Amer H. Brooks discusses his career as a production worker and UAW member at the Fisher Body plant in Lansing, MI Amer Brooks: 'Kay. I, I was born s-, July 17, 1929, Hancock County, Tennessee. Doug Rademacher: H-, hold on there just a moment. I am Douglas Rademacher. I'm here with the Lansing Fisher Body historical team, and we are going to interview… Doreen Howard: Amer. Doug Rademacher: …Amer Brooks today. It is October 24th. It's 12 noon, and we are at the Union Hall, 602. Uh, good, good afternoon to you. [0:34] Would you please state your name, spell your last name, and give us your address for the record? Amer Brooks: My name is B-R-O-O-K-S, Amer Brooks. Doug Rademacher: [0:42] And where do you reside? Amer Brooks: In Lansing. 901 [Lorner 0:44] Street here in Lansing. Doug Rademacher: [0:48] Are you married? Amer Brooks: Yes. Doug Rademacher: [0:52] Do you have any children? Amer Brooks: Yeah, I have a son and a daughter. Son's name is Daniel, and uh, daughter's name's Sue. She lives [inaudible 1:01] Missouri. Doug Rademacher: [1:07] M'kay, and, what is your national origin? Amer Brooks: What do you mean, religion or what? Doug Rademacher: No, your, are you… Doreen Howard: Ethnicity. Doug Rademacher: [1:16] …what is your ethniticity, where did your parents come from and your grandparents, where… Amer Brooks: They… [lived in 1:19] Tennessee. Doreen Howard: Okay, mm-hm. Doug Rademacher: [1:23] Okay, and, uh, what is your education background? Amer Brooks: Uh, eighth grade, and I didn't go to college or no-, high school. Doug Rademacher: M'kay. [1:31] And did you have any military service? Amer Brooks: Nope. Doug Rademacher: Okay, Amer. What I wanna know next is a little bit about the history at Fisher Body. [1:43] Would you please tell me your hire-in date? Amer Brooks: May the 26th, '53. Doug Rademacher: 1953. [1:52] And do you remember which department you hired into? Amer Brooks: I hired into Fisher Body on a cab line. Doug Rademacher: [1:59] On the cab line? Amer Brooks: You know what the cab line is? Doug Rademacher: [2:00] The what line? Amer Brooks: Cab line. Doug Rademacher: The cab line. No, I'm not familiar with that. Amer Brooks: We built convertibles. Doug Rademacher: Okay. Amer Brooks: Uh, Chevy, Pontiac, [inaudible 2:09]. Doug Rademacher: [2:11] And it was called the cab line, they were convertibles? Amer Brooks: Yes, yep. Doug Rademacher: Okay. [2:17] And do you remember which shift you hired into? Amer Brooks: I worked end-of-day shift. We had three shifts, and we, I mean, we, uh, worked three days weeks, and three days nights, that time. Doreen Howard: [inaudible 2:33] Doug Rademacher: [2:35] S-, would you, uh, think back, and do you remember walking into Fisher Body for the first time? Amer Brooks: Yeah. Doug Rademacher: [2:42] Could you share that with us? Amer Brooks: Well, at that time, I w-, w-, uh, lived, uh, was down at Indiana workin' on a farm. My brother got a job here, and he, he wanted to know if they could find anybody work, you know, he come down and got me. And I walked into Fisher Body and, uh, had my papers already filled out, and, uh, they, uh, gave me a five-minute physical. I had to bend over and touch my toes, check to see if I had [inaudible 3:18], and they wanted me to go to work that day, and I said no, I'm gonna wait 'til tomorrow and go to work. And I hired in as a spot welder. They said, we need somebody as a truckin' job, th-, uh, that's not drivin' a big truck or nothin' like that, it was truckin' quarter panels to the, over to the assembly line where they put'm in a buck, they had bucks in. And, uh, they, uh, put'm in there, and they put'm together, and then they raise'm up, and they had the same four trucks, just about it 'til you've had all these years, they've never changed them that much. They would clamp'm in, and then they would, uh, put the bars across'm and go down and they'd put the [rough 4:04] on. Doug Rademacher: [4:08] But they did this all manually? Amer Brooks: All manually. Doug Rademacher: So you're calling that a buck. Can you, can you describe… Amer Brooks: Yeah, that's what they called [inaudible 4:13]… Doug Rademacher: [4:14] …what that looks like? What's a buck look like? Amer Brooks: It was just a, a rack where they put this, the parts in, and then they, they didn't have hoists, and, they, they had just a [inaudible 4:27] bouncers, not very many, you know, a bouncer'd hold a spot while [the gun's up 4:30]. Most everything was done by arc weldin', and, uh, or, uh, uh, let's see, [inaudible 4:40] arc, brings welders in and call'm [inaudible 4:44] arcs. And, uh, they, uh, they could spot-weld the guns, they'd spot-welding the floor pans together. They had a big pipe, about that big, had this much foam rubber on it, had one guy on th-, one side of line, oth-, other. They had three of those. When it come down, he'd er-d, pipe over to him, he'd put it on his shoulder, [inaudible 5:08] about that long, and weigh, oh 200 pound, and they weld the floor pan together. Doug Rademacher: So the pipe was a good inch round. [5:16] Was that… Amer Brooks: Oh, yeah. [inaudible 5:18] Doug Rademacher: …solid cast? Amer Brooks: Yeah, I don't know, it was st-, st-, steel… Doug Rademacher: Solid bar, though. Amer Brooks: …no, uh, it, uh, it was a pipe. It heavy, something like that, you know, about 2 inch. Heavy enough to hold 200 pound, uh, and weld, uh, a floor pan together. And, uh, wire brackets, they had a dummy welder. He'd put this thing on the floor pan and then, uh, spot