Disruption of the self-employed: families separate and children are left behind

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) – Hundreds of workers at four General Motors factories that will be closing this year are facing a difficult choice: accepting the company's offer to work in another factory located at hundreds of kilometers, even if it means leaving their families, their homes and everything they've built. Or stay and risk losing their well-paying jobs.

The builder says that almost all of its blue-collar workers with jobs at risk have work on hold. Many targeted factories in Michigan, Ohio, and Maryland have already voluntarily relocated to Midwestern and Southern plants, not wanting to take risks.

Others are still struggling, not knowing whether to sell their home or hope their plants will reopen.

The automaker said the changes announced in November were needed to cut costs and invest in new vehicles. Plant closures still need to be negotiated with the union, giving workers some hope.

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A CHESS GAME

Anthony Sarigianopoulos spent 25 years at the GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio, where the last Chevrolet Cruze will leave the assembly line at the end of the month.

He has two sons in primary school and a former wife with whom he hears well. His parents are just down the street in the suburb of Youngstown, where he grew up.

Sarigianopoulos, who checks and repairs cars ultimately, knows that he's lucky enough to be able to try a job even if he's elsewhere – unlike most of the 8,000 collar employees that GM is firing and at those who lose their jobs at suppliers of parts close to the manufacturer.

But he also does not want to move and miss baseball games and concerts at school, knowing that his boys will have almost finished high school by the time he retires.

Volunteering to leave now in another factory would also mean that he could not return if Lordstown reopened. But if he is forced to transfer once the factory closes, the return option will remain open under his contract with the union.

"It's part of the chess match," he said.

Sarigianopoulos, 48, has filled in a notebook of charts and graphs describing the advantages and disadvantages of the transfer. What he has decided at the moment – unless he is forced to transfer – is to stay and hope that the plant will have a new vehicle to build.

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CAR FAR

Andrea Repasky did not have many choices. Although it meant saying goodbye to her elderly parents, a niece she loved, her favorite pizza and her mother's wedding soup.

She had to keep her job because she is a breast cancer survivor and runs the risk of seeing the disease return. "I could not let my health benefits run out," she said.

The 42-year-old factory team leader volunteered to leave the Youngstown area for a new job in Indiana, allowing her to stay closer to home. it instead of being shipped to a factory located in Tennessee or Texas.

"It was my goal, to be at a car if something, my God, happened to my family," she said.

Repasky has been working at GM's truck plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for a little over a month, where she shares an apartment with a friend who has also moved her.

Although her family and everything that concerns her in her hometown are hopelessly lacking, she explained that her decision was easier because she was not married and had no children. Some colleagues moved without their children so that young people could stay and finish the school year.

"I cry when I think about it," Repasky said. "How do they explain to their children that Mom or Dad is leaving and they will see you on weekends?"

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SOMBER students

Tiffany Davis feels the stress of all this at home and at the only elementary school in Lordstown where she teaches in grade five.

Students know that they will say goodbye to some of their classmates in a few months. This includes three of the 18 students in his class.

"They are not the brave and light crew they were at the beginning of the year," said Davis, 35.

She and her husband, who have been working on the GM assembly line for 17 years, discuss almost every night about what's going on.

"It has taken over our lives, but how could it not?" Davis said. "It's exhausting, it's exhausting. No matter what decision we make, we are concerned that this is not the right thing. "

The couple decided not to take a transfer for the moment. But they sell their house and move with their two children to her mother-in-law's attic so that they will not pay two houses if they are forced to leave. They also canceled a summer vacation and removed cable TV and pizza evenings on Fridays.

"We are uprooting all our life right now because we have no answer," she said. "We know that no matter what happens, we will have to follow GM."

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THE GOOD DECISION

Nearly two decades after founding the New Beginnings Outreach Ministries in Youngstown, Ohio, Melvin Trent appeared before about 150 members of his church in early February and told them that he was not going to be in New York. ;he was leaving.

His wife, a GM engineer, was sent to his SUV factory in Arlington, Texas.

"We could hear people crying all over the congregation. One person said, "It's like when my mother died," he said. "For some, I am the only known pastor."

His wife has already moved and will join her when their son finishes high school in May. "We have never been separated in this way," he said.

Trent, 55, who retired after 35 years with the automaker, said the acceptance of offshoring was obvious, but that the decision was not easy.

"The first thing I did was go to the church and I cried like a baby because I was leaving something that I created and that I was I liked it, "he said. "But it was the right decision for our family."

He added, "I do not leave my natural family, but the family of my church."

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The Associated Press writer, Tom Krisher in Detroit, also contributed.

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