Evening star., 1941-10-07
Ford Plant Starts
Laying 0ff20,00O
Due TO 0utputCut
Detroit Conference
Seeks Ways of Putting
Men Back to Work
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
DETROIT, Oct. THE Ford Motor
Co. began laying off 10000 men at
its big River Rouge Plant today, ex-
planning that the car production
cut under national defense forced
the action, Approximately 10000
men will remain on the job there.
Defense production itself, the COM
pany said, has not yet reached the
point where the 10000 workers can
be absorbed. 1t was said unoffi-
cially that the layoff might extend
until next spring, when Ford's big
bomber plant will be completed and
mass production on that and other
defense jobs will get under full
headway.
Others Face Layoff.
The production line can no long
er be kept operating at loss" said
Harry H. Bennett, Ford personnel
chief. About 10000 men will be
laid off at the Rouge plant and
others in plants in other cities with
in short time"
4Nll oNllllCib Sdlb II NOSbN uo
twice as much to make an automo-
bile as it did some time ago because
of the slowdownS and wildcat
strikes from the time the U. A. W.
c. I. o. contract was signed For a
time these wildcat strikes were oc-
curing at an average of one a day.
and only recently has this average
dropped Off
He said the motive for the slow
downs probably was that the men
were anxious to prolong their work
as long as possible before necessary
lay-offS due to Government-cur-
tailed production of automobiles"
Ford and Chrysler Corp, along
with Hudson and Packard. agreed
last night to adopt the seniority
protection plank already approved
by General Motors Corp. The plan,
recommended by the Office of Pro-
duction Management, protects the
seniority rights of workers trans
ferred from auto plants to defense
jobs,
In Washington, Office of Produc-
ton Management officials said o. P.
M. representatives would confer in
Detroit this week with principal
automobile firms confronted with
the layoff of thousands of workers
because of production curtailment.
The o. P. M. representative were
scheduled to confer today with
Chrysler officials. tomorrow with
General Motors executives and later
in the week with Ford officials. with
a view to providing the industry with
additional defense work and shifting
displaced workers into defense en-
ployment in the industry or else
where.
Already the o. P. M. contracts
distribution division has made avail
able to the industry a shopping
list" of S2,880000000 in anticipated
defense purchases on which the in
dustry has been invited to use its idle
machine tool facilities.
Machinery has been set up for
registration of idle workers in State
employment service Offices. it was
said, and arrangements are being
made for the training of workers for
defense jobs. o. P. NJ. officials
pointed out that the men would
receive unemployment compensation
for 13 weeks. and it was hoped by
the end of that time to have COM
pleted the retraining of the first
workers rendered idle.
Richard T. Leonard. co-direCtor
of the United Automobile Workers
&C. I. o. Ford Organizing Commit
tee. said yesterday that wage scale
revisions provided by a contract
signed in June meant So 100000 a
year more to Ford Motor Co. en-
plOyeS.
Mr.. Leonard said the wage scale
negotiations had been completed,
save for scales which affect only a
few claSsificationS of employees. The
remaining revisions will be COM
pleted this week, he added.