Pontiac Motor Division mid 60's
Pontiac Motor was a huge fascinating place in the mid 1960s. I was hired in April, 1966. GTOs, the large Grand Prix, the Straight 6 with the Brain Box, and 265 & 289 V8s were made then. I had some experience in an outside shop working in a tool room as an apprentice for five years previous to applying and I was hired in on an inspection job. I was placed as an inspector on the "Floor job hourly." I really wanted to work in the tool room and make parts to repair machinery, but when I first hired in I was not qualified for that job, so I worked every day on my inspection job - 6 days a week - 10 hours a day. I was moved around as utility inspector, giving breaks to line workers who had the same job all day.
Strange as it may seem I wore a white shirt and tie to work every day, which was not your normal dress for working on the line. Daily, I created havoc because I wore this white shirt and tie. Every time I went to go the restroom close by, there would be gambling going on up there and when I walked in they scattered. I did my business there and left, however it was fun to see them give respect to my white shirt. Foremen were the traditional white shirt wearers. I just never was told not to wear one, so I did.
On my break I went up to the tool room, walked around, got names and talked to the employees there. I talked to the supervisors, too and applied for the Employee-in-Training program for skilled trades. It was sort of an upgrader program taught by experienced people, who if they liked you, would show you how they did things on the floor to make machinery run to the existing standard blue print specifications. The work was dirty, noisy and extremely hot conditions. I'm referring to it as being dangerous because of the moving parts, chips and rotating drill spindles. Care must be taken not to wear loose clothing around them or get long hair caught in the spindles. After working there for several years I attained Toolmaker classification and worked every shift in most plants that had anything to do with clamping, locating and machining the engine component parts. I will add more at a later date.
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