weld it like that. And, uh, [floor brackets 5:50] was all welded arc welders seat brackets. Doug Rademacher: Now, you said that wel-, that welder gun was, what, close to… Amer Brooks: Yeah, long enough to reach all the way floor pan. Doug Rademacher: …close to three foot long, then. Amer Brooks: Yep. Doug Rademacher: Okay. [6:08] That was, uh, – now you said you told'm you couldn't work that one day, you came in the next day? That's… Amer Brooks: Yeah. Doug Rademacher: …they took you down to the body shop, then. Amer Brooks: Yeah, that's where I signed in for spot welding. Doug Rademacher: [6:15] So how long did you do the spot welding job? Amer Brooks: Uh, first 8 or 9 days I did a truckin' job, trucked, uh, wheel housin's over to the assembly line t'where they put'm in the buck and… Doug Rademacher: Now you say truckin'. [6:30] Was that uh, a h-, a manual push-truck? Amer Brooks: Yeah, it was a rack could hold about 10 or 12 wheel housings. Doug Rademacher: Okay. So you, uh, fed the line with these… Amer Brooks: Yeah. Doug Rademacher: …all day long. [6:45] That was, uh, not a bad job compared to the guys grabbin'm and weldin'? Amer Brooks: I [inaudible 6:47] job. I had 10 people that broke in, I only finally got 1 guy, a great big guy, [laughter] Polish guy [laughter]. He, he took a job over [inaudible 6:55] spot weldin' in. Doug Rademacher: [6:57] Oh, so the welding was the better job? Amer Brooks: Yeah. Doug Rademacher: Yeah. [7:02] So h-, you did that for, you said, about 9 days? Where'd you go after that? Amer Brooks: I went on the spot weldin' job where I hired in. Doug Rademacher: Okay. Amer Brooks: Buildin' wheel housin's. Doug Rademacher: [7:10] And how long did you do that? Amer Brooks: Oh, I done it for years. [laughter] [coughing] Doug Rademacher: [7:19] Kinda took ownership of it? Is that what you mean? That, that became your job? Amer Brooks: Hah, well, they transferred me around where they needed. Then they put me on, uh, breakin' people in. Uh, I could learn a job in 20 minutes, so they got me breakin' people in, gettin' new employees. When I hired in there, they had a little over 5,000 people. And you know what? We've had the last few years, uh… Doug Rademacher: Well, we're definitely halfa that by now. [7:57] When, um, you were in the body shop, did you ever go to any other department? Amer Brooks: I went on, uh, drivin' a fork truck for a little while, then I was on supervision for about a year. [chuckle] I don't 'member the dates on that. Doug Rademacher: [8:11] How many years did you work at Fisher Body? Amer Brooks: Like, a little bit workin' 40 years. Doug Rademacher: 40 years. Takin' a moment about all the different jobs you did. [8:26] What was the best job you ever had at Fisher Body? Amer Brooks: Well, in '94, au-, October the 1st, '94, I got in an accident. I, uh, had my leg caught in the shuttle and almost lost the leg. After that I didn't, I didn't do any hard work. I just mostly stayed in office and answer phone. [Hafta break in supervision 8:48]… [coughing] Doug Rademacher: [8:52] Which department was that shuttle in? Amer Brooks: Auto body shop. Doug Rademacher: That's, uh, sounds tragic. I'm glad to see that you're still all in one piece. Amer Brooks: Yeah, I almost lost my leg, but I survived. Doug Rademacher: You were here a lotta years. [9:12] Were you ever laid off? Amer Brooks: Uh, I was on strike one time. I don't remember what year. We was on strike for about 5 or 6 weeks, and I was laid off one time not too long after I started work here. They had uh, in, uh, Willow Run they had uh, [inaudible 9:32] transmissions [inaudible 9:35] for about 4 weeks. Doug Rademacher: [9:41] Without those parts we couldn't run at Fisher? Amer Brooks: Yep. Doug Rademacher: [9:48] You say you, do you know what the cause of the strike was? Amer Brooks: Eh, d-, s-, co-, co-, a new contract. Doug Rademacher: Okay. [9:59] And did you share, how long, you said the one time you were laid off how many weeks? Amer Brooks: Uh, 4 weeks. I drew unemployment. Doug Rademacher: [10:10] Was there strike pay at that time? Amer Brooks: No. Doug Rademacher: [inaudible 10:14] Amer Brooks: They didn't have strike pay. All we had is just a little unemployment. Doug Rademacher: 'Kay. [10:21] How did you feel about goin' out on strike? Amer Brooks: Well, it didn't bother me that much. I – had somethin' we, we need, you know. We needed to go on strike to get a, get our contract, you know. Every once in a while you gotta go on a strike to get somethin' done, you know. Doug Rademacher: [10:42] So you supported the union in, in their decision? Amer Brooks: Oh, yeah. I've always supported union. Doug Rademacher: Doreen Howard? Doreen Howard: Um, going back to the body shop area. [10:57] D-, um, did you retire from the body shop area? Amer Brooks: Yes, yes, ma'am. Doreen Howard: [11:03] 'Kay, um, can you describe some of the changes that took place in, in the body shop over your time frame that you were there? Just sort of what it looked like and some of your surroundings that you had. Amer Brooks: Well, every two, three years it would change 'til finally after they got away from that buck system they went to a gate system. I don't know, you might remember the gate system, eh, we had that for a lotta years. Doug Rademacher: [11:24] And what was the difference? Amer Brooks: Well, they had the gates that go around, and then they put the parts in there and weld them in the gate and then…et-, uh, jobs got easier, I guess, 'cause they got