They simply weren't paying me enough. I had been there for over 2 years and can run any station in my line. I was quite literally 1 of 2 people on site that could run the plas table (the other being the guy that trained me, who is a line lead elsewhere AND running a forklift, so he has no time for it). I made improvements in my station that led to cuts and welds being more accurate. People would stop by my station on the way to the restroom to watch me work and ask for pointers. Even one of the managers stopped by to take pictures of how I did things so that it could be used in training (true story). I was getting paid $17/hr.
As we started losing people for various reasons (life changes, substance abuse, emergencies, etc), they hired more and more people. The lowest of the low was getting paid $18/hr for general labor, while most (if not all) welders were coming in at $21. When the rest of us found out, we started leaving. Within the first 4 months of the year, we lost nearly 20 people, only to be replaced by some randos off the street. Most trailers I've seen sent out the door had porosity, blowouts, and cases where they didn't even follow the line. And while I agree with the sentiment that anyone working 40+ hours a week should at least be able to make ends meet, they definitely didn't have the skills to justify being paid more than the rest of us. So many lines fell behind that they started to enforce mandatory overtime.
And of course any time that I or any other person asked for our wages to be increased, we all got a one size fits all excuse about attendance. I wasn't even on a verbal warning yet. Eventually my line lead put in his two weeks; I didn't bother but quit the day before his last. After the floor supervisor harassed me for not staying 12 hours a day and me telling him that I wasn't going to do it for a $17/hr base pay and that no one can run the plas table, he told me that I'm basically expendable. I had enough of it. My line should have had 10-12 people; by the time my lead and I left, there would be 4. We were the last line to ever be considered for additional people and we're always the first to be shut down if someone in Paint had the sniffles.
Fast forward to today. I'm now at a new job with some of my old coworkers; they all say it's much better there. And though I didn't start at $21/hr, I suspect I'll be past that very soon. The benefits are better- better insurance, a yearly $160 boot voucher, a gym discount, monthly bonuses (which would amount to me being paid over the $21 mark), no micromanaging, no forced overtime, frequent company events, and getting TWO toppings on our pizzas. To add to this, we did a pressure test on the fuel tank my team is building- all my welds held and without leaks. At this rate, I don't think my old job could afford to rehire me.
I guess I don't know where I'm really going with this, but I hope it can inspire someone to maybe look into other opportunities if they're available. Had my old job even tried to retain me, I would have put up with their abuse and never know what else was out there.