Atlanta Chat Thread (Marietta, Concord, Martin: sales, income, sales tax)

[Born 2 Roll]

For those who might not have been aware, from this past Wednesday was yet another example of how an unexpected incident can create massive rush hour traffic delays on a major artery and commuter route:

A despondent woman climbed to the top of a traffic sign above Georgia 400 near Haynes Bridge Road and threatened to commit suicide by jumping into the path of traffic below.

The woman called into the 911 dispatch center about 5:30 am threatening to jump.

Alpharetta Police had to shut down the southbound lanes of GA 400 for close to three-and-a-half hours while they negotiated with the woman to get her to safely come down from the sign bridge on a fire department ladder.

The roughly 3.5-hour long delay during morning rush hour that resulted from the suicide attempt backed up traffic solid all the way back well into Forsyth County.

Woman climbs to top of sign over GA 400, shuts down the highway (CBS 46 Atlanta)

[AnsleyPark]

Gosh. Poor soul. I hope she receives good treatment.

[DreamerD]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Gosh. Poor soul. I hope she receives good treatment.

It's nice to see people empathize. Who knows what was on this woman's mind.

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by DreamerD

It's nice to see people empathize. Who knows what was on this woman's mind.

So right. Some years back I endured a suicide. I never understood the struggle. It was heart breaking.

[Coldjensens]

Spent the past three days in Atlanta (downtown). Really enjoyed getting to explore the city some (enjoyed most of the weather too). Lots of great food.

The City reminds me a lot of Detroit in many ways, just on a much larger scale. Similar atmosphere (busy enough to be fun, but not unpleasantly crowded like more popular cities); similar layout (specific unconnected areas - Downtown, mid-town, and some sort of side areas (Buckhead for Atlanta, Corktown or Eastern Market for Detroit). Same concerns: Too much solid concrete walls and above ground parking garages that you have to walk by for blacks and not enough density of the cool places. Also there are tons of cool places in both cities, but you have to know where they are, you are not likely to just walk around and find them by chance). Both have recently come back from being kind of awful and both are still onthe rise. Oh also lots and lots of Lime and Byrd scooters everywhere. Both towns have some nice historic architecture mixed in with more modern buildings (although Atlanta had a lot less from what I saw). While it is not accurate to say Atlanta is Detroit on Steroids, there are striking similarities IMO, it surprised me.

Oh and absolutely awesome places to eat in both places.

Also every third person asks you for money, but I think that is probably all cities.

One hue difference was the train system in Atlanta. Detroit has no effective mass transit (other than scooters).

Anyway, cool city. I really enjoyed it. And if you go to the aquarium - do not miss the dolphin show. That is what makes the admission price worth it.

[Atlwarrior]

Actually Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead are very connected by Peachtree Street. The only similarity I see is maybe the Westin Hotel and the glass circular building in Detroit. Both cities are huge hubs for Delta Airlines.

[Born 2 Roll]

Glad to see one of metro Atlanta's most important employers still going strong...

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin $946 million on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the defense giants' THAAD missile defense system, the Defense Department announced Monday.

The multi-million dollar award is the first installment of what is expected to be a $15 billion deal.

Pentagon awards Lockheed Martin nearly $1 billion for Saudi missile system deal (MSN/CNBC)

This is notable because Lockheed Martin has a massive facility in the Atlanta area at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta in Cobb County.

Lockheed Martin has been the economic engine of Cobb County and Northwest metro Atlanta for nearly 70 years.

Personal politics and questions about job quality aside, one of the very top reasons why Cobb County is the economic, political, cultural and social powerhouse that it is today in metro Atlanta, Georgia and the Southeastern U.S. is because of the massive Lockheed Martin aerospace/defense plant at Dobbins ARB that employs roughly at least 6,000 workers.

(… Employment at the Lockheed Martin plant at Dobbins ARB in Marietta peaked at nearly 33,000 workers back in 1969.)

[citidata18]

I would consider the jobs at Lockheed Martin high quality.

The facility in Georgia (and many of their facilities across the country in fact) is unionized, which ensures the workers, regardless of their skills and level of education, are able to negotiate very generous benefits, a high hourly wage and plenty of job security, thus they can enjoy a solidly middle class/upper middle class lifestyle. Senior line workers make anywhere from $27/hr to $37/hr.

