Life on the Line : One Woman's Tale of Work, Sweat and Survival

by De Santis, Solange

• ISBN13: 9780385489775
• ISBN10: 0385489773
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-01
• Publisher: Doubleday

Summary

Just when Solange De Santis had achieved success and security in the white-collar world of journalism, she decided to leave it all to work on the line during the final year and a half of a General Motors van plant in Scarborough, Ontario. InLife on the Line, De Santis recounts in vivid detail just how and why she undertook this path of seemingly reverse ambition. What she found at the moribund GM plant was at turns surprising, monotonous, humorous, and grim. She encountered competent hard workers, raging alcoholics, mindless bureaucrats, and good friends. Life on the Lineis a penetrating look into a world that many of us shy from acknowledging, even as we accept the keys to our new cars. Completely candid, and as unexpectedly poignant as it is funny, this book will change the way you view blue-collar industry and the people who fuel its engine with their labour.

Author Biography

Solange De Santis has been a reporter and writer for Reuters, Associated Press, and <i>The Globe and Mail</i>. She is currently a staff reporter for the Toronto office of the<i> Wall Street Journal</i> and lives in the Toronto area with her family.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Through a Windshield, Darkly	1	(4)
Introduction	5	(10)
Beginnings	15	(16)
For Many Apply, But Few Are Chosen	31	(22)
Everybody Cries	53	(12)
B Shift	65	(12)
Dance of a Thousand Cuts	77	(14)
A Shift	91	(18)
The Transplants	109	(24)
Lance	133	(16)
Maria	149	(14)
Downtime	163	(10)
The Dog Days Bark	173	(12)
Beginning of the End	185	(20)
The Trial	205	(22)
Going, Going...	227	(18)
Endings	245	(20)
Epilogue	265