Paul Doblinger sits in the parking lot of Eastbrook Church’s Holy Grounds Café on a Thursday morning.
“Just comin’ home after third shift, here,” he says.
Doblinger said he really doesn’t mind his 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift at Snap-on, a Kenosha-based tool design and manufacturing company, because it allows him to take some courses in CNC programming at MATC. “I like it, as long as I’m not too tired after work,” he said. “It keeps me busy.”
Growing up in Bay View near Lincoln and Bay, Doblinger attended Tech High School and says he always liked cars, motorcycles and working with machines. After graduating in 1977 and a stint working at a ski resort in Colorado, Doblinger returned to Milwaukee and worked for the city for more than 24 years.
But recent politics left a bad taste in Doblinger’s mouth. “They enacted this Act 10, broke the unions, they made it so our unions…couldn’t represent us any more.”
“You know, you give blood, sweat and tears for all that time and all those years and then it’s like they just change everything. It is what it is.”
He isn’t bitter, though. “I’m pretty happy with what I’m doing,” he said, “actually, a lot more happy than what I was doing.”
Now, Doblinger feels like he’s moving in the right direction.
But, until he gets where he wants to be, what’s ahead for Doblinger? “Just trying to stay employed,” he said.
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