In in Chevrolet uh, they were on a piece work, or a bonus system rather not piece work. Fisher body, we used to be on a piece work. We were payed so much for every hundred we produced. Now, the bad part of that, when we started a model we might go to work at six thirty in the morning and we'd have to be there til nine thirty at night, you know.

And we're waiting for these bodies to come through, you know, you might make uh... you know, two-and-a-half cents a car and we may not even get uh ten cars in that length of time, because we were on a piece work deal. This is when we started the models, you know, eventually, which mabye could be a month or so later, we got into production and we made good money, you know, for that time.

Now, at Chevrolet, we were in a bonus system. In a bonus system you were paid in efficiency of your department, and they rated the efficiency based on the amount of production and uh... subtracting the amount of repairs and so fourth, it was kind of a complicated deal, there was very few people... I happened to go to VMI, or I went to [inaudible] I was one of the very few that could figure this efficiency deal, and the efficiency uh, uh... system was uh... I mean, bonus system was really a rip off, that was absolutely a number one rip off you know, for the work in the plant.

Show Transcript Speaker: Harold%20O'Rourke. Interviewed by U-M Flint Labor History Project. Date of interview: 7-6-1978. Edited by Michael Van Dyke.

Copyright: ©2002 Michigan State University.