The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-10-07
Frenzied Sbeed>Ub In
Ford'S Dearborn Plant
Rebellion Grows; Forth Myth Fast Disappears
AS Exploiter Cuts Wages of Workers

though they know it means no
other job"
QIGNIFICANTLY, Ford is break :
y ing with the men who were his i
generals in happier days.
REVOLT BREWING
In an attempt to keep his most
loyal men with him, Ford tries to
keep on department superintend-
ents and general foremen-by put
ting them back on the bench. The
former bosses hate Ford as much
as his most exploited workers do.
Openly expressed dissatisfaction,
once undreamed of in Ford's, is
heard, right under the noses Of
Ford's Service men" thugs; men
say what they please, with no fear
of secret service men. One group
of 80 men in the foundry, whom
Ford needs and had been coddling
by finding work for them, when
ordered to shift to harder Job.
fatty refused to go; what is more
significant, they were not fired,
For Ford is beginning to fear the
hatred of his men. One of the
men in the revolving group told me
that the plant would have been
shut down altogether months ago.
except that Ford is afraid to Law
off the inner core of skilled men
without whom the plant cannot
run. Once they were his most
loyal, because most favored, slaves.
Now Ford fears the effect Of a
lay-off on these former devoted
servants, who already, as he knows
from his stool pigeons, hate the
very mention of his name.
Torn between fear and cupidity.
Ford nevertheless is trying to ease
off part of the load of the crisis
on the backs of his workers. While
the Ford wage was still nominally
Sc a day before the 81 wage cut,
on October y the men in the Yp-
silanti generator and the Flat Rock
plants were getting $3.50 day
when they worked. The Dearborn
plant paid S. to a large part of
the men. Beside this, as anyone
can see who walks down Miller
Road and looks in the tool room
of the foundry building, boys from
Ford's TRADE School, who are
paid a small nominal wage, have
displaced the regular men.
SAVES TAXES
Practically all the men who are
still getting occasional work are
from Dearborn and Inkster, Ford
controlled towns whose atmosphere
is not unlike the coal company
towns of Pennsylvania and West
Virginia. Thus Ford keeps the cost
of relief in these towns down,
thereby saving himself tax money.
Men applying for relief in Dear
born and Inkster were taken d.
rectly from the relief station to
the Ford plant. to take the jobs
of men who lived in Detroit, where
at least 100000 of Ford's former
men live But even Dearborn and
Inkster are now filled with unera-
ployed Ford workers, and here.
where his name was once reveJ
one now hears Hank" Ford curse
as a murderer and bloodsucker.
Much of this feeling was latent
for years until the Ford Massacre.
Since then, however, feeling has
crystallized so, that in three days
talking to Ford men, found none
who would say a good word for
him. And this includes even the
hated service men" of both the
uniformed and secret service divi-
sions, through whom Ford has al
ways terrorized his workers. Per-
haps the most significant fact in
the whole situation is that SER
vice men will talk to you about
Ford and the situation of the plant.
When these thugs begin to turn
on their boss, then indeed the Ford
heavens are falling.