Soon to be *Out Sourced*

Hi all.
My name is Alan.
I am interested in joining the ranks.
I am 55 with a HS education.
I live in a small burb near Stockton,CA
The company I have been with for 22 yrs has told all the employees that early in 2011 the plant would be closing.
The majority of the processes we do would be going over seas and the rest would be moved back east.

I have to commend the company for giving us the heads up and not having us come in 1 day and find a padlock and chain on the front gate.
They also added that if we were willing to stay during this "transition period" they would give us 2 weeks for every year up to a total of 13 years.
I of course will stay through this period to get the carrot but have been investigating possible employment opportunities locally.

The work I do is sort of specialized and not in high demand.
Before I worked at this plant I had been working in the HVAC industry doing residential installation of heat and air.
This was feast or famine work as the weather in this area can be fairly mild for both heat and air except for a few months of the year.
The other thing was most of the time you were either crawling under houses in 18" crawl spaces all day or in low attics.
Even though I am still reasonably fit, I am not the man I was 20+ yrs ago and do not see myself going back to this line of work.

I of course have become accustomed to the 50k that I bring home ea year and live well beyond my means with a fair amount of revolving debt.
I guess what I am saying is I live check to check with little or no savings.
The plant I work at is in Newark, CA and I commute 130 miles round trip each work day.
I have shared the road these many years with the heavy trucks that ply the highways and 1 of the employment prospects I have considered is
as a driver.
As it happens Covenant has a terminal in French Camp that is 5 miles away.
After looking at their web page I was convinced that if I was willing to pay my dues and stick it out I would be able to learn a trade that I wouldn't have to worry about being out sourced and make a decent living.
I decided that the best thing I could do would be to put my ear to a conduit that carried information about the industry, companies and the views from the drivers that make the whole thing tick.
That is what has brought me here.
I have read cover to cover the excellent blog written by RC's wife and the tons of great info and support they have gotten from this excellent forum.
I have also read time and again that the tactics that they (the companies) use is nothing that is isolated and that this is "normal".
I thought with some grit,determination some sweat and attention to detail I could give this a go.
Now I'm not so sure.
Its funny how just as you think you have a handle on things a wheel comes off.

 

Thanks for the welcome every1.
Fortunately I have some time to hammer out my next career move.
I am definitely going to dig through as much of the content on here that I can absorb!