Five signs of new life in post-crash Detroit

Editor's note: The U.S. auto industry has come full circle, from boom to bankruptcy to boom. Detroit's road from reckoning to revival was shorter than expected. This 4-part series examines how workers defied history and why Detroit's new strength is embodied in Chrysler's reborn Jefferson North assembly plant in Detroit.DETROIT -- Tyyonna Clark and Napoleon Wright have many things in common. They both started working at Chrysler's Jefferson North factory in 2010.They share a history in hair care: Clark worked as a part-time beautician before Chrysler and Wright still works as a barber on the side. And they each started at $14 an hour -- half the $28 hourly wage veteran workers make -- and now earn $19 assembling Jeep Grand Cherokees 10 hours a day.It is on that last point that they differ. Clark and Wright are among about 2,200 workers at Jefferson North who earn what is known as the "second tier" wage.They started out making less than $30,000 a year, while veteran workers made almost $60,000.The UAW agreed to establish a two-tier wage system in 2007 in hopes of boosting employment at the Detroit Three. And it worked: Chrysler has hired more than 10,000 workers in the U.S. since coming out of bankruptcy.Kinship With comebackYet two-tier wages have created divisions on the factory floor, which Clark and Wright illustrate.Wright sees the second-tier wage as an injustice that he wants to set right. "I'd prefer it to be one wage across the board," said Wright, 43, a single father of three, who also works as a tailor and a photographer to supplement his income."Equal pay for equal work, that's why the union came to be. And that's what we're doing -- we're doing the same work."Wright had worked for Ford for 15 years -- making $28 an hour -- before taking a buyout in 2007 as the automaker was shedding workers to stave off bankruptcy.He had left Ford after his wife died of breast cancer, hoping it would give him more time with his three children. He ended up working late into the evening at his After Five Gentlemen Grooming Services, offering full valet services to celebrities and professional athletes for $150 an hour.He felt a tragic kinship to Chrysler's comeback story since he also had to rebuild his life after losing his wife when their children were 11, 6 and 4 years old."I fell in love with the idea of coming out of the ashes like a phoenix," he said. "I did it in my personal life, so I realized it could be done with this company." 'Give me a week'

Five signs of new life in post-crash Detroit

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