My father worked at the Rouge Plant from about 1939 to 1941 as an electrical apprentice. Sadly, he passed away three months ago at age 90. He had a lot of Ford stories. One thing you did not do was say anything nice about Harry Bennett. That would drive him into a rage.

He told me that there was a foreman who abused workers that was last seen in the foundry before a sitdown strike. When the strike ended, they never found him.



Before my father went into apprentice school, they had him on the line installing floorboards for the Model A. This was on a Friday and there was a man a bit over forty years of age who showed him how to do his job. On Monday, he asked a foreman about this guy and was told he got fired for being too old and that my father was his replacement. It was my father's opinion that the reason the UAW got voted in was Bennett's thievery and favoratism, and seeing old guys punted and left to beg outside the plant. By and large, the workers liked the old man. They felt that Bennett had misled him. Whether that is really true or not... I have no idea.

Not all stories were bad. There was a Polish lady who had the hots for my father who kept on tripping a breaker on her machine so that they would send my father to fix it.

Plant safety was not as good. One time, my father took and electric arc in the eyes while working on the elements they had to heat the rolled steel. I guess the iron dust was that thick.


His older brother also did some time at the Rouge and went on to move up into the Glass House. He also hated Bennett. He thought it was a great day when Bugas and HF2 sacked that thug.When he drove a truck for Ford, Bennett's stooges would load the thing up with parts and have him drive to some repair joint in the city to unload. He was told to keep his mouth shut or else. The older brother died in 1991. His wife is still alive and still has very sharp powers of recall. She presently lives in Oscoda, MI. I think she would be a valuable source of information. I get the impression that the neighborhood by West Chicago and Grand River that they all lived in back in the 1920s and 1930s was loaded with Ford workers.

They had a lot of fun in that neighborhood. My father was a very good ballroom dancer, so he tried to get the night shift. That way he could spend the evening at the Grande Ballroom, then go to work at the Rouge, and then sleep in the day.

Walkability comes up on this forum, a lot.

My father told me that he would walk downtown from West Chicago and Grand River with his uncle just for the fun of it.