Working for Equality by Harry Hudson Randall Patton

Working for Equality by Harry Hudson Randall Patton

Author:Harry Hudson, Randall Patton [Harry Hudson, Randall Patton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780820356884
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Longleaf Services on Behalf of Univ of Georgia Pre
Published: 2019-11-15T00:00:00+00:00


Chapter 8

On September 5, 1961, or so, I reported to the T-400 building, which was west of the main head house. It was exactly nine years since I had been hired into the Bomber Plant. I bought a ticket but my journey on that ticket expired before I reached what I thought would be my destination. It never occurred to me that I would have to buy another damn ticket and go over practically the same track. It seemed that no one in the new job knew where I was coming from or what my previous jobs had been. The only other Negroes in that two-story old barracks-type building were one janitor and one maid. No one had heard of a Negro buyer in any other division of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Breaking up red Georgia clay for planting the first crop ain’t no easy job.

I was taken to the office of Jack Stewart (Jack S. from here on out). Jack S. was the purchasing agent (supervisor) for the group known mainly as raw materiel buyers. He explained that these items consisted of sheet metal, forgings, castings, extrusions, and other materiels necessary for the construction of the plane, including 1,001 different fasteners of all metals and alloys. Ninety percent of this material would be machined or milled to the required specifications except the fasteners. This work was performed in the shop, resulting in one helluva number of finished parts. Jack S. seemed to have been the only one at the time who had even partially read my employment record. He emphasized the fact that with my enormous weekly salary of $156 I would be the highest-paid buyer in the group. I told him that if he had looked closely at my employment record that he would find that I had been a member of management for eight years with as many as eighty-seven employees under my supervision at one time. I asked him how many employees he had in his group. He said fifteen, as if this was a large number. I stifled a “Ha.” Actually, he did not count the hourly employees, of whom there were about ten.

The hourly people were all women and were known as schedulers, handling all of the paperwork requirements for the buyers to release purchase orders. Jack S. told me that the highest-paid buyer in the group made about $120 per week. I got the impression that he was saying there would be a rainstorm in the Sahara desert before I got a raise, as the others had to catch up. I was not getting a good impression of Jack S. (that first impression proved to be right).

I believe that Jack S. was from Pennsylvania. He tore his britches (nice word) with me when he told me I would be expected to inform him of any irregularities I may see the other buyers doing in their work. I did not know but I wondered who in hell he thought he was talking with to make a request like that.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.