My grandpa just turned 80 this past year, and he still works at the same factory doing the same thing that he's pretty much done since he graduated high school.
Exactly right. I've been driving a truck 33 years, and I'm burnt out on it. Can hardly wait 3 more years and maybe I can retire and maybe just work part time when I want to. I love driving, just the hassles the Govt has put on us the last 10 years and the increase in stupid drivers has me ready to walk away. I never got but one job in an assembly line type of factory, and it was a milk bottling plant. Doing the same thing, time after time, day after day wore me out. Got off the line and got a job as a "floater", I had to do a little of all of it. Much better to vary it from day to day. Only automotive type plant around here back then was Arvin Industries, they made mufflers and tail pipes for a lot of the OEM market. I tried for several years to get on, never could, you just about had to be kin to somebody to get a job there. Really glad now that I didn't, a few years after I quit trying to get on, they moved the plant to Mexico, leaving 500 people without a job....
Read the book when I get it published. Here's one though. We find a plant material handling fork-truck parked in our way. Just move it 20 feet and it's all good. NOPE because the trucks are assigned to people who are responsible for them. The fork-truck was not illegally parked because there were no barriers or indications put in place. If something, anything should happen with that truck or anyone else the assigned idividual could loose his job. So we track down the supervisor who knew nothing, he tracks down another supervisor who knew nothing. The supervisors put in an order for truck repair to come tow it. All this tracking down is done on foot from clear across the facility and nobody is where they are supposed to be. Truck repair shows up to tow it and they tracked who's truck it was and find out the guy had a medical emergency and went to the hospital by ambulance. It took a while to get all that info down thru the bureaucracy. 1 complete day waisted by our little crew of 4 following the rules-Plus the supervisors time plus 2 truck repairmen's time. The rules do make sense and all the powers that be do want you to follow them but it's at everyone's detriment. After the fact somebody inevitably bitches about the waist the have created at the top and then passes the blame down hill.
I done my share of truck driving. Dealing with the Dot and lazy folks at terminals is a real chore. When I was in my 40,s I was a Heavy Hauler moved all sorts of over size and over weight stuff. And I really enjoyed it. Something different and a new challenge every week and I got paid by the hour. and I was never made to get in a hurry. The old boy who owned the company got cancer and sold everything before he died.
There are very few folks who could stay sane doing the same thing that many years. Most folks cannot wait until they can Johnny Pay check their job.
I think it was 1994 when we had a DEA raid in our building. The roof was flat with many skylights and as it turned out those skylights were perfect for video surveillance by plant protection. Once enough evidence had been gathered the cops and DEA agents staged themselves outside in one of the material storage yards, raced in an overhead door and ran over to arrest the perps who had been dealing cocaine. We had no idea they were videoing the area, but it didn't matter because the guys I hung with were clean. What was odd was the fact that no salaried personnel had been seen near the dealers in the days leading up to the arrests. Gee, you think the fact that the plant guards were salaried and had full benefits too entered into it? Then there was Frank, he was a General Foreman in Skilled Trades. I don't remember what group he had, but it was probably electricians, or pipe fitters, but no matter he had friends in all the trades. Anyway once the weather warmed up Frank liked to sun bathe up on the roof, and if it was necessary to speak to him all the supervisors carried Motorola radios but even better, he had running water plumbed up to the roof along with a phone line if needed. In earlier posts throwing things over the fence was mentioned, it happened at our place too. Tools and copper was common (for scrap value) as was silver solder, but in the case of the silver solder it was easily taken out in a pocket. I have no idea what the silver content was but it was a popular thing to steal. Locomotive horns are really large, especially a five chime horn. I don't know why they are called chimes, but each individual trumpet is a chime. Cast aluminum, big and heavy but over the fence never the less. Lazy employees? Guys that didn't know their ass from a hole in the ground? Thievery? Trust me, it was rampant on both sides, hourly and salaried.
