1949 - The Union Shop

1949 Union Shop. By summer the projects for the shop slowed down and there was not enough to keep me busy, and I had to look for a job. There were not a lot of job openings and I was lucky to get hired at Art Color. This was a very large printing shop that handled Hollywood story magazines and other major printing projects. I was assigned a job as a "Fly Boy." This involved standing at the end of a large press and gathering and jogging a group of sections for the Farmer's Almanac and placing the groups on a skid for further handling. It was a very boring job. It was also a union shop and I was not allowed to do anything except the Fly Boy duties. At the end of the first day, after I had cleaned up, I saw people lining up at the time clock. I went to the end of the line and more people filled in behind me. Suddenly a man grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me out of the line. He was very upset because he had been there for 15 years and this was his place. I went to the back of the line and I noticed that by the time I punched out it had only taken less than a minute for everyone to leave. I ran into many other things that convinced me that union jobs may have had their advantages for some people, but it was not the work environment that I would ever enjoy. After about 6 weeks I stopped at the machine shop for a visit and found that they had received a major contract and needed help. They had thought that I was happy at Art Color and did not try to contact me. Without hesitation I accepted. That job at Art Color was the worst six weeks of my entire career. The physical part of the job was simple, but there was very little incentive to do well and grow. All future growth was based on seniority, not skill levels.