Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1943-04-16
Spicer Unit
NeUs
By Winfred Vernier

letter cheerful and interesting
DON'T CROWD CLOCKS
The same old story. Because of
the violations of a few narrow
minded individual ringleaders rush
ing, pushing and milling about the
time clocks at quitting time, we
may lose some of the few and far
between rare privileges which we
have gained in the shop.
There have been minor accidents
to innocent fellow members COM
ing in to work on the next shift,
as well as to innocent fellow-mem-
bers punching their time card to
go home which may lead to Sc
rious accidents in the future if we
are not more careful and thought
| ful in the future in eliminating
| this hazardous situation.
Also we have cases where a fell
low member lost precious minutes
on getting to his job on time, thus
also affecting his pay check be-
cause he was docked for not punch
ing in on time, not through any
fault of his own but by the con-
gestion at the time clock.
We realize that some of this
trouble may be due to the increased
employment in the shop not being
/ followed by an increase in the
number of time clocks, especially
in the more congested places in
the shop.
This is the same old story. Lack
of planning on the part Of the
m n a & m en- t, OF perhaps the
old weapon of not giving any inn
provements to the workers which
they justly deserve; especially
when it costs the management
funds which could just as well be
diverted into the NAM treasury to
pay the cost of their anti-labor
program and which surely would
put the management in a better
standing with the stockholders.
SPICER ABSENTEEISM
To many people this word alb
senteeism is Defined and keeps
going around in their mind as
something awful, disgraceful, cost
ly to the war effort, and mostly
the fault of the laboring man.
1t is not true in regards to it
being the fault of the laboring
man or rank and filler in the shop.
Let us take for instance the
feeding of the shop population at
work. The management has been
continuously passing the buck"
to Bruce Strain for these unjusi-
fable eating conditions in the
shop. Is there any doubt left in
anybody's mind that the manage
ment could, if they wonted to, force
the issue, and bring Bruce around
to improve this situation to the
satisfaction of all those concerned.
/ have seen instances where the
food served by the Spicer Club is
sold under insanitary conditions,
and because of surrounding cir
cumstances Oack of clean, light
eating places), forced the worker
to eat his food in ms anitary
places. The results of this situa-
ton bring on not only sickness of
body but sickness of the mind as
well, thus resulting in your So
called absenteeism.
Some of the other conditions
prevailing, pertaining to poor labor
relations and conditions due to the
Spicer managements' attitude are:
hot water not being furnished to
all wash stands throughout the
shop; lack of enough first aid at
tendants in the hospital; lack of
enough production employees in
the plant (office and other non
union deptS. especially)- this or
deal proving to be the cause of
many poor conditions now existing
in the plant; poor ventilation,
which is very detrimental to ones
health; forcing an employe to wait
outside if he forgets his badge, 5
minutes, 10 minutes, Is minutes,
and some cases of an hour wasted
of precious production time; and
many other conditions prevailing
in the shop which are too numer-
Gus to mention; yet all of these
essentials toward better labor re-
lations, the management has been
lax on, thus contributing toward
absenteeism in an indirect but eff
fective manner.
1t is interesting to note that the
underpaid office help, bosses, etc,
have nice new cafeteria where
delicious hot meals may be bought
(if they can afford it on their
meager salaries or wages) and
/ consumed under clean. Epht nom