more modern equipment. They got bouncers – s-, when I first went in there, they didn't have bouncers for all the guns, and just a few of the spot-weldin' guns you had to pick'm up and do the weldin'. All the repair shops and everything, they, they had to pick'm up off the floor. Doreen Howard: [12:02] Can you describe what, what is a bouncer? Wha-, is that something… Amer Brooks: That's a thing clos-… Doreen Howard: …that hooks onto the welder and onto, like, another… Amer Brooks: …bouncers… Doreen Howard : …apparatus that helps, pulls the welder up? Amer Brooks: …pulls the spot welder up. Doreen Howard: Okay. [12:15] So it makes it easier for the person using it t-, to move it? Is that what it's for? Amer Brooks: Yeah, yeah. Doreen Howard: Okay. Amer Brooks: They had there – when I first went in there, they, uh, roof welders. They, they, arc, uh, raised'm, you know. [inaudible 12:31] raise the acetylene, and th-, and then they grind that down a little bit, and it went in the solder [booth 12:39]. They would solder those rough seams, and then it went into a grindin' [booth 12:45] where the guy just had to wear hoods on account of lead poisonin', and, and they'd go on down the line to, uh, wet sand, go through that, and, uh, they'd sa-, sand it, the autobody down, and, it, it, it w-, went to a bonderizer, and it went upstairs, and they did their thing upstairs. Doug Rademacher: Doing their thing. [13:10] You mean painting? Amer Brooks: Painting… Doug Rademacher: Yeah. Amer Brooks: …trim work, seats. Doug Rademacher: So you referred to it as solder, but that solder was actually lead. Amer Brooks: Lead, yeah. Doug Rademacher: Mm. [13:25] Did you ever have to have yourself tested for lead? Amer Brooks: No, 'cause I didn't work in that area. That was after we got through the weldin' area, we went into the… Doug Rademacher: In the… Amer Brooks: …had the guys that, uh, after the solder people didn't have to take a lead test, but [inaudible 13:47] went in to these grindin' booths where they ground the solder down, and, uh, they had to wear hoods. Doug Rademacher: …Doreen? Doreen Howard: Were you giving, given any type of protective equipment at all in the jobs that you did? Amer Brooks: Oh, yeah, I had to wear a hood. Doreen Howard: Mm-hm. Amer Brooks: Then I got into MIG weldin', MIG weldin' come along, and that took away from all the abrasion and most all abrasion and arc weldin', all that stuff was eliminated then. Doreen Howard: Now what's the difference between the one type of, um… Amer Brooks: MIG welder's just a welder with a small wire runs through it, and, uh, and you just hold it. MIG welder, um, weldin', abrasion, and arc weldin'. Doug Rademacher: …'Kay. [14:40] Has any other members of your family ever worked at Fisher Body? Amer Brooks: Yeah, my brother, one of my brothers worked there for about a ye-, 2 years, and then he quit. I brought 6 other people up from Tennessee here, and the-, they only worked a few month it was too hard for'm. [chuckle] Doug Rademacher: [14:57] Did they go back to Tennessee or did they stay… Amer Brooks: They went back to Tennessee. [chuckle] Doug Rademacher: ..did they. Amer Brooks: When I first hired in there, they was hiring 50 people a day, and about half of'm or more of'm would quit. People just wasn't used to hard work. Doug Rademacher: Linda Johnson? Linda Johnson: Amer, how much money did you hire in at. [15:17] Was it a good wage compared to where you were from, or…? Amer Brooks: $1.97. Linda Johnon: [15:23] Was that considered good money back then? Amer Brooks: Back then it was pretty good money. We was workin' 10 hours a day and workin' Saturdays, and we get, we did get double time, ah, about time and a half. Doug Rademacher: [15:37] What wage were you making when you left Tenneesee? What made you leave Tennessee or come to Fisher Body? Amer Brooks: Well, uh, I'd, I'd worked on a farm, a dollar a day. That was [made 15:52] money when I was a young ts-, teenager. And I work, after that I went into lumberjack, workin' sawmills and workin' timbers. And after that I come to Indiana, work a couple years on a farm down there. Then found out about Fisher Body, and th-, that's where I spent the rest of my life. [chuckle] Doug Rademacher: [16:17] Can you tell me, when you were in Indiana and heard about the hiring in Lansing at Fisher Body, how did you get up here? Amer Brooks: My brother, my brother works here 'fore I did, and he come down, pick me up, drop me up here. Doug Rademacher: [16:27] Kinda car was that back then? [chuckle] Didja have a truck or a car, your brother? Amer Brooks: First car we had was a '34 Ford. [chuckle] [inaudible 16:36] truck, a car. Door open in front. Doug Rademacher: You said you spent a little time on supervision. [16:50] Can you share that experience? Amer Brooks: I didn't like it. They s-, we just, after I had my accident, they sent me to school and gave me a lotta trainin', but it didn't soak in much. I didn't care about it, and I, we worked, uh, done pretty good the first year, and then a bottle change come up, and they, uh, all the supervisors go 'round sent to jobs upon how many people they needed, you know, and I had my department all set up, and they said, well, you've got 5 people too many. I said, well, you take your job and shove it. I don't want no more part of it. I said, I've worked with these people all these years. I'm not gonna work'm to death. Doug Rademacher: [17:37] Amer, would you share with us; when you hired in, were there many women