I spent twenty years with the city of Vancouver, mostly as an equipment operator, not assembly line stuff but the same mentality. It requires a special personality to exist in these places, if you're a thinker or idea man, it's not for you, I learned fast. I stayed cause I needed the work, and the bank loved who I worked for, coming off construction to a good paying steady job was golden, once I adjusted it was easy money. The real rules of the job are not to bring attention to yourself, pretend to do as you're told and learn to cover your ass. I watched guys lose good jobs over stealing copper, pipe wrenches, anything they thought they could ditch somewhere and pick up later. The best part of the whole thing is the pension at the end, where I am now. I learned to fit in, my creative side was in my own shop, my wild side was after hours driving or riding something cool home from work, being recognised as a problem solver and someone not to be fooled with, I became a shop steward although I was never a union man, I did love a good fight, still do. These are good jobs, but they are fast disappearing, something guys in our age range don't like to see.
You nailed it. There are some days I feel like hitting myself in the head with a hammer to release the pain of managerial stupidity and micro-management ........ but then I figure it's not worth the effort. Now you know why there are so many drunks that work the lines.
Back to the assembly line, I found a rusty pair of vise grips holding a fenderwell tub together in an OT 60's car. They were probably used to hold the pieces together on the line until they were spot welded. For some reason, lunch, break, quitting time, who knows, the line worker didn't spot weld that panel and left his vise grips clamped on it. The other side was spot welded like it was supposed to be. Don't know if the same guy did both sides or what, but do know he was short one pair of vise grips!
I was promoted to General Forman at the too young age of 25 in the material department of Pontiac Motor Division. Shortly after the promotion the Production GF went on vacation and I was to take his place while he was away. Shortly after the start of my shift the probably 30 year employee who ran the host installing the front clip to the body from Fisher Body missed a job. A no no in an assembly plant. I strode up to him in with my chest stuck out and begin to let him know in no uncertain tone that while I was there he would not miss another job....... About two hours later I am strutting down the aisle when I see the Superintendent (god) coming the other way screaming my name and some very harsh words regarding my parental history and pointing behind me , I turned around to see what he was so upset about. As far as I could see were white cars with blue front ends, green cars with red front ends, etc etc etc. The front ends had got out of sequence on the second floor and instead of setting it aside like the employee would normally do, he did exactly what the new GF told him ......he didn’t miss a job......I couldn’t apologize to him quick enough. He and I became good friends and he never let me forget the lesson he taught me. Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
I'm NOT knocking unions, if you know american industrial history, I worked in a skilled trade, Tool & Die maker, also worked as a Pattern Maker (union trade) Unions are what made the middle class $$$ income that all us baby boomers grew up in and enjoyed. I ran my shop 37 years non union, but paid union wages and benefits to get and keep help, the difference being when I hired a slacker/BSer, I could fire him. Best/Worst case of bureaucracy I encountered was buying new machines at Machine Tool Show, McCormick place, Chicago,(70's-80's)( all machines under power ) paid Electrician, Mat'l Handler 1 X to dock, another Mat'l handler to load on truck, + Truck delivery charge,( the 3 charges at McCormick surpassed trucking charges) got chewed out by a union truck driver as I jumped on my fork truck to unload my new machine, he stopped me, used my phone to get permission to let me unload, he was concerned that I did not hire a union machinery moving co. I hired a 40 year old journeyman out of Brigg's when they started cutting back, he was totally lost as we did not have a buzzer that rang telling him break time, lunch time, start time, quitting time, he didn't last long, 1 last comment on help, I NEVER saw a employee take bathroom break, wash hands, or BS for 15/20 minutes on his time, Always on my dime.
I know one such person who is a slacker.... Caught him a few times up stairs googling stupid videos... And they won't shit can his ass....
