Why would he leave, yes the work is physically hard, and mentally monotonous, but the reward and pay is great - thats the tradeoff - they go in work their 20 years, and come out beat up and somewhat broken, and get a decent pension out of it.
Would he have stayed on without the great pay, benefits and pension? probably not, not enough financial reward for the work, he's smart enough to do anything he decides he wants to. That on some level is the price of doing business - or was at least for a long time - the UAW gave concessions to save the Big Three in the form of a two tier wage structure, which the big three appear to be willing to gradually eliminate the two tier structure - or at least bring them closer together now that they are financially healthier.
The thing is, I'd bet money though, if if I looked into it, you'd find autoworkers in each company (or anyone doing heavy assembly like that to be similarly well paid, relative to their local wage).
Would he have stayed on without the great pay, benefits and pension? probably not, not enough financial reward for the work, he's smart enough to do anything he decides he wants to. That on some level is the price of doing business - or was at least for a long time - the UAW gave concessions to save the Big Three in the form of a two tier wage structure, which the big three appear to be willing to gradually eliminate the two tier structure - or at least bring them closer together now that they are financially healthier.
The thing is, I'd bet money though, if if I looked into it, you'd find autoworkers in each company (or anyone doing heavy assembly like that to be similarly well paid, relative to their local wage).