in the plant, and were there any minorities? Amer Brooks: No. They was only, when I hired in there was maybe only a, a dozen women the whole shop. In the body shop they wasn't any. We, uh, we had our own lockers out there, and we'd change our clothes right out there, put our coveralls on, take our street clothes off. But after we got women, we had, they goes the locker room, yeah. [laughter] Doug Rademacher: [18:11] Were there many minorities? Amer Brooks: Well, yes, we had a lotta, uh, African American people and a few Spanish people, not too many. Doug Rademacher: Doreen Howard? Doreen Howard: [18:28] Um, h-, how did – what was the perception of the women and when they came in – how did, how did the pe-, the men that were there once the women started coming into the work force, um, how did they react when…? Amer Brooks: Well, they had to wear coveralls, if that's what you're talkin' about, hoods if they welded, same as the men. Doreen Howard: Mm-hm. [18:54] Were they treated any differently? Or were they treated the same? Amer Brooks: Well, they was treated the same, and i-, i-, no-, there wasn't any discrimination in the shops, I know the – that's something that [inaudible 19:05] wouldn't allow. Doreen Howard: Mm-hm. So they, they were working just as hard as, as the male [inaudible 19:12]. Amer Brooks: Yeah. They was workin', they had to work just as hard as a man. Doug Rademacher: [19:19] What were your plans before you hired into Fisher Body? Amer Brooks: Well, I was always a mechanic, and I was gonna work a few years there, and I was gonna go back home and start a little garage on a home place down in Tennessee. Uh, we had 50 acres down there, land, and I was gonna have a garage and a little store or somethin' down there. And I got married, and, so, that was it. I stayed in Michigan. [laughter] Doug Rademacher: [19:48] So your wife is from Michigan? Amer Brooks: Well, my first wife was. And I was – first wife, after 11 years we divorced, and I remarried, and, uh, the other wife, she was from Arkansas, but first wife, she, she liked to go into the bar every night, and I couldn't do that. So we divorced. Doug Rademacher: [20:16] And you're still married today? Amer Brooks: Yessir. Good woman. [chuckle] Doug Rademacher: You hired in to the body shop. [20:28] You remember your first supervisor, and how did he treat you? Amer Brooks: Well, he trea-, I never had any problems with a s-, supervisor or superintendent, every once in while when he'd come around and try to get us to – when we worked off line, we had some production to build, so many each hour, so many per day, you know, and, and, uh, the superintendent come around and say, well, I need you to build a few extra this week, and he'd tell us how many. And no, that was a no-no. After we did that for a week or so and then we had to do it all the time then. [chuckle] Doug Rademacher: [21:17] Kinda played you once but not twice, right? Amer Brooks: No, that's right. Doug Rademacher: Have you – over those, that many years, you've seen, uh, different supervisors. [21:23] Has the supervisor's technique changed and how they work people or treat people? Amer Brooks: Well, they, they had to treat'm pretty right, and they'd get wrote up. Had to be pretty nice to'm. Uh, all the years I've been there I, I've never had a reprimand. I had sick days, but over 40 years there, I think I was, 4 days I was late. Doug Rademacher: I'm curious about the environmental conditions. When you hired in, in the body shop, wasn't it, uh… Amer Brooks: It was always [environment 22:06]. Smoke – and, we didn't have air conditionin'… [cough] Amer Brooks: …at all, at all. They had fans that'd blowin' the smoke around and – summertime, it was so hot. Doug Rademacher: [22:20] Every day, even if it wasn't hot outside it was oven-like inside? Amer Brooks: Inside, too. Doug Rademacher: [22:24] Now that smoke – could you see very far? With all those welders goin' on? Amer Brooks: Oh, yeah, you could see, but, you know, uh, uh, smoke from the welders and stuff like that, you know, you, uh, you get quite a bit of smoke, and it just blowin' around in there. They had vents, but it wasn't takin'm all out. Doug Rademacher: [22:45] So before you retired, did you notice a change in the conditions in which ya, you were able to work? Amer Brooks: Well, it, uh, it never changed much when I left in there in '92, it just still – a lotta pollution in there. Lotta, lot of people that worked in there, uh, they, uh, lotta my friends died right away after they retired. Uh, a lot of'm died with lung cancer and stuff like that. It wasn't a healthy environment in there. But it was a good payin' job. [chuckle] Doug Rademacher: M'kay. Amer Brooks: I was makin' about 18 dollars an hour when I retired. That was a big, big jump from a dollar ninety-seven. [throat clearing] Doug Rademacher: From a dollar a day on the farm to… Amer Brooks: Yeah. Doug Rademacher: …2 dollars an hour on the line… [coughing] Doug Rademacher: …to about 20 when you left, huh. Doug Rademacher: Doreen Howard? Doreen Howard: [23:42] Um, I had – want you to kinda backtrack a little bit and talk about the accident that you had, and, um, can you tell me a little bit of what happened there? Amer Brooks: Well, we'd, uh, had, uh… Doreen Howard: Did they… Amer Brooks: … model change… Doreen Howard: Mm-hm. Amer Brooks: …and a contractor's supposed to put up little – at all stations they supposed to have a, uh, [inaudible 24:06] you know, so high so anybody couldn’t get in