Assembly line work may be brutal, but what people tend to forget for 99.99% of human history there was practically no government welfare. Any relief came from Church or private charities. Being unemployed could be a death sentence. When ole Henry instituted his famous $5 a day wage (about double the prevailing) so many people showed up it practically caused a riot and they had to be turned away with fire hoses. In January.
My dad was a tool maker at the Dort Highway AC Delco/Rochester/Delphi in Flint for 39 years. Even the skilled trades guys have stories...I heard a bunch. And gov't jobs? Guess who always had the fastest pinewood derby cars at Boy Scouts... BTW...driving by the empty (huge) lot where the factory used to be is quite disheartening. Dad worked hard and loved his job.
Workers were paid the $5/day rate if, and only if, they followed Henry's way of living. His Service Department, AKA "goon squad" would make random visits to employee's homes to see how the kids were clothed and fed. Was the employee a drinker, a church goer, what did the neighbors think of him and the family? Who among us would take a pay raise if the requirements were like that? Your personal business is your personal business. Yeah, old Hank was a real champion of the worker. Read up on the "Battle of the Overpass" to see how he and Harry Bennett, his leader of the Service Department thought workers should be treated. Ultimately it was Clara, Henry's wife, that laid down the law in 1941 telling Henry she would leave him if he did not permit the UAW to represent the workers. In my 35 years at GM I never called a Union rep for a problem I had with a supervisor, but I will admit to being written up twice. I still did not want representation in those instances, I was flat out wrong in what I did and took responsibility. On the other hand if some of you guys had seen the petty vindictiveness, or flagrant violations of a persons rights and dignity as a human being that I had seen over the years you might have a different take on unionism. Always remember one thing-the company signed the same contract the union did and if they chose not to deal with the bad apples and apply discipline when warranted who's fault is that? Many times at EMD, a division of General Motors, the Labor Relations Dept. would be looking to curry favor with the union reps. They would dismiss a write up and reverse a decision so in some instances a suspended worker in effect would receive a couple of days or even a week off with pay. Eventually the floor supervisors came to call LR the"candy store" and in many cases didn't even bother to write people up because they would not get the support they needed. Our plant was so very large if a guy was a bad apple he might be transferred out of a department only to wind up in the employ of an unsuspecting boss in another area. Seniority rules said that in a reduction in force the employee had seniority rights over another person with less time and they played the game to get rid of a guy rather than deal with him, or it might have been as simple as an open requisition for a worker in a different department. Sure, dump him over there and now you don't deal with him. What pissed me off more than anything were the guys that came from some jerk water town where there was no chance of decent employment. Many of them bitched about having to pay two hours of their wages to the UAW. Really??? That sounds like a cheap price to pay for a good paying job, with benefits and a pension (at that time) and rights under the contract. If they didn't like it so much why the hell didn't they stay where they came from? I'm way off track from the original intent of this thread so I will not comment again. However I did feel there are two sides to every story and wanted my side on the record.
One of my jobs along the way, was working as a Field Service Engineer for a machine tool company. One of my assignments was overseeing the installation of a couple of machines in the Ford, Indianapolis plant. One of the machines had a defective switch in the main panel box that periodically kicked off. I called my company for a replacement and continued my work, trying to work around the switch until the new one arrived. A day or two after the switch started acting up, an electricion pedaled up on his 3-wheeled trike, dismounted and told me if I had electrical problems, to put in a request for a plant electrician and if he ever caught me in the panel box without one, he'd shut the whole plant down. Now the machine hadn't been officialy accepted yet, so it wasn't technically Ford property, but the next time the switch kicked out, I put in a request for the "Sparky". I waited for 2-days and then along comes the original electrician, gets off his trike, went to the panel box, turned the switch on and got back on his trike and rode away, all without saying a word, but I got the message as to who was in charge.
