Bill McNamara
Plastic
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2005
- Location
- Cleveland, Ohio
I have a 1978 Warner & Swasey strike story.
When the shop went on strike in September 1978, it would last until December 1978. The backlog of order was huge and a lot of the office people went out in the shop to work in machining, assembly, and I ended up in the paint department.
I had been working there for three years and had just transfered from the parts department under Steve Sheppard to go work for Bob Lucas along with Al Webber, John Hrabak, Vince Oliveri, Bob Oatman, and Wilbur Lock. I had to figure, is this what I had worked for these three years, to work in the shop and paint machines?
I recall one weekend in December 1978, a union vote was scheduled for Sunday to try to bring an end to the strike. Al of us worked that Saturday and John Tretok, one of the Human Resources guys at the time, asked us to push all of our cars from the parking lot into the building, lining the assembly department aisles. He also asked everyone to spend the night in the building , work Sunday, and await the results of the Sunday vote.
Because of the paint pits, which were filled with solvent residue, no on could drive into the building for fear of an explosion. So, when each car got to the entrance, it was turned off, put into neutral and pushed into the building.
After all of the cars were inside, everyone went to the cafeteria for a supper. After supper, several guys painted their cars with some of the leftover polane machine tool duty paint. I remember Barney Bucachek (Application Engineering) who painted his car John Deere Brown, with an Alert Orange hood, and Safety Yellow doors.
That paint dried in 30 minutes, which was great for Warner & Swasey because machines were usually paited and shipped (30 to 40 machines)in the last two days of the month. It really helped to use fast drying paint.
Then everyone found a place to sleep. I recall I lined up three chairs in Roger Bitner's department (if I recall it was in Vic Sandberg's office) and bunked there.
I still have the pair of thigh-high rubber boots John Tretok gave me to use in the paint department.
W.S guys who worked in that department might remember the paint process which included spraying each machine down with power sprayers to clean off the grease accumulated during the build process.
The vote to end the strike was held, and the union came back to work mid December 1978.
Bill McNamara
Cleveland, Ohio
When the shop went on strike in September 1978, it would last until December 1978. The backlog of order was huge and a lot of the office people went out in the shop to work in machining, assembly, and I ended up in the paint department.
I had been working there for three years and had just transfered from the parts department under Steve Sheppard to go work for Bob Lucas along with Al Webber, John Hrabak, Vince Oliveri, Bob Oatman, and Wilbur Lock. I had to figure, is this what I had worked for these three years, to work in the shop and paint machines?
I recall one weekend in December 1978, a union vote was scheduled for Sunday to try to bring an end to the strike. Al of us worked that Saturday and John Tretok, one of the Human Resources guys at the time, asked us to push all of our cars from the parking lot into the building, lining the assembly department aisles. He also asked everyone to spend the night in the building , work Sunday, and await the results of the Sunday vote.
Because of the paint pits, which were filled with solvent residue, no on could drive into the building for fear of an explosion. So, when each car got to the entrance, it was turned off, put into neutral and pushed into the building.
After all of the cars were inside, everyone went to the cafeteria for a supper. After supper, several guys painted their cars with some of the leftover polane machine tool duty paint. I remember Barney Bucachek (Application Engineering) who painted his car John Deere Brown, with an Alert Orange hood, and Safety Yellow doors.
That paint dried in 30 minutes, which was great for Warner & Swasey because machines were usually paited and shipped (30 to 40 machines)in the last two days of the month. It really helped to use fast drying paint.
Then everyone found a place to sleep. I recall I lined up three chairs in Roger Bitner's department (if I recall it was in Vic Sandberg's office) and bunked there.
I still have the pair of thigh-high rubber boots John Tretok gave me to use in the paint department.
W.S guys who worked in that department might remember the paint process which included spraying each machine down with power sprayers to clean off the grease accumulated during the build process.
The vote to end the strike was held, and the union came back to work mid December 1978.
Bill McNamara
Cleveland, Ohio