there. Doreen Howard: Mm-hm. Amer Brooks: And that morning I went and got a new shop coat and a, it's this, uh, uh, it's a sealer stations where the guy puts sealer on the quarter pounds and the, then the sealin', and I repaired the sealer guns, that was my job, keepin'm runnin', and, uh, he blew the whistle. We had whistles. He blew the whistle, and I come up, and he said my sealer gun is not puttin' out hardly any sealer at all. He put it 'cross the line, I cleaned the sealer up, hand it back to him, and that shuttle come back, caught my shop coat, and there's a little post about that high, and it come down and took 'bout that much flesh off from up to my hip down to my knee. Doreen Howard: Oof. Wow. [24:57] Now after that happened, did they institute any type of measures from the factory so that that wouldn't happen again? Amer Brooks: Well, they, uh, they finally got a ambulance to come in. Took me to Saint Lawrence, and, uh, they, uh, did, uh, took the, the skin and stuff off, um, and they done skin graft, and I was off 11 weeks. Dr. Black, [inaudible 25:37] I don't know if he's still around or not, he was the skin specialist, and he took the skin offa my hip over here and done skin graft. Doreen Howard: Right, there. [25:55] W-when you returned back to work was there any safety precautions that were put in place because that? Amer Brooks: Oh, yeah. They shut the plant down for that day. [chuckle] First time it had ever been shut down for all day. They got the contractor back in there, and they did their safety work, but they were supposed to have done before. But Fisher Body kinda give me the shaft. They try to say that I was w –tryin' to cross the line. Anybody cross that line, that thing goin' back and forth like that. The shuttle would pick up and go to one station, and then it'd pick up the parts there and transfer it to another station. And anybody with the right mind wouldn't try to cross that thing with it runnin'. But my shop ca-, coat caught in the thing that sticks up like that, and pulled my leg right behind it. [inaudible 26:38] Doug Rademacher: And you say Fisher Body blamed you rather than… Amer Brooks: Yeah, they… Doug Rademacher: …the contractor they had to call back in to fix the, uh, to make it a safe environment. Amer Brooks: …that's the first time they had ever been shut down all day for [chuckle]. Doreen Howard: [inaudible 26:54] Doug Rademacher: Well, we're sorry it was at your expense there. Doreen Howard: I'm glad to see that they – I'm sad to see that something happened to you, but, um, it’s a good thing that the company recognized that there was a problem there and made, changed it for the future. Doug Rademacher: Cheryl McQuaid? Cheryl McQuaid: [27:16] Amer, did you ever see anybody else get hurt in the body shop? [throat clearing] Amer Brooks: Oh, just minor, uh…one time I got, uh, myself, one time I got a, a spot of expired [inaudible 27:29] under my glasses, and it went in my eye a little bit, and I seen people get, uh, a lotta bruises. I'd seen the people that kinda use shears to cut their tabs off their [rough 27:45], so one time I seen a guy, he had to climb up in, uh, in the trunk of the car and cut those off, and that thing caught and come back and hit him in the head. Doug Rademacher: [27:55] Stitches, right? Amer Brooks: But they had mostly pretty safety stuff, you know. Doug Rademacher: [28:07] Do you remember time clocks? Amer Brooks: Oh, yeah. We had our little badges still, you know, when, uh, when we first went in there. Little silver badges. We had those for years, and then we got rid of those, and we got the time clocks. We, we always had time clocks. But it, and it got to we didn't have time clocks and didn't have badges or nothin'. We just had cards; we'd go out and punch in and out. Doreen Howard: So, they… Doug Rademacher: Doreen Howard? Doreen Howard: [28:40] …the-, they only way you could get in and out of the plant was… Amer Brooks: Show'm your badge. Doreen Howard: …and your badge had, like, a number on it that represented you? Amer Brooks: Yeah. They had numbers on'm. Doreen Howard: [28:50] How did they know that you were the person… Amer Brooks: Well, they didn't check that much… Doreen Howard: …they didn't care. [chuckle] Amer Brooks: …they just – anybody had the Fisher Body badge, you know. Doreen Howard: Mm-hm. [29:00] And over time, you said that changed from that system to a punch card system? With, like… Amer Brooks: Yeah. Yeah, well we always had a time clock we punched out. Doreen Howard: …they'd have some-, something set up on the wall or something where you'd… Amer Brooks: Yeah, it was right out 't the gate where we go out. Doreen Howard: …and pull your card out and put it in the slot and you'd punch it. Amer Brooks: Yeah. Pull it out here, then punch it and put it in the rack on [the other side 29:23]. Doreen Howard: [29:25] Okay. And you were here until the change that they made with the electronic system? Amer Brooks: Oh, yeah. When they put the robots in. They had the robots in when I got, uh, my leg, leg ener-, injured. They'd had'm in for a couple of years. They first put them in they had so much problems, those robots, and they didn't have anybody knew how to fix'm [inaudible 29:50]. Those things were dangerous, robots. Doug Rademacher: Yep. The robots were – they had, uh, they came from Japan, from Germany, and they didn't know how to work'm. Amer Brooks: They had a mind of their own. They had'm programmed, and you'd better stay outta their way when