The Industrial Rehabilitation Program That Still Works – Tom W.

About This Speaker Tape

A vicious reputation as a common drunk in Cleveland led Tom W. through the revolving doors of the Cuyahoga County courts and multiple stints at the Warrensville Workhouse. After a psychiatrist declared him a hopeless and incurable alcoholic a judge gave him five dollars and a phone number for a group of drunks who had found a way to stay sober.

Tom's recovery became a bridge to the industrial world where he helped build some of the first rehabilitation programs for workers. He argues that the cost of alcoholism in industry isn't just absenteeism but the catastrophic negligence of the alcoholic sweeper or the drunken executive who burns bridges with customers. For Tom the 12 Steps are not a club membership but a survival plan with the 12th Step acting as the engine that keeps the recovery moving.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction and a joke about the honesty required in AA meetings.
• 2:30 Tom describes his reputation in Cleveland and the psychiatric evaluation that labeled him 'hopeless and incurable'.
• 4:15 The story of Judge Louis D. and the five-dollar handouts.
• 6:00 Tom discusses the 'investment' the courts made in him and his early struggles with acceptance in the AA community.
• 8:20 Transition to his professional life and the creation of industrial rehabilitation programs.
• 10:45 The philosophy of not dangling jobs or spouses as rewards for sobriety.
• 13:10 The image of the laborer and the executive sharing coffee at an AA meeting.
• 15:30 Analysis of the financial cost of alcoholism in the workplace, including the 'alcoholic sweeper'.
• 18:00 Discussion of the 12 Steps as a heritage and the importance of the 12th Step.
• 19:15 Closing remarks wishing the audience happiness, contentment, and peace of mind.