Blue Collar Blues by Rosalyn McMillan Page A

then? She’d told Cy and herself that she wanted and needed to concentrate fully on her education and career, that she believed that would prove most fulfilling. It took Thyme eight years, while working full-time at Champion Motors, to acquire a master’s and Ph.D. But truthfully she was afraid to bring biracial children into this world. She felt she was able to handle the prejudicial treatment of being black, but how could she be certain that she could protect her offspring from the prejudice—from both black and white races?
    God had been kind. In the early years of their marriage, Thyme had failed to conceive, which provided a natural cover for her true feelings. Children could come later, Thyme assured her husband. But as time went by, she and Cy had fallen into a stiff silence on the subject.
    It was hump day, Wednesday, the day to get over and ride downhill toward the weekend. Thyme made it to her office at precisely two minutes to five. A truck was just pulling out of the dock, filled with seat cushions from Rouge Build, heading for the assembly plant. She thought back on the Delta bolts problem at Rouge Build last week. Thyme had planned on sending two workers to Rouge Build to install the bolts so the cars could move on to the assembly line at River Rouge. But the situation was so critical that she’d had to send four utility workers. Valentino had been one of them and it hadn’t been long before Ron told her Luella was complaining about Valentino’s getting overtime.
    Luella was worse than a computer virus. Intent on infecting the minds of her fellow workers against one another, she was a time bomb. Thyme was certain that one day Luella would explode on her.
    Thyme was relieved that the major ordeal of last week, the tour with Allied Vespa, had gone well. Initially, the group of minority businessmen refused to see how they could benefit from switching their business to Troy Trim. Skeptical of Allied’s intentions early on, Thyme had done her research and felt comfortable with any questions asked her. She still didn’t understand why management had her going through the motions, but she was certain they could match GM’s bid.
    This week had started smoothly enough, but the day before an hourly employee had threatened to kill his supervisor. As Thyme began sorting through her desk papers, Elaine knocked and then handed her a mound of faxes. “Doug Bierce from Security just called and asked if you would give him a ring when you had a moment.”
    “Did he mention what it was about?”
    “Yeah. A supervisor’s car was broken into.”
    “What’s the matter with everybody?” Thyme frowned and started sorting through the faxes.
    Turning on her computer, she checked her propfs mail. Propfs, an electronic mail used by all salaried workers at Champion, was the primary method of communication within the company. After answering her mail, she went to work on the mounds of problems that were a daily part of her job. She found a moment to call Doug in Security, who brought her up to speed on the incident, just before Elaine buzzed her.
    “Dr. Tyler,” Elaine said, over the intercom. “Your meeting with Ron is in fifteen minutes.”
    “Thanks, Elaine.” She organized the folders on her desk and headed out of the office. She dreaded going to the meeting with Ron to discuss the case of the homicide threat. Any discussion with Ron on the matter seemed bound to end in an argument. How could Ron defend the actions of an employee who had threatened the life of a supervisor? The employee had to be fired; there was no other resolution. Champion’s policy was clear and, friendship or not, she would not bend the rules.
    The meeting took two hours, and was just as rough as she’d predicted it would be. It turned out that the incident Doug had called her about was part of this same situation. The employee who had threatened the life of his supervisor was the same one who had broken into the car this morning. The incident