they makin' their swings and weldin' the parts. Doug Rademacher: [30:18] Whadja do for lunch? Amer Brooks: When I had a lunch, when I was on supervision [inaudible 30:22], had to do up and set with the supervisor, and I hated that. [laughter] Amer Brooks: They had their special, special room for supervisors, [chuckle] and any other time I'd take a brown bag and, and my coffee, and I'd get a piece of cardboard, and I'd eat and lay down and sleep during lunch. [inaudible 30:45] with the boys. [laughter] [inaudible 30:48] Doug Rademacher: [30:49] Do you remember your breaks? Amer Brooks: Oh, yeah. Doug Rademacher: [30:52] And what, what did they have here for a while that made taking a break – Amer Brooks: They, they had a coffee wagon, they called, come around twice a day for breaks. And they had cafeteria, that belonged to the cafeteria, they'd had milk and had their coffee, and, uh, all kinds of [inaudible 31:17], cupcakes, and, uh, sweet rolls, and all kinds of stuff like that. Juices. Doug Rademacher: [31:30] Would you share, if you can, what is your best memory of Fisher Body? Amer Brooks: Well, [chuckle] I don't know. I enjoyed Fisher Body the whole time I was there. I'd – when I retired, I, I really didn't want to retire, but my wife wanted me to retire, and, uh, I don't know. I, uh, I enjoyed the whole time I was there. I was – everybody treated me pretty nice. I was nice to everybody, and, even the supervisors, they treated me nice. Most of'm didn't know much. They didn't know how to run a place. I, uh, last few years there, I broke supervisors in. They didn't know how to call millwrights, and, and, uh, pipe fitters and stuff like that. We had millwrights and pipe fitters and, and, uh, people to come out and repair stuff, you know, and, uh, [inaudible 32:21] repair, and I had to do all that. Doug Rademacher: [32:24] So you were, you were definitely needed to keep them lookin' good, right? You knew who all the contacts were? Amer Brooks: Yeah. I'd get a supervisor broke in, and then they'd bring a new supervisor in for me to break in. [chuckle] Those was the last few years I was there. I'd mostly sit in an office, and they didn't make me do any work after I had my [inaudible 32:50] after '84 to '92. Doug Rademacher: Doreen Howard? Doreen Howard: [32:57] Was there any initiations or anything when you first came in that they did, anyone did to you? Or can you recall any pranks that were pulled on you… Amer Brooks: Oh, yeah. Doreen Howard: …or that you pulled on other people? Amer Brooks: Oh, yeah. Doreen Howard: Can you tell me? Amer Brooks: We pulled pranks on people all the time. Back when I first started, I [inaudible 33:13] had that heavy arc. These guys had, uh, welding seams and these quarters, and, uh, he sat on a pail. We'd take those tissues [inaudible 33:26] and go to the water fountain. When he got up to put another quarter panel in there, we'd set it down on it. [laughter] Doug Rademacher: [33:39] Sit down on the wet towel and get all wet? Amer Brooks: [laughter] Yeah. [chuckle] [laughter] Doreen Howard: Stick to'm. Amer Brooks: And we'd done a lotta [inaudible 33:46] pranks, you know, done some danger – for inst – we had one guy, he's always hammerin', hammerin', hammerin'. Ever-, every time he picked up a part, he'd hammer on it. And, uh, and I'd take a cigarette butt and put it in his coveralls rolled up about 4 or 5 times. Put that [laughter] cigarette butt in the cuff of his coveralls. That wasn't very nice, but… [laughter] Doug Rademacher: Pretty soon he found out that it was in there, didn't he. Amer Brooks: Start smokin' after a while. [laughter] All we did [inaudible 34:20] mean tricks. Doug Rademacher: [34:23] Did anyone ever do one to you? Amer Brooks: Yeah. One time I was, uh, in a 50, '55 or 56', those Chevys, those wheelhousin's. They had a gun about that long, and we had to take a spot welder and go back in there, and they had a seam on the inside, and weld that. Somebody filled a milk carton up with 'cetylene. I was weldin', and it blew right out in my ear. Doug Rademacher: [34:58] That doesn't – scary? Or was it dangerous? Amer Brooks: That was dangerous. I almost lost my ear. Doug Rademacher: [35:04] You were burned? Amer Brooks: No, I wasn't, just, uh, blood run outta my ears. It damaged my ear. Doreen Howard: Oh, boy. Doug Rademacher: [35:14] And that person didn't ever admit to that one, did they? Amer Brooks: No, s-, supervisor took everybody into the shop, and he offered a reward for anybody to tell who done it, and he was gonna can'm same time. Doug Rademacher: Yeah, I think you… Amer Brooks: And they would put, uh, those, uh, d – guys that did [abrasion 35:32] stuff, they would put 'cetylene in the rocker and somebody start weldin', and my superintendent, that was 'fore he went on superintendent, he was weldin' on the line, and blew up, almost blew his leg off. The whole rocker [inaudible 35:51]. Doreen Howard: Hmm. Amer Brooks: They done a lotta dangerous things around there. Doug Rademacher: All for a joke. Amer Brooks: Yes, a joke. I was guilty for the cigarette thing. [chuckle] [chuckle] Doug Rademacher: [36:09] Um, did you view your coworkers as brothers and sisters? Amer Brooks: Yeah. Doug Rademacher: [36:18] Can you explain that family atmosphere? Amer Brooks: Well, we was all, we was all pretty close. Course, I didn't have that many women workin' my department, even when I retired outta there, I think we had, uh, oh, 25 or 30, and we had 5 or 6 women. They had, uh, women, more