The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-04-02
By NELL.

CONE of the comrades from the mining region
lave again raised the question that there is
no youth problem in the mining industry and
therefore there is no need for youth sections.
But today every industry has youth problem
and I will tell about my experiences in the auto
industry.
Il is an infamous lie when Mr.. Ford says that
he doesn't use youth labor and that his Ford
Trade School is a place simply for vocational
training In Fords there are three sets of
grievances of the young workers:
l. The Ford Trade School students.
3 The apprentices.
g. Young workers on production.
Since about year and a half ago the Ford
Trade School has moved from Highland Park
to the River Rouge Plant where his entire pro-
duction is now concentrated In Highland Park
the F. T. S had a building to themselves, but
now Ford efficiency has reached out and put
the Trade School where he wants it. The school
is right in amidst the dirt, dust and oil and
noise of the River Rouge Plant. The air is very
bad to breathe and the noise unbearable. In
the F. 7. S. are young children yes children,
13. IA up to 18 years of age They work two
weeks and study one week. When they work
1t is most times at very mental work, such as
sweeping and odds and ends jobs. 1t is we'll
known fact that many times the boy that
tiers to learn one trade comes out with but
minimum knowledge. Also there is getting to be
a very severe check-up on the lessons so that
if lessons are not handed in on time there arc
wage-cuts and sometimes discharges. The pay
while working in the Ford Trade School starts
in with Is cents an hour, with penny an hour
increases every now and then, never more than
30 or IS cents an hour. They are allowed 16
cents for lunch, which, it can be easily seen,
is not sufficient. When the students reach the
age of Is they automatically are out OF the
school and they become apprentices.
Can Mr.. Ford, the great benefactor" refute
these facts?
That apprentice boys of 10 and 10 years of
age work nights? That they have to study on
their own time (no money for the time spent
in the class rooms). These lessons are given in
noisy rooms where it is difficult to hear the in
structor and much of the time is wasted Con the
boys time) in stopping for noises. That these
boys get half the pay as do the adults, yet pro-
6ucng just as much and working harder, for
they are not used to the difficult work? Thus
boy in a tool room gets 81 or $3.50, where the
adult gets So or &c. They give the excuse for
Paying the apprentices half by saying that the
boys sometimes spoil the dies But this is very
,are, for II boy spoils die there is hell to
pay from the foreman. AT the same time, while
working, apprentice boys have very difficult les
sons in tool making and die making, involving
difficult geometry theorems which the Ford
Trade School has not sufficiently prepared them
for After the bo.B have put in hard day
or nights work they have to solve these lessons
Three or four incomplete lessons is sufficient
reason for discharging them from the school
Many of them get disguised and quit and try
to get rehired as regular men on production,
figuring that since they work as apprentices and
get half why not hire in as regulars and get
full pay? Thus it is figured that from 20 to 25
per cert Of Fords is young workers Once in
Fords they are put on production twhat about
the vocational training they were supposed to
get?) on the belt and undergo the same speed-up