Earl and General Motors

I tried once to obtain my dad’s work record with GM, but they, because of possible legal issues, will not release anyone’s record except to the individual.

From the stories I remember, Dad hired into GM multiple times. The last time he was hired was around 1948. He retired from GM in October of 1967 with 19.8 years seniority. During that time, he took a leave of absence in 1955 and moved to Arizona for a short time.

He, like many of the southern transplants, would travel to Flint Michigan and work long enough to get some money in their pockets, or earn enough to get the farm going. How many times he did it I am not sure.

The first trip was with his brothers and some friends. They all chipped in and bought a car to drive to Michigan. According to him, he being the youngest and given the fact that the car was full, he rode standing on the running board, arms wrapped around the door pillar.  True? Who knows there was no one to dispute it.

One trip GM was not hiring and he worked for a while frying burgers at Patterson’s Ice Cream Shop and driving a mule team, digging basements in a new subdivision.

Another time, housing was at a premium and he rented a room with two other men in a house on Stevenson Ave. The catch was, you only got the room for eight hours. Each renter worked a different shift. Mornings, Afternoons and Nights. So, you worked eight hours, walked the streets for eight hours, then got to sleep for eight hours. The story was enhanced in that before this room opened up, he slept in the basement of one of the plants.

The last time he was hired in, he had been black listed for quitting so many times. To remedy this, he hired in under his brother Cecil’s name. This was great until Cecil came to Michigan and tried to hire in. He couldn’t because he already “worked” for GM. By then Dad had a better repetition and management fixed the issue. 

Roy Richard July 2023