Reply #58: I worked in the Paint Shop at the South Gate GM plant in 80/81 [View All]

[cherokeeprogressive]

We painted next to robots. Two guys, one on each side, then two robots to match. There were five pairs per paint booth, separated by heaters, and people who wet-sanded the paint between booths. We painted pillar posts, door jambs, and the inside of the trunk. The robots painted the rest. When the unibody came to us, it had no lock cylinder in the trunk, just a hole with a hooked bar in it. The hooked bar held the trunk closed. One of us would unhook the bar, and both of us would paint our sides of the trunk. I don't know how many times I saw trunks intentionally left open, so that when the open trunk passed between the robots the unibody would be knocked off of its carrier. 20 minutes downtime, guaranteed. If the carrier was knocked off also, more like an hour. Paid. I caught shit because I'd never agree to be the one who left the trunk open. I knew I'd get caught. This was something that was done on purpose. Most times, when the line stopped in one department, the line had to stop in other departments as well, so as not to create a bottleneck.

Sometimes, the line would stop for no reason. I could only surmise that someone else in some other shop intentionally created a problem that would stop the line. I'd be at my station sometimes for over 2 hours a shift while the line was static aka not moving. Paid. The guys in the paint shop who did it felt totally justified in fucking with the man.

My dad worked in the Ford plant in Pico Rivera that eventually became the place where most of the B-2 was built. He said that in the trim shop, where the cars were finished, sometimes someone would place a screwdriver in juuuuuussssst the right place in the corner of the windshield, tap the screwdriver and the whole windshield would shatter. Sometimes it would fall apart and the whole interior would have to be cleaned. Line stop.

Brian Bosworth bragged in a Sports Illustrated interview that he and his friends in the body shop in the GM plant in Oklahoma City would hang a nut at the end of a string between the metal body panels. For the life of the car, there would be a rattle that would be impossible to find without removing the rear quarter panel. He was forced to recant his claim by GM of course, but as a star football player at OU he thought he was untouchable. Therefore I believe him. I've heard other things along the same lines from other people.

Stop implying that UAW members are 100% dedicated to their jobs and that for them quality is job one and that they're mistreated at every turn. I know different. Sometimes they cause the company to lose money on purpose. I've seen it.

As far as the rethugs bellowing about the unions being complicit to some degree, it's not 100% without merit. When I worked in South Gate, I used to walk the floor to check out the other jobs. I ran across a guy screwing the dashboard package in with an air powered screwdriver. He did his job from a chair. 53 dashboards per hour, and his job was to install about eight screws in each. He made bank. A hair better than twenty dollars per. And all he could do was bitch. I thought at the time, being a stupid 20yo punk, that his pay was a certain percentage of what each car sold for. That made me think that the cars GM paid were WAY overpriced. I didn't know any better. When I heard him say what he got paid, suddenly I thought I was underpaid. My union rep told me I was, every time I went on break. WHICH, by the way, was 23 minutes in the work period before my lunch, and twenty three minutes after. All in an eight hour period, and all paid.

I knew GM was in over its head in 1981. The day I walked into the plant and saw a hand lettered sign saying the plant was closing after my shift, I made up my mind to join the Navy on my way home. And that's what I did.

Everyone is to blame here. From the CEO to the guy in the paint shop who causes the line to stop intentionally. Don't tell me what happened in South Gate was peculiar or unique. Don't tell me things like that don't happen today. I even got threated when I volunteered to work overtime. My union brothers said I was taking food out of someone's mouth in some other plant. Every plant made a unique car. How could that be? I still haven't found the right answer.

Ask me sometime... I'll tell you how things changed for me when my coworkers found out that I was the future son-in-law of the manager of the Sealing Department. Suddenly, no one even knew my name.

The UAW ain't perfect. By any stretch of the imagination. Nor are its workers. Been one, done that. Got the T-shirt.