Bob Rennells discusses his career as a production worker 
and UAW member at the Fisher Body plant in Lansing MI


Cheryl McQuaid:	This is Cheryl McQuaid.  We’re at dock 15 at Lansing Car Assembly.  Uh, it’s October 11th, 2005.  It’s approximately 8:10 and we’re g-, preparing to interview Robert Rennells.  Did I pronounce that right?

Bob Rennells:	Yes, you did.

Cheryl McQuaid:	Um, first of all, we’re gonna let everybody that’s present in the room say their names so that we have that on tape.

Michael Fleming:	Mike Fleming.

Jerri Smith:	Jerri Smith.

Marilyn Coulter:	Marilyn Coulter.

Doreen Howard:	Doreen Howard.

Linda Johnson:	Linda Johnson.

Cheryl McQuaid:	[0:34] And, Bob, could you state your name?  Spell your last name for us and, um, state your address please.

Bob Rennells:	My name is Robert Rennells.  R-E-N-N-E-L-L-S.  Address is 6684 Cutler Road, Bath, Michigan.

Cheryl McQuaid:	[0:52] Um, what was your hire in date?

Bob Rennells:	Hired into General Motors on December 12th – excuse me, December 16th, 1970.

Cheryl McQuaid:	[1:02] And do you remember the first day you walked in this plant?

Bob Rennells:	Oh, yeah.  It was interesting because I had h-, I had been working at Sealed Power in Saint Johns and got laid off there because of a strike and that was a, uh, tsk, [piece part 1:18] plant making piston rings and stuff for [Motors 1:22], so coming into this plant was a whole different thing.  Sealed Power was clean, didn’t smell [laughter], and I hired into the body shop, so that was my first introduction and out in the jungle and – uh, not that this wasn’t clean but it was a whole different world from what Sealed Power in Saint Johns was and with all the cables, welders hanging, I mean, the impression was uh oh, what did I [laughter] get into ‘cause it didn’t look like any – like the other factory that I’d been working in, so it was, uh, definitely a culture – not necessarily shock but it was, just ain’t the same. [laughter] And again, laid off from Sealed Power because of the strike at GM and obviously they weren’t building cars, wouldn’t need engines or engine parts [laughter], so I got called in over – after the strike was done, I got called to come to work here and three days after I came to work here, Sealed Power called me back and at the time, there was a dollar an hour pay difference.  This paid a dollar an hour more, which in 1970, that was $40 a week.  That was big money, uh, so I stayed here instead’a goin’ back to Sealed Power in Saint Johns.

Cheryl McQuaid:	And you hired in here in the body shop jungle.

Bob Rennells:	In the body shop jungle.

Cheryl McQuaid:	[2:44] What is the jungle?  Why do they call it the jungle?

Bob Rennells:	They call it the jungle because it had all these spot-weld guns and welders.  Everything was hung from tracks overhead around the production line and it looked like a bunch’a black vines in a jungle just hanging down around everything and other than the main aisles, you had to – if you wanted to get around, you had to weave in and out [laughter] of all these cables hanging just to get through the shop.

Cheryl McQuaid:	[3:13] And did you hire in on day shift?  Second shift?

Bob Rennells:	Uh, I hired in on day shift.  I stayed on days for – I, I, I believe I got my 90 days in on days before I ended up getting bumped to nights and, uh, the supervise – my two supervisors – I hired in under [Terry Hille 3:32] and Jim [Warner 3:34]. [laughter]

Cheryl McQuaid:	[3:37] Were they good bosses? [throat clearing] Do you have memories of them?

Bob Rennells: 	I have memories of them. [Terry Hille 3:41] was an excellent boss.  I was not – Mr. [Warner 3:46] and I didn’t see eye to eye.  In fact, he tried to fire me but I had my 93rd day [laughter] in before he decided to try and fire me and I was in the union at that time and I’ve been here ever since.

Cheryl McQuaid:	[4:01] What job did you…?

