The UAW-GM Annual Meeting & My Days at the Veggie Factory

It was a kick to bring in a different kind of presentation for the great folks at the annual United Auto Workers GM meeting, up dere in da upper Peninsula. The audience was mostly UAW training reps who work at GM factories. They had never really gone the high-energy humorous speaker route for this meeting before. But this time around they decided to embrace a little bit of fun chaos and take a chance on the kind of interactive and comedic presentation I do.

Of course I had a solid connection to this audience since I worked in a factory environment for many years myself. Every summer from 8th grade through college (yes, I snuck in a little early), I worked at the Del Monte plant, shoveling carrots and raking peas and working the "corn-cutters" (don't ask).

Then again, today's factory workers are more sophisticated, and the demands and pressures on them are infinitely greater than they were when I worked at Del Monte in the late 70s and early 80s. That's what the UAW training reps are there to help with, and I salute them for what they do.