The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1942-12-17
Recruits, Reach Yards, Ready For Work
By JOHN GROVER
Wide World Features Writer

New Workers. recruited for the
shipyards get taste of Kaiser
company production methods the
minute they step of the train at
these vast new ways.
Aboard the train they have
been classified, assigned to spe-
cific jobs and dormitory quar-
tiers, fingerprinted and entered
on company rolls. When the
train arrives after four days ira
verse of the country, the men
are split into numbered squads,
each in charge of a uniformed
company guard.
These guards route the re-
cruitS through the personnel de-
partment. Ten to the minute, the
new workmen pass muster at the
AL union clearing desk, then
file by camera operated by one
of the omnipresent, Slack-suited
women who do the lighter chores
in the Kaiser operations.
Every Man Photographed
Each man is "mugged" by the
automatic camera that records
his height and company number
against a ruled background. The
pictures are later printed on the
large company button that each
worker wears all his waking
time.
After this processing in the
personnel department, buses con-
voy the squads to Hudson House,
the single mems dormitory with
IN the shipyard grounds. Each
man has his room number and is
quickly established in quarters.
Hudson House is a series of
bright, clean apartments. 1t is
difficult to believe these dormi-
tories were erected in a matter of
days to accommodate the New
York recruits. Clocks and calen-
dars around Kaiser yards take an
awful beating. Projects that con-
sumo months in peacetime are
done in the time it formerly took
to draw up contracts and blue
print the plans.
Spotless Dormitories
Air conditioned and Spotless,
the rooms in Hudson House ac-
commodate two men. Each has a
closet almost as large as the
typical hall bedroom in the east
Top-quality springs and mat
treSses, subdued pastel walls and
sound-lesS linoleum floors give a
restful air of quiet.
Women are on duty around the
clock to make beds and clean the
rooms. There's a master sheet of
shifts in each dormitory, and the
cleaning women work from that.
Rooms are cleaned only when
the occupants are at work.
Arrival times of the recruit
trains was arranged so the men
have several hours for a cleanup
after the four-day cocah trip be-
fore their first meal in the mess
hall.
Usually the trains dock" in the
yards shortly after breakfast.
Men assigned to the swing shift
go to work the first day at 4:30
pm, and the graveyard gang at
/ am. Those ticketed for day
work report the following morn
ing at 8 am.
Bonus For Night Workers
Under the Kaiser system.
swing Shift workers get a 10 per
cent bonus and work only 715
hours, graveyard shift employees
receive a Is per cent bonus and
are on the job only seven hours.
Day workers pay for their normal
hours by working a full shift at
no extra pay. This bonus-hours
system eliminates "beefs" over
night work and keeps the plant
operating at top capacity.
Under the Kaiser plan, men
learn by doing. The recruits. most
of them totally unfamiliar with
shipbuilding methods, are assign
ed to foremen. Under the fore
men are leaders who take the
rockies in hand and instruct
them in the simple processes that
make up the Kaiser line-produc-
ton system.
The whole basis of Kaiser rec
ord-breaking in heavy construc-
ton is breaking down the COM
pick project into simple process
es. New men are given a simple
chore and become expert by repe-
tition. The sum total of their eff
forts becomes a ship.
Within a matter of hours after
arrival, the New Workers are alb
Sorbed into the vastness of the
Kaiser plant.
Hell, it's a cinch to work
here" said Jack Hinklein after
his first shift, they're got things
doped out to the last move, and
anybody who can follow his nose
can do a job here"
That may explain in part how
they send ships into the water in
ten days with stem up and ready
to HAHN their wartime tasks