Bob Rennells:	I started out – uh, obviously the first week or two, bounced around jobs but then I ended up on the – in the wheelhouse pit welding underneath the cars and again, I used to – the sparks, the conditions – it was an interesting job.  It was dirty, it was hot, had to climb into a pit underneath the cars to weld and, uh, stayed on that job for a while ‘til they had a utility opening and utility was much better.  At least you weren’t stuck on the same job every day.  I stayed a utility man in the body shop for almost 14 years with the exception of a few layoffs.  I spent about a year and a half in the cushion room, I worked for Jack Walker out there.  He was a good boss but I spent – got laid off, got called back to the paint department, spent 30 days in there.  Couldn’t wait to get outta the paint department ‘cause back then, the ventilation wasn’t as good and was doing what you would call undercoating, spraying dead near under the bottom of the cars and they went overhead, which was a – you had to wear a hood.  That was quite a dirty job and I went back to the body shop quite happily [laughter] and stayed in the body shop as a utility welder until 1984 and then transferred into the material department in 1984 and was on days for approximately six months, got bumped to nights [laughter] for that and drove a truck for a couple years and then became employee participation advisor for the material department on nights, which, uh, was great.  I got t-, got to get a lot of schooling for that and working with the people.  I found that to be – that was good and did that for approximately six years and then GM decided that they only needed one PA to cover both shifts, so I’m back to a truck driving a Ford truck and then was fortunate enough to become an [alder 6:44] and a committee man for two years, which was another eye-opening experience.  Everybody should go through that once. [coughing] [laughter] Definitely should be – should do that at least once and then went back to driving a truck, uh, transferred out to the unloading dock on dock 15, became the dock controller on the night shift.  Worked that on nights until around the year 2000, then my counterpart on days retired, so I bumped to day shift – the dock controller job on day shift and now I’m unfortunate or fortunate enough I’m here as we close this plant.

Michael Fleming:	Talk about, you know, what – you did some training for EPA and your involvement with the – being the ultimate committee man.

Female:	And what EPA [inaudible 7:49].

Michael Fleming:	[7:50] T-, talk about – he did tell us what EPA was.  It was employee participation advisor but talk about at the time when you came into material, the type of material we moved and how much and then we went to JIT and how that, how that transition worked out.

Bob Rennells:	When I first came into material in 1984, at that time, it was kinda the scenario if there was an open space on the floor where they could put something, that meant we were outta parts.  We had to keep the plant filled.  I mean, literally if there was a hole, you either brought a railroad car in or a semi truck trailer in and unloaded it to put the parts in house and at one time here when I worked on the 21 dock site out on a body shop metal site, we had over 100 trailers in what they call the bull pen that we paid rent to rent these trailers.  They were full of parts and we stored’m in our parking lots, both north and south, and we also stored these trailers out to plant 5 at the Delta engine complex and we had – didn’t have the computer system that we used.  We had what they call the manifest or bill of ladings that showed the parts on it and we would keep those on a clipboard and when you needed a part, if you couldn’t find it in the plant, didn’t mean we didn’t have it, just meant if you couldn’t find it, then you would go down through – you would literally look through all the paperwork ‘til you found the part number and found what trailer it was on.

	Then, we would send out what we call a switcher to go get the trailer, bring it to the dock, and we would unload it, oldest trailer first, and when we unloaded that trailer, for the body shop side, they were what you would call a miscellaneous trailer.  It wasn’t all one part.  There were multiple parts on this trailer, so you unloaded the whole trailer and if you needed – if there were only 100 parts and you needed 200 pieces, you unloaded that trailer then you brought the next trailer in that had that part on it and loaded – unloaded that whole trailer also, so literally we just stacked parts everywhere.  Any place you could find a place to put it, you put it before we had the Just in Time.  We went to JIT, Just in Time, which was a real struggle for management and hourly people because it was a change and none of us wanted change. [laughter] We were very comfortable with the way we did business but obviously it wasn’t profitable, so went to school to learn how, how to do that or what was expected.  It didn’t always work the way we were taught we were going to do it and – but we did reduce our in-house inventories and then I was fortunate enough to become a trainer through General Motors to train hourly and management how to do this also.  Quite – I – again, the opportunities I’ve had here have been – I feel I’ve been quite fortunate to get a lot of this training and General Motors actually spent the money on me to allow me to do this.

