Freddie Claudio has been working since he was 12 years old.
When Claudio, 63, took a grinding and painting job at Southern New Jersey Steel in 1984 after retiring as a U.S. Marine Corps aircraft mechanic, he would have been content to take any job that would have him. It was a bad time for industry, and hardly anyone was hiring, but SNJS took a chance on him, he says.
"All I did was walk through the door--I was not [specifically] looking for steel work," Claudio recalls. "They asked why they should hire me, and I said, 'I like work. Give me an opportunity, and if it doesn't work out, we’ll shake hands. No harm, no foul.' I started out grinding for $3.85 an hour--that was minimum wage at the time."
Read more