I've never worked on the assembly line,per se, but I've worked as a maintenance man in the paint shop of the car mill since 1995. There are some stories, and a lot more tall tales. Just like any community, there are some extremely smart, talented people.... working right alongside others who couldnt poor piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the bottom. The law of averages is definitely at work here, the bigger an organization is, the more idiots there are in it, and the more likely you are to run into one on a daily basis. I dont think car building is unique in any of this. I've seen cars scrapped for too little paint (duh), too much paint ( yes), cars painted the wrong color, and lots of other reasons. Some machine malfunctions, some operator errors. Some can be fixed, but it's supposed to be cheaper to scrap it, crush it and recycle it than it is to fix it. One thing that finally sets in, we're just here to row the boat. Somebody else hold the rudder. All the decisions, good or bad, get made somewhere else. You can fight back all you want to , but eventually you loose. Sometimes the most comical are the ones when you ask "Are you SURE that's what you want me to do?" One of the ones I remember is when I was told to cut the shaft off a very expensive gearbox, with a torch, so we could save a relatively cheap sprocket. One of my pet peeves are the signs we are required to post on just about everything that moves " Caution! Automated Equipment moves without warning". No shit. My argument was we needed ONE. On the front door. Any idiot walking in the building should realize this is automated equipment.
If y'all think private industry is alone in having problems with their work force guess again. You need to look at our Federal Government. Everyone has heard of issues concerning waste, fraud and abuse. Trust me when I tell you those allegations are not exaggerations. Working for the Government is a great job. By and large no nights, holidays or weekends and no heavy lifting but many employees still won't hit a lick. They think just showing up for work qualifies them for a fat pay check. The real travesty is the Federal Government has more unions then private industry does making it damn near impossible to remove misfits and malcontents. Look at all the Douche Bags currently in the FBI and Justice Department and their incompetence regarding the email scandal where no one has ever been held accountable for their crimes. The sad part is hard working American tax payers like you and I are footing the bill for these Slugs. I could sit at my key board for hours outlining things that would make your head spin. I'm retired from the Federal Aviation Administration where I was the manager for 150 employees. and responsible for all aviation activities within the state. Had I stayed there I would have had a heart attack or stroke. The good news is I have an excellent retirement program and great health insurance. I don't miss all the headaches one bit.
Back then? Well a whole shitload of folks apparently. Like I said I'm sure it sucked, but $5 a day was good low-skill wage money in those days. Easily equivalent to a couple hundred dollars in today's money. Today? Let's make sure we're comparing at least roughly equivalent situation. As in "No" - no welfare, no adfc, no wic, no subsidized rent, no this, no that, no health care etc. Everything was pretty much cash on the barrelhead in 1920 in those days. No credit cards or consumer credit to speak of. Remember Henry Ford did all those things without benefit of union organizing, his competitors were suitably horrified as I understand it, and called him "Socialist." I'm not here to defend Henry, but I disagree with that notion. People try to claim their private life doesn't bleed over to their work performance. BS. Alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic abuse, child abuse, theft, poor finances, etc - just one angle - this entire discussion has been chock full about rampant theft by employees. Character matters, on and off the job, don't ever let anybody tell you different. Trust me, I'm no Boy Scout but any damn fool knows this. Henry did too, I guess. Square dancing ain't my thing, but the owners of a company ought to be able to hire whoever they want.
My brother got out of the army in 63 and went to work for Fisher body in Flint,Mi. It was funny how the big guys got the light jobs and the little guys got the heavy jobs. He is a big old boy and his job was to vacuum out the cars before they got painted and his buddy who might have weighed 120 lbs was putting on bumpers all day. My wife worked for Ford kicking in A/C units at one of their assembly plants. She loved her job.
Just like any bureaucracy, those agents were told what to do, what to say, what to change, when to stand down and when to lie. It's not incompetence, nobody is that fucking stupid. That is coming from very far and higher up the food chain or should we say very DEEP and all you will ever hear or see is puppets. Whistleblowers at that level seem to rapidly develop suicidal tendencies- So bad they shoot themselves in the back of the head twice then jump off a balcony.
