceski
CAT 375 track-type excavator for the last time Friday morning, backfilling a
repaired water line for the county.
Joe Wollaceski, founder of the company that bears his name, is a
bear of a man. Six feet four, two hundred and fifty pounds, he resembles former
Vice-President Al Gore. He’s a 57 year old who succeeded where so many fail by
out-working and out-smarting his competition in the rough and tumble
construction business. “I don’t see how we get out of this mess,” Joe says with
a shake of his head. “Nobody has cash, nobody can borrow, and nobody knows what
to do about it. We give Bush and Paulson $700 billion, they give half of it
away, yet banks are still failing and nobody’s lending. So, where did all that
money go? My guy who sweeps the shop coulda handled it better than those
boneheads!”
Wollaceski knows exactly where he is and why. “We’re shutting down
after 32 years mainly because of the car business,” he says. “GM, Ford, and
Chrysler lay off workers, those folks stop spending, and we lose sales tax
revenues, plus income tax. And then, the businesses that rely on car worker
wages have to lay off and those folks stop spending and we lose more sales tax
revenues and income tax and, pretty soon, the city, county, and state cut back
on construction projects. Since banks aren’t lending, there are no more
commercial and residential developments to bid on, so guys like me get forced
out of business.
“It’s going to be tough for my people to find good jobs. They’re used
to making fifteen-twenty bucks an hour and more and they been getting good
benefits; there aren’t many businesses left in Ohio that can afford to pay a
living wage and give good benefits.”
The Wollaceski Underground Contractors shutdown kills 34 jobs,
takes a $1,700,000.
Doug and his wife, Elizabeth (not her real name), have three
children under the age of 17, and are worried about when, if ever, he’ll find
another job that pays as well and provides the benefits they got from WUC. “There’s
nothing here in
The manager of ‘Sandi’s’, a popular family restaurant a block from Wollaceski’s
yard, says, “We’re not seeing regulars like we used to. Friday and Saturday
nights are about half of what they were even six months ago. I know Doug and
Elizabeth Jones and their three kids. Used to see them here probably three
Friday nights and maybe two Saturday nights a month and we’d see them just
about every Sunday after church . . . but not now. Not since we heard Joe Wollaceski
was shutting down.”
“What kills me,” Wollaceski says, “is that, after all the money and
power we gave Bush and Cheney over eight years, they’re leaving us with the
largest deficit ever, the biggest national debt in history, a failed banking
system, an economy in the worst shape since the depression, and two wars that
are bleeding us dry.
“Those two geniuses screwed up the economy so bad that millions of skilled
workers who’ve been making forty, fifty thousand a year will be forced to take minimum
wage jobs at fast-food joints and places like Wal-Mart and give up their homes,
cars, and their futures.
“So, besides making my worst nightmare come true, what have Dick
Cheney and George W. Bush ever done for me or my people?
“Nothing,” he says, answering his own question with a sardonic
smile, “absolutely nothing.”
Copyright © 2008 by LTD Associates West, Ltd. All rights
reserved.
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