Cheryl McQuaid:	Uh, I wanna go quite a bit further back to when you first hired in. [11:29] I worked in the jungle at one time and, and the pit was always – I could not imagine ever having to work in a pit and I just wanna hear a little bit about your day in the pit in the jungle.  What was it like?

Bob Rennells:	Well [startin’ 11:44] in a pit, it – you, you basically worked by yourself.  You had a partner on the other side with jobs running between you ‘cause you did the right side, your partner did the left, so it was pretty much a solitary job.  Uh, no interaction.  You had to, to hurry.  If you wanna get a drink’a water, I mean, you, you had, you had to run to get up to the drinkin’ fountain [laughter], get back, get back down and not miss a job.  Uh, we had stop buttons down there for emergency purposes but you better be just about pulling a job off the line before you hit that.  You had to have your gun hung up or something and basically at that point, you didn’t hit the button; you bailed outta the pit and run like hell anyway.  Uh, so – but it was a solitary job.  Uh, it was, it was hot, it was dirty.  They had fans that blew warm air around.  At that particular time, you were allowed to smoke in the plant, so they did have ashtrays down there, [bucket 12:54], can, or whatever, uh, but you were stuck there for the full shift.  Uh, you wore either coveralls or a shop coat and you taped everything up as best you could to keep the sparks out – off your hide, uh, and there was sealer dripping off the cars.  You, you wouldn’t notice it ‘til you squeezed – when the spot welder squeezed it together to weld it, then you’d have sealer either squeezing out or catching on fire.  You had to smell acrid – the acrid smoke from being under there because again, you’re down under the car and there wasn’t good ventilation.  The – nobody liked the job.

Doreen Howard:	[13:38] What was the, the size of the confinement spacing you were in?

Bob Rennells:	The pit – the wheelhouse pit that I was in was approximately 4 foot wide, because you could actually touch the sides as you stood on it, and it was approximately 12 foot long and you, you had to get your welding done within that 12-foot distance.

Doreen Howard:	[14:03] And that was below the level of the ground?

Female:	Of the floor?

Bob Rennells:	That was below the level of the track – of the ground.  You actually stood underneath the car and welded the seams underneath the car as it went by in around the, around the wheelhouses and the inner parts of the automobile.

Jerri Smith:	[14:25] Is it still like that now?

Bob Rennells:	No.  Uh, they have – now everything is up on a raised platform.  Uh, they have come to the wisdom that – again, it wasn’t a confined space but it, it was almost in the sense that the air didn’t move and when you’re – because of the fumes from the welding and the sealers and everything else, that everything settled so you were down there constantly breathing all that and ergonomically, it was not a good – just plain isn’t – wasn’t good on your body because even though the guns were hung on bal-, what they call a balancer, it still was quite a physical job.  The weight of the gun itself was suspended but moving – getting the [mass 15:21] weight of the gun, the inertia from swinging it in and swinging it out, most of this welding of this type now is done by robots, again for ergonomic reasons.  It tore a lot of people up workin’ in the body shop.

Doreen Howard:	[15:41] Moving forward, can you, um, describe what your job is today and, and how that has changed from when you first started doin’ your job as to when you’re [inaudible 15:54]?

Bob Rennells:	Well, the job I have today as, as a dock controller didn’t even exist back in, uh, the early parts of the material world.  That was all done – it didn’t exist as an hourly job.  It was done – it was a supervisor’s job to determine what trucks, trailers they wanted in through [coughing] – the traffic department would put out a build schedule and they would know, you know, we need X number of parts [coughing] to [inaudible 16:24] X number of cars and when the supplier [throat clearing] – when they would contact the supplier, they would order X number of pieces and then [coughing] management would determine what trailers were brought in and the time and everything and, and it was kinda random when they’d come in.  There were no windows set up.  There was no delivery times.  It was the plant’s open at this time, get the [throat clearing] trailer here during this shift time.  Again, ‘cause we were dropping trailers in the bullpen.  We didn’t – nothing was on a scheduled delivery and through the course of negotiations with the union and management, they negotiated what they call a dock controller’s job where the hourly people were taking – given the responsibility to keep track of the parts as they come off the trailer.