Ok guys....enough about the government side of stuff. I wanna read more stories without this getting locked.
Many unions have negotiated their members out of a job with ridiculous rules and demands. All unions are concerned with one factor, union dues. Most unions in this day and age are not even required. There are no more sweat shops or child labor. Does anyone really believe Government employees need the protection of a union? Has anyone ever heard of the term Featherbedding? A classic union demand. Unions protect those who won't do the job they were hired for.
Assembly line worker in a moving vehicle trade: Hello, After visiting the old Ford Plant in Terminal Island (right by the drawbridge) when we were in 4th grade, I wanted to have my share of building “cars and things.” It looked like so much fun as each section had a certain part to add on to the long assembly line. At home, my assembly line was a string of small parts all lined up to put on my plastic models to a finished rolling hot rod. I never got the chance to apply to an assembly line type of job until I was in sophomore in high school. I needed some money to go on a three week surf trip to Mexico at the end of July into August. So, I applied to an assembly line company near my Long Beach house. It was the Kit Trailer Company near PCH, Highway 1 and the 710 freeway.(back then it was called the Long Beach Freeway.) They built “kits” in the beginning and moved on to larger trailers by the time I was hired. My job was kind of the laughing stock of the assembly line workers. They called it the “screwing” job. I had to drill the holes in the cabinet doors and pile them up. Then the next assembly line job was to put on three hole chrome hinges to the two areas where I previously drilled the holes. (It was a three drill, drill press that lined up the holes perfectly.) So, I was technically, "screwing" in 1000s of little chrome screws daily. Once that was finished, I made two 4 ft. piles to send over to the assembly line installers on the next work station to form the whole cabinet. I wanted to be the installer inside of the trailers as they had huge fans cooling them off as they worked. I am/was accustomed to the hot sun at the beach, but assembly line work get tedious in hot weather…and the doors just keep getting piled higher and higher. Jnaki One day, one of the cabinet guys was out sick and his co worker asked me to help him make the frames for the cabinets. (making a “T” out of two 1 inch bars, using an air powered stapler) So, I helped him in framing, after making a ton of doors with hinges attached and doing my daily screwing. The shop foreman saw what I was doing and commended me for taking the initiative in helping the assembly line move along. That did not last long. On one of the “T” bar construction pieces, I slipped and stapled my thumb with a ¾ inch staple. That hurt and started bleeding profusely. I went to the office for first aid as instructed and the secretary told me to go wash it out. Ok, then she gave me a band aid and said go back to work. Ha! (great medical first aid) Throbbing, still bleeding and in lots of pain, I said that it needed more medical attention. I asked if could I go to my family doctor’s office, just down the road from this factory. She called the manager and he said no, just get back to work and that I was holding up the assembly line. I could not hold the “T” pieces together, so his wisdom was to put me on sanding detail for the next three hours until quitting time. By now, I was ready to walk out and asked for my weekly check. The secretary gave me a check for a week’s work and I rode my bicycle home. But, before I left, the shop manager gave me a lecture on why the assembly line was so important to the USA economy and that I was giving up a valuable job reference by going home. I rode home with a painful, but smile on my face…surf trip in two weeks... “In January 1947 Kit moved to a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the harbor area of Long Beach. Shortly after, production began on a larger, 8-by-14-foot travel trailer. Demand for the two models exceeded production. Kit trailers were popularized through department stores and new and used car dealers and also received publicity as prizes in the annual Soap Box Derby and the "Queen for a Day" radio program.” Kit trailers started off with a "kit" for teardrop shaped trailers and then moved on to larger trailer models. 1963 2017 Our old Long Beach house where we grew up was a bicycle ride (4 blocks) north. The hot rod/speed shops were a block away to the west. (Joe Mailliard, Clay Smith Cams, Mickey Thompson, .5 mile away to the NW, etc.) The tall tank tower is still standing, but unused.
The Jalopy Journal
