50’s & 60’s Assembly line workers

[Fanthomgreen69]

Watching one of the shows on car assembly lines. Got me thinking about what kind of training did the new assembly line workers (Specifically Chevrolet) get before they were put on the line. The pace that the line moved had to be a little daunting to a new worker. The noise, new unfamiliar surroundings and pressure to keep up was scary to a newbie. Was there a system to make sure the worker installed the correct part or option were installed on the correct car? Also, was there a large turnover?  Being in the union I guess the pay and benefits were pretty good.
Charles

[169INDY]

There is an interesting GM worker interview video on YouTube about a 1/2 hour or so, you will get a feel to the Education level of a typical UAW worker of the era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6xs8vtGqoY

Then watch a current Show about Corvette construction on How Its Made, the world (& Labor) has come a LONG way across the board

I worked with a Guy whom did a stint (1970's) in the Missouri GM Fisher Body plant & said one day a joker tack welded a Beer can to a Impala Hood and got in a Heap of trouble, My Buddie was so glad to get out of Auto production and dove into a more technical career US Navy propulsion Electrician Mate, since he saw no real development and future with GM.

Any Field with repetitive motion can be very difficult, in my opinion.

Jim

[jdv69z]

A friend of mine is the paint shop manager at the Ft Wayne truck plant. He showed me where they had finally automated the body to chassis drop and no longer needed line workers. He said that was some of the toughest work in the plant because the workers had to constantly lift their hands over their heads to guide the body down.

[crossboss]

I would 'guess' that line workers back in the good 'ol days had it pretty rough. Yes, the UAW had some say on what was considered 'dangerous' or labor intensive. Yet, we now know most materials back then (lead paint, asbestos, etc) were very dangerous. Also, consider the quality made by line workers was not really very good. Remember the saying "Don't buy a car made on Monday or Friday"? That said, I agree its much better today with robotic welding/machines, and much better (and stricter UAW/Federal Laws) to ensure workers are safe.

[KurtS]

If the design is correct, quality follows. There is a ton of effort on new models to make sure they can be built correctly. Not so in the old days.

90 day wonders. That's what the called new hires in my plants. After 90 days, they were permanently hired. But they would do about anything for those first 90 days to keep the job...

[bergy]

As part of the GMI co-op program, we had to work on the assembly line (St Louis) during some work sections.  The "instruction" consisted of doing the job(s) along side the assembly worker until you could keep up with the line.  Most jobs took only a couple of hours to be able to keep up.  Some were more difficult for me.  I never could get 4 body bolts secured on the Corvette line without cross threading at least one!  Most assembly workers who worked the same job every day could do the job competently with ease.  Relief and utility workers could (and did) relieve 2 workers at once - they could easily keep up doing 2 jobs (against shop rules, but no one seemed to care).