	We had checkers that made sure when we had unloaded the trailer that that part was on there, which we would give that to the dock controller and the dock controller, again, working with the supervisor would determine what trailers they needed for that night by the parts that had been taken off from the previous shift.  They would run down through, like, an inventory sheet and say, okay, we gotta do these trailers here and we don’t need these and then as, uh, it progressed and computers became available for us to use, we were able to – along with the Just in Time, you could actually – the supplier would input into the computer system what was on his trailers supposedly and then we could look at a computer screen and a computer screen would actually tell us what trailers we needed to offload to facilitate that shift’s production.  Uh, even to this day, we do random checks on our trailers to make sure that the vendor does put on the truck what he says and as a dock controller, that was my job to make sure that the supplier got the trailer to our plant when it was supposed to be here, that the trucking company actually arrived when they said they were going to be here at the time they were told to, and to verify that the parts were on the trailer, make sure that we got our return dunnage back on a trailer and got the trailer back on the road in a timely manner.

Doreen Howard:	[19:05] With, um, tsk, the scenario that you just set up, it seems as being the person in charge of a lot of comings and goings in, uh, distribution processes here, um, how did that affect you personally because wouldn’t you be the person everybody’s gonna come to and go why is this not here, why is this there, or where is it in – would – talk about some of the [inaudible 19:37].

Bob Rennells:	Well, p-, yeah, it does but it also – by being one individual out of many that did this – but I had a regular shift and I had contact numbers with all the trucking companies and most of my drivers that came here – I say my drivers.  Most of the drivers that come here – we had the same drivers on a daily basis, so they knew what was expected of them.  Whether they actually hit it or not, it’s like anything else.  Some drivers I could set my watch by.  Other drivers I knew that they would be late no matter what.  They just couldn’t do it and part of my job also – if the trucking company was late on a continual basis, then I w-, I had to contract our traffic department and would call them to have them track the truck down and they had a process where they kept track of if the trucks were late, if they weren’t, if everybody was on time and those that were late, then the traffic department dealt with them within their realm and which – either change drivers or change trucking companies but yes, there w-, a fair amount of responsibility but, uh, given the training, almost anybody, if you really cared about the job, could do it.  It wasn’t – it asked – you were asked to do a lot but no different than your jobs, anybody else’s jobs, and I liked the job, so [laughter], so it made it easy. [laughter] But yeah, there’s a fair amount of responsibility and – but the responsibility was shared with management also by them having – person-, personal part of it was I got to talk to the drivers, so they knew what I expected of them, I knew what they expected of me, and management here, I knew what they expected me to do but they also knew what they were gonna get in return also.

Michael Fleming:	[21:54] Y-, you mentioned two terms that some people listening to this may not understand, so explain, um, what dunnage is and num-, the second term was switcher and who was your best switcher.

Bob Rennells:	Well, dunnage is the empty containers – uh, dunnage is what we call the containers that hold the product that we received from the vendors.  If it was metal racks or a returnable rack, then we had to load that rack back on the trailer, cut the shipper off the – print a shipper off the computer sending a [tab 22:34] with a – telling the quantity of containers and where it goes, what truck it went on, back to that vendor and the switcher was an individual that – they had a small semi tractor here that we would send them out to f-, get what, whatever trailer we needed where, wherever it was stored at within the Lansing area.  Uh, probably the best switcher I had was, uh, an individual called Richard Smith.  He would do anything for ya.  Sometimes it took a little while to get him to do it but – because he was tryin’ to help anybody.  His only fault was he wanted to help everybody.  In reality, be a little frustrating at times but he [laughter] w-, he was a good individual to work with.

Cheryl McQuaid:	You’ve been all over this plant. [coughing] [23:35] What was your favorite department?  Who was your favorite boss?

