The Assembly line 1972..
 

In depth interviews from GMAD Lordstown. This project was funded by the Ford foundation which might explain as to why all the assembly footage was from Pinto production LOL..

It is a little dry at the start but it is 100% instructive as to the build conditions in the GM plants in that time period.

Another interesting Chevrolet video.

Yes that is the updated version of the film "Beetle and the Bug" from the 1970's.

An earlier version of the same film was being shown in the late 1950's to salaried personnel.

I have a bunch of the booklets "The Chevrolet story" of different dates I got out of a closed dealership and most show pictures of the line in operation.

The lead solder with the flame torch is simply epic from the Ford footage, - even GM was using air hoods by the late 1960’s for that element in Fisher Body.

I noticed the actor/narrator speaking at 18:50 reading the grievance procedure. He was in John Carpenter's "THE THING."

I think his name is Dave Clennon

They always showed us films from vintage Super Bowl games (presumably to teach us about "teamwork") and then presentations about how our quality was so bad and the Japanese were coming.

It always reminded me of this cartoon:

Love watching vintage industrial movies like these.

I think the long haired dude doing most of the narrating smoked one too many doobies.

LOL

Rich

Yes but he had perhaps the best statements that really summed up how GMAD operated:

"the plant runs on fear'

"the only chance you have is to double up on jobs"

I liked the comment about how the production supervisor is stuck in the middle between management and the hourly workers.

I did that job when I was 19 years old. I had 26 or so production operations and about 37 hourly direct reports.

I used to cry before I would go in to work.

K

I felt for the guy that got reprimanded for being late because he wanted or needed to talk to his wife.

My wife was teaching school at the time. If her carpool left the school exactly on time then we could see each other for about five minutes before I had to leave for work.

It pretty rarely happened.

K

It’s definitely a military or a prison type social structure. I came in towards the end of the “bull of the woods” type management style. I like to think my dad and I ushered in a more reasonable and cerebral approach.

The only time my guys doubled up was when they needed a bathroom break and a relief man or my quality man were not available. I would sometimes cover if I knew it was only going to be a minute or two.

K

GMAD rolled Lordstown’s union pretty quick during the 1972 strike and doubled down thinking they could do the same at Norwood. GMAD met its match with local 674 and the 6 month strike.

That didn't end up working out so well. GM moved product out of the Norwood plant and closed the plant 15 years later - lots of factors but the workforce conflict was a big one...

Hey Kurt,

The Norwood closure along with the 10 other plants closed in conjunction with the global restructuring of GM under Roger Smith is incredibly well documented.

If the 1972 strike had anything to do with it closing, why in the world would GM have pumped 270 Million into modernizing the plant in 1981-1982 for the gen three car-- I mean a new Flat plant built at that time was only about 40 million more in cash outlay.

Let me know and I will be glad to send you a free copy of the book "Echoes of Norwood".:beers:

I had to buy my book...

:mad:


(lol)

This is a special offer since He is in charge of the CRG, -- and since he banned me from that forum several years ago I thought the free book is an appropriate peace offering. :)

We had a close friend and car buddy that retired from the Norwood plant in the early 80's. He had connections and was kind enough to give us a private tour of the plant around 86-ish or so. I don't remember the exact year of the tour but I do remember the plant closed down a couple years later.

I thought it was cool to get inside info from a long timer, walk around freely, watch them beat on the 3rd gens that were coming out at the time, it was quite an operation.

My grandfather retired from the Fisher Body plant in Hamilton not far from there, he built doors, or door skins, or something like that. His stories were pretty funny too.

Excellent viewing. Thanks Phil. Hope you are doing well
Jeff

Yup, and have only banned 2-3 people over the years!

Yep, and in doing so you banned the Norwood Retirees as well.

Think of everything you and the board could have learned over the years.. sad really.

Want a free book? I will ship it today.:scholar:

Wow, it looks way different from the atmosphere in the plant I worked in. I hired into Chevrolet Spring and Bumper in September 78 and there was no fear on the union side. In fact, if management was either slow or disagreeable on settling grievances, our union steward would show up early in our shift and tell us to slow down our pace to send a message. Since our jobs were considered semi-skilled, we weren’t required to work at line speed so we could get away with it. The nice part of working that job was even though I was making great money for a young single guy, the deplorable working conditions inspired me to do better things with my life.
The plant is gone now but it was an amazing place as it was not only the largest plating facility in the world but supposedly had the largest press room as well. We had the capacity to punch-out and plate 25000 bumpers a day.

Yes! The story of the battle within GM over the discontinuation of regular bumpers is epic. The old styling guys vs the plastic fascia guys.

The fact that you were told to slow down makes sense actually because one side was actively trying to build a case to move to all plastic which at that time was still too expensive to produce domestically, however, once you make the metal plating process as inefficient as you can you then build a case for a styling change. In the 1970's plastic was still too expensive for GM to mass produce.

On the Camaro and Firebird GM fixed the cost and environmental issue by moving the front and rear fascia production entirely to Ramir Mexico where they were made, painted and then shipped just in time for assembly in the US.

Very interesting to watch this and other videos from actual workers at these plants, plus the great input from the people here that have worked the plants. I think this clearly shows that these plants were run by people, ordinary everyday people, not robots, and the quality control was primarily connected to the support team and management along with the mood of the day-week-month etc. As many of you know we at Mascar have restored many different Muscle Cars over the years by many different if not all major manufactures, and at least 5 full blown survivor cars. We have seen a very wide variance in the paint colors used on undercarriage, firewalls, we have found all kinds of interesting things under the sound deadening materials, shit shoved under the dash, different bolts in motors that have never been apart etc. one of the first things we do is take a fender off and find the original paint, both exterior, interior, firewall, undercarriage etc. and after cleaning, put a gun on it ………. Lots of variations! I am going to create another thread and add our thoughts on this …………. Wishing you all a Happy New Year

Today is the end at Lordstown. While not officially closed-the plant has no product allocated for production moving forward.

Last car comes off the line later today.

I pass the lordstown plant often and for many years on the Ohio turnpike. Its going to be sad to see what happens to it. I sure hope GM does the right thing and hopefully and finds a good use for it.

I find it hard to believe that just because a couple of specific vehicles are being phased out that the entire plant has to go.
Seems a bit wasteful on the part of GM

That Chevy movie had some Nova/Willow footage in it. Cool