women workin' upstairs [inaudible 36:48] trim, and places like that than they did downstairs. Doug Rademacher: [36:55] Did ya ever walk through the whole plant or did you just show up at Body and go out? Amer Brooks: I didn't dare to go too many places. I knew my way around, you know, but I just didn't have time to run through the whole plant. Every so often we'd go to, we'd get a bad vendor. We had a lotta bad parts, and we'd go to [inaudible 37:15] and places where they made those parts, and we'd take those misstamped parts and show it to'm, and they'd deny it was theirs, and we'd say well, it's got your brand right on it, [laughter] I don't think you understand… [laughter] Doug Rademacher: Just don't charge it back to us. I can understand that. [37:36] Amer, did you ever participate in any of the small groups of people in the plant that, some of'm played music at lunchtime, some of'm had Bible studies. Did you ever… Amer Brooks: I didn't, I didn't [inaudible 37: 49] any of that. Doug Rademacher: …didn't get involved in anything like that. Amer Brooks: A lotta our people in our department. I wasn't involved in really, when I was workin' there, anything like that. We had people that'd bring their Bible out, and they would read, and they, they would sometimes miss part of their work, you know, and let it go down the line, and finally they got into trouble like [inaudible 38:15] read the newspapers while he was workin'. Finally they made him to stop it. In the bathrooms they had a lotta drawn dirty pictures. A lotta people would draw'm, and [chuckle]… Doug Rademacher: Yeah, that was… Amer Brooks: …it wasn't like home sweet home, but it was good money. Doug Rademacher: …yeah, oh yeah. [38:48] Didja smoke? Amer Brooks: I smoked. I quit about 27, 28 years ago. I quit drinkin' the same time. I used to be a pretty heavy drinker. Weekend drinker. Doug Rademacher: [38:58] So you'd already quit before they banned smoking in the plant? Did you know they'd banned smoking… Amer Brooks: Yeah, they was still smokin' in there when I quit in '92. Doug Rademacher: 'Kay. [39:09] Did you ever have a friend in skill trades that made somethin' for you for inside the plant? Amer Brooks: Uh, oh, I, I guess I never had anybody make anything for me. Doug Rademacher: No lockers or somethin' special for you. Amer Brooks: Yeah, right. I didn't wanna try to bring somethin' outta the shop and get fired for it. Doug Rademacher: Mm, 'kay. [39:34] Did you attend your union meetings? Amer Brooks: Yep. Doug Rademacher: [39:39] How often? Amer Brooks: Well, uh, quite often. I, I wouldn't hear of a time they had a union meeting, but I was re-, stayed with the union pretty good. I knew how bad we need the union. Doug Rademacher: [40:01] Did you ever run for a union office? Amer Brooks: No. Doug Rademacher: Doreen Howard? Doreen Howard: [40:09] When you hired in, the union was already in place at that time? Amer Brooks: Yeah. Union was in place, but it wasn't too strong. When I hired in there, they was just startin' the credit unions, too. Just startin' the credit unions. Had people in there that was talkin' to people and startin' the credit unions. It wasn't very strong. They just had a little building somewhere to serve as the credit union. Doug Rademacher: [40:38] So wh-, on your first you hired in, were you approached by the union? Amer Brooks: Nope. We knew who our committee man was, and I never, hardly ever, ca-, all the years I was there I probably only had to call the committee man 2 or 3 times. Doug Rademacher: Doreen Howard? Doreen Howard: [41:04] When you hired in, uh, did you have to wait your 90 days, eh, when you hired in? In order to be represented by the union? Was that somethin' that came later on? Amer Brooks: Well, I think in 30 days. Doreen Howard: [41:15] In 30 days? Amer Brooks: Yeah, I think in 30 days. Doreen Howard: [41:21] And when you hired in, did you receive the same amount of pay as everyone else or was it on a graduated pay scale when…? Amer Brooks: It was, uh, accordin' to what your job was. On-line job paid 10 cents more than, uh, off-line work did. Doug Rademacher: [41:40] Amer, did you develop any friendships that have carried on outside of the Fisher Body plant into your life? Amer Brooks: Nope. Not, uh, well, eh, I, I had a lotta friends that worked there, and I – but, uh, after we left the plant, it was just, you know, I was a good friend to everybody who was in there, you know, I didn't have any trouble with anybody. But, uh, it's mostly my family. Then after, uh, after I married my second wife she was real religious, and after 25 years or so I had to quit drinkin', smokin' and started goin' to church with my wife. Doug Rademacher: Okay. [42:30] What is your most appreciated bargain benefit that you… Amer Brooks: Health insurance. [laughter] Doug Rademacher: [42:43] …have you used the tuition assistance ever to go back to school or to do anything? Amer Brooks: No. Doug Rademacher: No. Doreen Howard? Doreen Howard: Um, you say the health insurance was one of the better… Amer Brooks: Yep. Doreen Howard: …benefits. [43:01] Um, I'm assuming that you, that you used that benefit quite a bit? Amer Brooks: Yeah. Every once in a while I'd have a little trouble with my insurance, and I'd come over here and [inaudible 43:10]. Doreen Howard: Mm-hm. Doug Rademacher: Uh. [43:22] Do you participate in the elections of the local union? Do you still vote today and did you back then? Amer Brooks: Yeah. I didn't always vote the way they wanted me