Bob Rennells:	Actually, it’s – uh, favorite boss.  I had a lotta good bosses, uh, and I had bosses that I admired but I didn’t like working for but they still had, uh, capabilities that I admired.  I – one’a the bosses that I didn’t like working for was an individual named Bob [inaudible 24:09] but this individual that I – had, had a quality that I admired.  You could give him a part number, and how he did it I have no idea, but he would remember it.  He never had to write any part numbers down.  He wasn’t the most pleasant person to work for [laughter] but he – you could give him a part number, a list of part numbers, and he would never write any of’m down.  He would remember every one and he knew where everything was at and I did admire that.  I didn’t like workin’ for the guy but I did admire that, that he could do that.

Michael Fleming:	And you had to work with him. [24:46] Didn’t he go outside and work for another vender and still have some contact [inaudible 24:52]?

Bob Rennells:	Yeah, he did [laughter] and when he worked for that other vendor, he got fired, so [laughter] – uh, because they didn’t like workin’ with him either but the man was good at numbers.  He, he, he was amazing.  Probably [Terry Hille 25:10] was one of the better bosses I liked working for.  Uh, Randy [Gingrich 25:18] was another boss I liked working for.  They had a job [inaudible 25:24], we d-, and I had a job to do.  Didn’t always see eye to eye but they were one’a the two, two supervisors that I, I felt were more honorable to work for.  Uh, again, understanding that they were always under pressure from their supervisors to do certain things.  We didn’t always see eye to eye but at least they were straightforward about it and I remember years ago, even a senior supervisor that was a c-, there was – it’s quite comical to look back on.  Was a little guy called [Hughie Price 26:05] and – for the body shop and seemed like he always had a fire burning but he’s always spinnin’ his wheels and not goin’ anywhere [laughter] but he was, he was an individual to work for.

Doreen Howard:	[26:27] Do you think that – um, from what I can remember, was it [Terry Hille 26:31] and Randy [Gingrich 26:33] both, um, hourly at one point and moved up the ranks into management?

Bob Rennells:	Yes, they were.  I think it makes a big difference if you have an hourly background and go to supervision from there.  It gives you [throat clearing] a real – more of a real-world sense what it is to work for a living.  Not to say that supervis-, sup-, being in a supervisory position isn’t work.  Having sat across from them on a union side, I know it’s work.  I know the pressure they’re under but I do feel that they have more of a real-world sense.  Uh, you can’t do everything just because the book says that it is.  There’s good programs out there without a doubt but you still have to do it to understand what it is to work with your hands for a living.

Doreen Howard:	[27:34] Are you going to go out to the Delta plant in the position that you’re in right now?

Bob Rennells:	As it stands right now, they don’t have dock controllers at the Delta plant.  That’s [laughter]…

Doreen Howard:	[27:48] And why is that? [Inaudible 27:50].

Bob Rennells:	Uh, bec-, well, no, we’re going to have trucks come in and be unloaded but they have – under the plat-, platinum agreement out there, it looks like right now the, uh, ri-, [Ryder 07] was going to do it.  It’s still in negotiation.  They haven’t determined yet.  They’ve talked about having [Ryder 28:14] do it, they’ve talked about having the TCs keep track of what comes in, which TCs are supposed to be fully – do nothing but TC, so we’re in, we’re in negotiations on this yet and as far as my going out there, you know, honestly, I gotta couple houses for sale.  If they sell, I’m gone.  I’m retired. [laughter]

Marilyn Coulter:	You said TC. [28:40] Can you please define TC please?

Bob Rennells:	Uh, TC being the term used for team coordinator.  That’s – uh, or you could call it – uh, TC's what we call it but TS, troubleshooter, team troubleshooter would probably be just as good a term.  Uh, more of a hands-on – they’re not a utility person but they are a hands-on hourly person that has been trained, picked to lead the team and help their coworkers with any problems they have within their work group with the group being approximately six to eight people.

Marilyn Coulter:	[29:25] Would you say that the material drivers – the trick drivers, are – were they a tightknit group?

Bob Rennells:	The old-school truck drivers were a tightknit group.  In the last – as the younger people came in, you know, old – the old-school people that worked here were a tightknit group.  As we got younger and younger people into the shop, more individualism and less – uh, I don’t like to use the word team player.  Less brotherhood and sisterhood amongst the workers.

