Production Schedule around Holidays

[cook_dw]

Specifically Christmas 1967 & New Years 1968 timeframe?  Any differences between plants ?  More curious about Van Nuys..

[JohnZ]

Specifically Christmas 1967 & New Years 1968 timeframe?  Any differences between plants ?  More curious about Van Nuys..

Both plants operated under the National Agreement with the UAW, which specified the paid holidays. As I recall, only Christmas Day and New Year's Day were paid holidays up through 1970; the big Christmas-through-New Year's Day holiday didn't start until 1971, and the extended Thanksgiving holiday didn't start until 1974.

[cook_dw]

Thanks John!!

[cook_dw]

Another quick question.  Would they have worked Saturday to make up for the Monday which was Christmas?

[JohnZ]

Another quick question.  Would they have worked Saturday to make up for the Monday which was Christmas?

No. Their schedule recognized that as a contractual holiday.

[bergy]

Just for clarity - lots of employees worked on paid holidays including some production activities.  Contractually, assembly plants could have scheduled production activities on any of those days - wether or not anyone would show up for work might be another matter!  Working through holidays was very lucrative though - hioliday pay plus 1 1/2 to 2 times base rate.  I worked through those holidays - paid a lot of bills with the extra $$. 

[KurtS]

Most of the time, maintenance and engineering changes were done on those holidays. Mostly skilled trades were working.
Supplier plants might have some (smaller) lines running, but it would be unusual for assembly plants due to the # of people needed on the line.

[bergy]

I agree Kurt - the time between Christmas and New Years was always a big maintenance period.  However, if Christmas fell on a Monday, it would not have been unusual to run production lines on the Saturday prior to Christmas (at least at Tonawanda).  It just depended on demand.  I could get sufficient manpower to run lines on December 23rd - it wasn't like asking people to work Christmas Eve.  My comments were just to clarify that there was no contractual prohibition from working on holidays.

[KurtS]

It's all good - I was just trying to help explain what was happening in the plants.

[69Z28-RS]

I would imagine that auto manufacturers operated their plants the same as any 'heavy' manufacturing operation, except they also had the UAW, and it's contract, to deal with.     It's all about meeting demand, and making $$ (which means minimizing costs, and maximizing sales revenue)..

[JohnZ]

I would imagine that auto manufacturers operated their plants the same as any 'heavy' manufacturing operation, except they also had the UAW, and it's contract, to deal with.     It's all about meeting demand, and making $$ (which means minimizing costs, and maximizing sales revenue)..

When I was a Chrysler assembly plant manager, the key metrics against which my performance was measured every single day were (in priority order) SQDCM - Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, and Morale; manage those, and the small stuff will take care of itself.

[VINCE Z28]

It may suprise some to think safety ranked so high, but when I first started working in heavy manufacturing in the late 70's, It was common to see the older guy's missing a finger or two. As time went on an companies engineered more safety measures and employees took ownership of their safety programs things changed. Safety was a way of thinking... not a slogan or banner hanging on the wall. Terry 

[bergy]

Unfortunately, it took witnessing some awful accidents to imprint the importance of safety indelibly in my mind.  Even after leaving GM - our plants in PA often worked 1,000,000 man hours without a lost time accident - and those are foundry man hours.