to. [chuckle] But I, we got a big election comin' up now, mayor. [chuckle] We need a new mayor. I think if we'd had a mayor what's comin' up, I think we mighta kept this plant, I don't know. Doug Rademacher: Linda Johnson? Linda Johnson: Amer, you said you had, um, skills to, for a shop, a mechanic shop. [44:03] Do you, did you ever use those skills outside the plant? Amer Brooks: Nope. I didn't do it outside the plant. I helped my neighbors do things, and I did work on my house and stuff like that. That's about the only skills I ever had. I had the opportunity when I was workin' there to go to, to, um, skill grades, millwrights, and, uh, stuff like that, but I'd – they worked all weekend, and I didn't want to work weekends, so I didn't take 'at. Doug Rademacher: Doreen Howard? Doreen Howard: During the time that you worked there, you saw different name changes happen. [44:55] Can you tell me your reaction to the different name changes? Amer Brooks: Well, every time they had a model change, they had change in the building, and they lost people. As they got more modern, they lost people. All the automation comin' in, and they were cuttin' people out. Robots [inaudible 45: 19] really slice'm out. Doreen Howard: [45:29] When, when the company changed – when you first hired in, it was called Fisher Body at that time? Amer Brooks: Yep. Doreen Howard: And then it, it changed to… Amer Brooks: EOC. Doreen Howard: …EOC? [45:40] Did you have any reactions personally to, to those changes? Amer Brooks: No, I don't care what they call it. Long as I still got my benefits and my check. [chuckle] [laughter] Doreen Howard: [45:52] Um, now that the facility has closed, um, what's your reaction to the closing of the plant? Amer Brooks: It kinda broke my heart to see Fisher Body close down. Uh, that was my home for 40 years. Second home. Doreen Howard: Mm-hm. Doug Rademacher: [46:15] What do you think about the new plant that's going up? The people from Fisher Body being given another opportunity to build another product? Amer Brooks: I'm proud they gonna – I'm proud they still General Motors. I guess they gonna be General Motors, ain't it? [laughter] Doug Rademacher: Yes, at this time. It's, uh, a big investment they put here. If you had some… Amer Brooks: I hate [inaudible 46:39] on account of taxes for Lansing and stuff like that. Doug Rademacher: Amer, they hired a lotta people in about 1995. They got 10 years in. [46:53] What would you say to that group of people that's got at least 20 more years to work? You got anything – words of wisdom or something you'd share? Amer Brooks: Well, I don't know. It, uh, hope the best of luck for'm. Hope they can stay and work for General Motors. Cadillac might help their business here in Lansing. They workin', still workin' good. That's good [employment 47:25]. Doug Rademacher: Doreen Howard? Doreen Howard: [47:30] Did you ever drive any of the vehicles that you built over at the time that you worked there? Amer Brooks: Yeah, I always had General Motors vehicles. Doreen Howard: Mm-hm. Amer Brooks: I first hired in there, I had, uh, I bought a Ford car. That was 'cause my uncle was a salesman for Ford back in Tennessee, and, uh, the rest of the time I had General Motors cars, cars and truck. Doreen Howard: [47:52] What was your favorite vehicle that you purchased? Amer Brooks: I liked the General Motors vehicles a lot better than I did the Ford. Doreen Howard: Mm. [47:59] Any particular model that you liked more than another one? Amer Brooks: I had a '80, '88, '87 or '88, '88 Olds red convertible. I loved that car. Doreen Howard: Ahh. Amer Brooks: I [inaudible 48:19] women that. [laughter] Doreen Howard: Yeah, red convertible. Mm-hm. Doug Rademacher: Amer, you've shared a lotta stories. [48:31] Have you got anything you'd like to share that we failed to ask you? Amer Brooks: Well, I just hope General Motors can keep goin' and hope we can keep our benefits. I don't know how many we've lost here in this last contract, last contract thing. I hope we can keep all our benefits. I hate to start to have to pay'm ourself. 'Cause, I mean, that [dialysis 48: 54] right now, and I, I have to have insurance for that. I've got my Medicare and Blue Cross, and so far it's been payin' all that. Linda Johnson: [49:04] How many times a week d'you have to do that? Amer Brooks: Three times a week, 4 hours a day. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Doug Rademacher: [49:15] But you're still grateful for your job? Amer Brooks: I'm grateful. [All I did. 49:18] [chuckle] Doug Rademacher: [49:20] Do you attend the picnics? The union picnics? Amer Brooks: No, I didn't, I, I come to the union w-, hall when they held things over here for a few years, and then after I become a Christian I didn't – around people that drink very much. [inaudible 49:37] social or here, but, uh, I just, yeah, it was my thing to stay away from the people that drink, you know. Doug Rademacher: Doreen Howard? Doreen Howard: [49:50] Are you involved with the retirees at, at the shop here? Amer Brooks: No. Doreen Howard: In the union? No. Amer Brooks: I, we'd do a lotta at the shop. I mean, with the church, uh, I help do maintenance work and stuff with the church. Doug Rademacher: 'Kay, Amer. It's been a wonderful opportunity to learn about you, and we appreciate your interview. Amer Brooks: Yeah. Doug Rademacher: Thank you very much. Cheryl McQuaid: Thank you, Amer. Linda Johnson: Thank you, Amer. Amer Brooks: Okay. Doreen Howard: Very nice. /hj