Overtime
When I worked at Ford as an Automotive Body Designer, there was a period where designers were leaving to go to General Motors. The reason for their leaving was that GM had embarked on an overtime program. They left Ford, working forty hours per week, to go to GM to work fifty-eight hours per week. Of great significance is the fact that the additional eighteen hours were rated at time-and-a-half. GM was very picky and hired only the very best designers.
When I worked at Interlock we had periods when overtime was required. The larger part of our workforce desired overtime. The smaller group were those that had children or relatives to care for and just could not manage it. While many times we needed all the workforce to work, we were tolerant and understanding when some could not make it. Sometimes an injection molding machine would be shutdown for a Saturday. Our overtime was always Saturday work because the plant worked around the clock.
When I was at United Technologies the overtime was controlled by union rules. This plant also worked around the clock. So, when overtime was necessary, the people with the most seniority had first call on it. It was necessary for the supervisor to have a seniority list and go down the list to see who wanted to work. If a person was asked by a jump in the list then all persons before that jump had to be paid for that day. This was watched very closely by the union and employees began to believe it was the union that was getting them overtime rather than the company. They were overjoyed when they received pay for a day they did not work.
At FCI, a French company with no union, we had people that hungered for overtime. The management from France were astonished at this, it was so antithetical to how French workers behaved. In France, it was like pulling teeth to get employees to work overtime. In France they wanted fewer hours of work and were down to a thirty-two hour work week. In addition, they had six weeks of paid vacation and would not work during that time.
The American worker is not like the French, they have a more vigorus work ethic. This is only one way in which we are not like the French, yet, the American liberals, socialists and communists want us to be more like France.
When I worked at Interlock we had periods when overtime was required. The larger part of our workforce desired overtime. The smaller group were those that had children or relatives to care for and just could not manage it. While many times we needed all the workforce to work, we were tolerant and understanding when some could not make it. Sometimes an injection molding machine would be shutdown for a Saturday. Our overtime was always Saturday work because the plant worked around the clock.
When I was at United Technologies the overtime was controlled by union rules. This plant also worked around the clock. So, when overtime was necessary, the people with the most seniority had first call on it. It was necessary for the supervisor to have a seniority list and go down the list to see who wanted to work. If a person was asked by a jump in the list then all persons before that jump had to be paid for that day. This was watched very closely by the union and employees began to believe it was the union that was getting them overtime rather than the company. They were overjoyed when they received pay for a day they did not work.
At FCI, a French company with no union, we had people that hungered for overtime. The management from France were astonished at this, it was so antithetical to how French workers behaved. In France, it was like pulling teeth to get employees to work overtime. In France they wanted fewer hours of work and were down to a thirty-two hour work week. In addition, they had six weeks of paid vacation and would not work during that time.
The American worker is not like the French, they have a more vigorus work ethic. This is only one way in which we are not like the French, yet, the American liberals, socialists and communists want us to be more like France.
posted by Marcel at
12:32 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home