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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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There would be one strike of a small department or group of men in the company. That would be quickly adjusted, but it would upset the whole production line for twenty-four hours. That would put things out of gear, and it would take then a day or two to get back into the kind of operation where every part of the plant works at an even pace and is able to meet the production flowing from another part. There's a lot of time and material lost when even a small group shuts down for a while because the whole pattern of modern mass production is to keep it moving smoothly and swiftly from one division to another, so that nothing ever gets ahead, nothing ever gets behind.

The workers at Allis-Chalmers were past masters at pulling little strikes that would throw everything out of gear. Of course, the Navy had a couple of men there supervising the work to see that it was going smoothly. They always do. They had a series of them, but they were always very inept. They had a way of making people mad. They would issue orders in a king of top-lofty way. It would give the men, who I think were under leadership who wanted them to cut up a little, an excuse for saying, “We won't work under these men. What do they know about it? We're making these bearings.”





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