Auto Assembly Line 1936

SquidInk · Post by **SquidInk** » 07-20-2011 10:16 PM

Welcome to the modern world
We expect robotic obedience from you
We also expect efficiency
It's part of our business model.

Sinner · Post by **Sinner** » 07-20-2011 11:16 PM

This video is awesome, Those men took pride and built some beautiful automobiles. They don't look stoned and drunk like many of today's auto workers.

Bobbi Snow · Post by **Bobbi Snow** » 07-21-2011 01:05 AM

IF any of them were on ANYTHING then, it would have been home-grown pot... and probably most of them had never heard of it.

Pot didn't really come to the forefront until long after the black musicians used it to enhance their jazz interpretations in the late forties and early fifties. My mom could remember having it in a jar in the middle of their dining room table in the fifties with rolling papers, and all the musicians came over to her apartment in Dayton and smoked it, after their gigs ended at 2:00 a.m. Then they'd break out their instruments and improvise their jazz "rides" for the next performance. My mom played piano jazz and blues - something most white women couldn't or didn't want to do, back in those days. It wasn't being prosecuted for possession, then - probably because white cops in Dayton found every excuse in the world to NOT have to go into the "black neighborhoods" for anything less than a homicide.

My step-brothers, however, in the sixties, took and sold pills at the General Motors plant in Long Beach. Everyone, it seems, was high on something, in those days, most of the time. I was so dumb, I didn't know those little white pills with the X on them were illegal. They were supposed to keep people awake. I don't remember what they were called.

The cars produced before 1964 were extraordinary - both in design and performance. I know the Edsel didn't sell well because people were moving away from all the chrome, but I would have given my heart to anyone who owned an Edsel. I never met one... But even today, when I see an Edsel, I still have that same yearning to own one.

Dale O Sea · Post by **Dale O Sea** » 07-21-2011 01:32 AM

Right before the beginning of WWII and most major manufacturing operations were converted to wartime production.

I didn't realized that there was that much automation on a 1936 auto assembly line..Very cool SquidInk,

HB3 · Post by **HB3** » 07-21-2011 02:09 PM

Fantastic. Thanks for sharing.

SquidInk · Post by **SquidInk** » 07-21-2011 02:41 PM

I am at a loss for words when I see the guy with the hammer at 2:45. I have done a lot of rivet work (aircraft skins) in the past, and I wonder what he's doing, and what he's thinking. I wonder how long he performed that function. Were the workers rotated around the assembly line, to experience different aspects of the process?

It looks like a dehumanizing environment to me, and I'm not surprised that mind altering drugs made their way into that world.

Dale O Sea · Post by **Dale O Sea** » 07-21-2011 02:58 PM

SquidInk wrote: I am at a loss for words when I see the guy with the hammer at 2:45. I have done a lot of rivet work (aircraft skins) in the past, and I wonder what he's doing, and what he's thinking. I wonder how long he performed that function. Were the workers rotated around the assembly line, to experience different aspects of the process?

It looks like a dehumanizing environment to me, and I'm not surprised that mind altering drugs made their way into that world.

OSHA could use that as a how-NOT-to video..

The guy with the hammer is either deaf, or will be soon. Looked to me like he was audibly testing the rivets and joints?

They all knew they were on camera so that takes much of the feel of the place away for me. They were all trying to look good on the job.

Sinner · Post by **Sinner** » 07-21-2011 03:53 PM

SquidInk wrote:

It looks like a dehumanizing environment to me, and I'm not surprised that mind altering drugs made their way into that world.

True, At least today's auto workers get the pay and bennies everyone desires.

But normal assembly line work has little pay and bennies. People who are concerned and angry manufacturing jobs left the Country would probably never work one themselves or want their children too either.

SquidInk · Post by **SquidInk** » 07-23-2011 02:23 PM

Sinner wrote: People who are concerned and angry manufacturing jobs left the Country would probably never work one themselves or want their children too either.

I have to disagree.

voguy · Post by **voguy** » 07-23-2011 02:50 PM

SquidInk wrote: I have to disagree.

When you don't have a job, and assistance is not possible, that's when you're motivated to work a job like that.

Besides, who buys American cars anyway?

SquidInk · Post by **SquidInk** » 07-23-2011 03:18 PM

Well, it's all about competition.

I was once working as an aircraft mechanic for $9.45/hr. One day I realized that lives were dependent on my job performance, and I needed more pay to compensate for the stress of the job. My choices were either go haggle with the boss, or find a new boss. I ultimately went to a new job, in a new industry which was competing more effectively for workers.

Tragically, the auto manufacturers sold out. Instead of competing against other industries for the American worker (industries like High tech, or finance for instance), they chose to say F**k the American worker, we'll either import foreign labor, or relocate to third world hell holes.

Those un-competitive corporate welfare bailout queens can drop dead. And they can take their obsession with planned obsolescence with them.

I bet if the 'big three', with all of their influence suddenly disappeared, within in a very short time a thousand Tesla's would sprout up, re-employ the displaced workers, and we would begin to see real innovation in transportation! And it would look as futuristic and inspiring as this video probably did back in '36.

voguy · Post by **voguy** » 07-23-2011 06:33 PM

I find it interesting that in this bad economic climate that the Big Three have failed to look at cutting expenses, and building cars more to a basic level. The dean or the local auto college was on today talking about how Toyota is coming out with a new vehicle that has a crash system that is suppose to steer you around an accident that just happened. Adds another $4k to the car price. Is this what we need?

I'm surprised that none of the car companies have figured out that the average guy, who is struggling to make payments, would not be interested in a basic, low priced car. Sort of the concept Germany had after WW-II to get Germans back into affordable cars.

Of course the joke here in "auto country" is that Ford, GM, and Chrysler are really insurance and benefit programs for people, and they happen to sell cars to help pay the cost of the programs. What ever happened to the concept of affordable cars?

megman · Post by **megman** » 07-23-2011 07:58 PM

The downfall of the big 3 is the unions.

When my father retired from Ford's he was making $32/hr+ benefits. He got 10 weeks vacation and 3 paid sick days per month, accumulative. And forced to take them by years end.

Multiply that by 10's of thousands of workers and its a big chunk of change.

voguy · Post by **voguy** » 07-24-2011 08:26 AM

Sadly, that is true. I've seen some of the same thing on the broadcasters side with AFTRA and IBEW. And, as expected, the union can't help when the business folds due to being too expensive to run.

Sinner · Post by **Sinner** » 07-24-2011 10:29 AM

megman wrote: The downfall of the big 3 is the unions.

When my father retired from Ford's he was making /hr+ benefits. He got 10 weeks vacation and 3 paid sick days per month, accumulative. And forced to take them by years end.

Multiply that by 10's of thousands of workers and its a big chunk of change.

True, I have met many retirees from the Janesville GM plant. Many happened to have bought houses around here for their retirement. Dont forget health insurance for them and their spouses for life etc. and 20 yrs and out.
Anyway I had some tell me they would be at parties and ice their fingers and break them, automatic 6 weeks paid vacation. True story. I detest auto workers from Janesville., no offense.

edit, I tell you, I am a big GM man, every car I own is a GM. I always have a collector GM in my garage. The government should have never bailed out that company. They should have closed their doors and those workers should have starved for all I care.