It's almost equivalent to having a Ford or GM plant in your backyard, where the non-skilled senior workers average over $32/hr (not including overtime) and are guaranteed a pension and lifetime health insurance after retirement

It's far different from the type of jobs created at a distribution center or below the line on film sets.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by citidata18

I would consider the jobs at Lockheed Martin high quality.

The facility in Georgia (and many of their facilities across the country in fact) is unionized, which ensures the workers, regardless of their skills and level of education, are able to negotiate very generous benefits, a high hourly wage and plenty of job security, thus they can enjoy a solidly middle class/upper middle class lifestyle. Senior line workers make anywhere from $27/hr to $37/hr.

It's almost equivalent to having a Ford or GM plant in your backyard, where the non-skilled senior workers average over $32/hr (not including overtime) and are guaranteed a pension and lifetime health insurance after retirement

It's far different from the type of jobs created at a distribution center or below the line on film sets.

The jobs at a facility like Lockheed Martin are definitely high-paying and are generally what many would consider to be high-quality.

Though, there have been some issues over the years at Lockheed Martin's Marietta facility that have raised some questions about the work environment there.

Those issues include an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease at the plant back in 2016, a near-strike at the plant back in 2011, a week-long strike back in 2005, and an actual extended strike that went on for about seven weeks back in 2002.

"Several cases of Legionnaires' disease reported at Lockheed Martin plant... Monday afternoon, officials confirmed to 11Alive News that over the past year, four employees at the Lockheed Martin Marietta facility have been confirmed to have Legionnaire’s Disease." (11Alive News, 12 Sept 2016)

Lockheed Martin [strike continues] (SocialistWorker.org, 12 April 2002)

"IAM idles military aircraft production in Georgia... Strike hits Lockheed Martin" (SocialistWorker.org, 15 March 2002)

Lockheed Martin union avoids strike (The Associated Press, 7 March 2011)

Lockheed workers in Ga. end strike (The Baltimore Sun, 16 March 2005)

[citidata18]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

The jobs at a facility like Lockheed Martin are definitely high-paying and are generally what many would consider to be high-quality.

Though, there have been some issues over the years at Lockheed Martin's Marietta facility that have raised some questions about the work environment there.

Those issues include an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease at the plant back in 2016, a near-strike at the plant back in 2011, a week-long strike back in 2005, and an actual extended strike that went on for about seven weeks back in 2002.

"Several cases of Legionnaires' disease reported at Lockheed Martin plant... Monday afternoon, officials confirmed to 11Alive News that over the past year, four employees at the Lockheed Martin Marietta facility have been confirmed to have Legionnaire’s Disease." (11Alive News, 12 Sept 2016)

Lockheed Martin [strike continues] (SocialistWorker.org, 12 April 2002)

"IAM idles military aircraft production in Georgia... Strike hits Lockheed Martin" (SocialistWorker.org, 15 March 2002)

Lockheed Martin union avoids strike (The Associated Press, 7 March 2011)

Lockheed workers in Ga. end strike (The Baltimore Sun, 16 March 2005)

I wouldn't frame strikes as an issue, nor would I say they neccessarily have anything to do with the work environment.

They are a normal part of the collective bargaining process where management and labor come together to hash out an agreement to ensure high worker productivity, which is critical when meeting their customer's demands.

They happen all the time when UAW contracts end at Ford and GM plants, and I don't think anyone would argue that they don't have great work environments (at worst, they simply strive to make their great work environments even better).

As far as the Legionnaires outbreak, as someone raised in a blue collar household/family in a blue collar city and currently works a salaried role in manufacturing, the reality is manufacturing is not the cleanest of industries. It is a labor and capital-intensive field and workers know going in that they will be dealing with a ton of waste (sometimes toxic) and raw materials in facilities that aren't the most comfortable. I'm not defending the outbreak, but my point is, those things do occasionally happen through no one's fault and they get corrected when they do. Overall, these union shops for major corporations still provide a high and stable quality of life to workers who would otherwise have few opportunities and I don't think the employees would give them up that easily.