Marilyn Coulter:	[30:09] Can you say how that might’ve affected, uh, the workforce is – insofar as getting things done?  H-, how d-, how did that affect the work here?  How did it affect the union?

Bob Rennells:	Oh, I, I believe – my personal belief is that one, it was – made things more difficult for the union from the standpoint that instead of everybody looking out for everybody else, it was more of what’s in this for me and we may, we may not always got what was in it for me but the younger, the younger people that were working here were more concerned about whether I as an individual have a job versus what can I as an individual do to make sure that everybody has a job?  G-, seen – I’ve seen that.  It started in the early ‘80s.  When I come in here in 1970, at that time, we didn’t have [30 and out 31:32] when I hired in.  You worked ‘til you were 65 or dead and so there was more of a what can we do to make it better so I, I make the age 65 and retire and a lot of the – uh, you were taken aside by the old timers and in all honesty said this is way it is and this, you know, this is – and there was a lotta history-giving also at that time.  Again, as we got newer people in here, I don’t know that – part of it may be that the people that hired in in the ‘80s were better educated or…?

Marilyn Coulter:	[32:18] Can you expand on history-giving?  You said that – when you said there was more history-giving.  Can you explain that to me please?

Bob Rennells:	When I hired in here in 1970, 18 years old, a lotta the people I worked with at that time, even on the nightshift – days or nightshifts, there was people that were my parents’ age or older even and th-, they had a very strong union back then and if you had a question, th-, they were – about the union, about the shop, anything else, they were more’n happy to tell you about it.  Why they did things the way they did, how – why we had wagon brakes, items like that because it was something new to me and wondered why they h-, you know, why do we do this, why do we do that and they were all quite willing to talk to you.  As a new kid comin’ in, you know, at lunchtime or at break time, if you – if they seen you doin’ somethin’ that wasn’t right that affected them or the way things were done, then you were taken aside, you were – and told, you know, we don’t do that for a reason.  There’s a reason that we have, uh, utility men.  There’s a us-, reason we have welders.  There’s a r-, the people that do the welding.  I mean, there, there, there’s a reason you don’t just do every job here and given the history of why you don’t do every job here and you do what – only what your job entails and you don’t do anything else and even management was strong on that because they told us at the time, or at least tried to tell us, that, you know, you learn that job, nobody can do that job better than you.  They didn’t want you over here doin’ somebody else’s job because you wouldn’t get the spot welds in the right spot or you wouldn’t drill a hole in the right spot or something else, so you were pretty much stuck on the job that you had [laughter] – that you were given.

Doreen Howard:	[34:35] Y-, you touched base, uh, several times about the union.  Can you talk more about your experience?  You said you had run for [alternate 34:44] committee and you had talked a lot about [unionism 34:47].  Can you [inaudible 34:48]?

Bob Rennells:	Yeah, I, uh, was fortunate enough – we had a vacant opening and I was asked to be a alternate committee man for the material and paint department because the individual that had been there moved on, so I accepted the job and – which was a real eye opener but it was also a great opportunity because I was given – I was then sent to a school up at Black Lake, which was very interesting.  I met some great people up there, got some more union history and why we do it, spent a lotta time on the grievance procedure, on the legalities of it and all the responsibility of it and the, and the history of why we have unions and that but even more so, dealing with the people in management here on the floor, it’s amazing how – if you talk to management on one on one, the same as talking to union people one on one, and we all know what we’re supposed to do.  It doesn’t always work that way either side of the floor, whether it be the union or the management, but some great gains were – have been made and hopefully that we retain but even plant rules and regulations, uh, you know, realizing that it’s the same for everybody.  The rules apply whether you’re management or hourly as far as plant rules and the contract applies both ways and sometimes a lotta the membership doesn’t understand that actually.  When I say a lot, you have your select few.  As with anything, you have your 5 percent or – and, and it’s on both sides.  Five percent of the management, 5 percent of the union ‘cause I had managers that [inaudible 37:14] contracts for union, it’s not for [laughter] the management and I had, you know, union people that – union dues payin’ people that said well, that’s for management to live by.  That’s not by us, so it [wasn’t 37:25] very interesting but I did get to meet some great people just workin’ with the…

Michael Fleming:	Hobbies. [37:34] Um, obviously, uh, you have some – or a hobby, it appears, that you do more than anything else.  Will you talk about that?

