Americana: Job Crashing

In the 1944 movie An American Romance, the destitute hero walks into an iron mine, begins working and is soon hired on as a regular hand. But, as Anthony Opat, 19, has found, life unhappily does not imitate art in this situation, at least not at the Ford Motor Co.'s stamping plant in Woodhaven, Mich.

Unemployed and desperate for work, Opat applied for a job and was turned down. Next day he went to the plant's gate, flashed an unemployment card as if it were an employee's ID and joined a production line. For three days Opat took his place among the workers, stacking automobile hoods. But then he was discovered and ordered to leave.

"I hoped they would see that I was a good worker and give me a job," said Opat. Despite his purely volunteer status, the plant's personnel department paid him $218 for his work and, according to Opat, promised him a job if he would keep his mouth shut. After two weeks without further word from the plant, Opat began talking to the press. "No comment," said a Ford spokesman to all inquiries. And so far, no job for Opat either.