Bob Rennells:	Well, actually I have more than one but I do ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles and I try to get as much time as the weather and my, uh, better half will allow me. [laughter] But I also fish and I do deer huntin’ and fortunately by working for General Motors, I’ve been compensated well enough in my employment here that it, it does give me some time to do this and afford to be able to take vacations and enjoy my hobbies.

Marilyn Coulter:	[38:29] D-, do you enjoy those hobbies with any of your coworkers?

Bob Rennells:	I do hunt and fish with some of my coworkers.  Uh, as far as my bike riding, my motorcycle riding, that’s kind of a solitary thing.  That’s where I go off – or me and the wife go off and just enjoy our time by ourselves.  Uh, but as far as the fishing and hunting, I do do that – uh, I go – spend a fair amount of time hunting and fishing with an individual named Scott [Parmley 38:59], so.

Michael Fleming:	[39:01] Some of the places you been on your bike with your wife.

Bob Rennells:	Uh, Cedar Point, uh, up into Mackinaw City, the UP, uh, throughout Michigan, uh, pretty much all over.  A little town called Luther.  Uh, mostly try to stay to the two-lane highway back roads and just the outta the way places where you don’t have to be in a hurry and you can just see the scenery as it goes by.

Cheryl McQuaid:	[39:33] Do you remember any worst place in the plant?  Any, um, pranks that were pulled on you or that you pulled on someone else you’d like to share with us?

Bob Rennells:	Well, I do remember that when I first hired in here, w-, I was amazed that, uh, there wasn’t a lotta horseplay but there was kind of a undertone of horseplay where throwing, uh, snuff lids was a [laughter] big deal.  They’re quite prevalent in here and then I – when I was out in the body shop working as a utility man, over in the – what they called the – I guess you’d call it the [brazing 40:25] booth, they would – they had an individual that had the job – right before where you welded the steering column brackets in, they had a job where you had this, uh, [brazing 40:39] along the weld – along the seams on the rocker panels and thought it was quite hilarious to heat up the rocker panel where I had to sit to weld the [laughter] steering column in.

Female:	Ow!

Bob Rennells:	Oh, yes. [laughter] Uh, and in the summer time, five-gallon buckets’a water were quite [laughter] prevalent out in the body shop because it was hot and it was miserable.  That was probably the extent of what I seen goin’ on, uh, and everybody enjoyed going to Harry’s for lunch.

Jerri Smith:	[41:19] During the years that you’ve been all over in the plant, have you noticed, like – y-, you talked about the jungle and all that.  The difference that the plant has gone through and the stages of what it was like in here as – like when you first came in that it was a dark, dingy place and over the years, it’s improved?

Bob Rennells:	Oh, definitely.  As – uh, going from the jungle back in 1984 when we changed from building the large cars to our small cars and they revamped the body shop, we used to have the old oiled wooden blocks was the floors in here and when they built the new body shop, they poured all concrete and – which definitely lightened it up.  In that sense, just the fact that it was concrete wors-, versus, uh, oiled wooden blocks and better lighting going from just fluorescent lights to being – hanging sodium lights throughout the plant.  Don’t know that they did it for better lighting.  They probably did it to save money but it [laughter] actually give a better light also and cleaner, better ventilation when they re-, when they refurbished the body shop.  They put in better ventilation to pull the smoke and fumes off.  Um, more organized as they went to more robotics.  They were able to put up curtains, if you wanna call it.  Actually it was a vinyl curtain but it kept the sparks down, which also helped catch the dust, uh, because people weren’t walking through that area, so they didn’t have to have things open for, uh, pedestrian traffic and they – and being we didn’t have parts stacked clear to the roof in every hole that they had in here where they could put some, our environmental services department was able to do a better job of keeping up in getting to these areas to keep the dust and dirt, uh, down.  Throughout the whole shop it became that way.

	As we got more efficient and needed less parts in here, opened up more areas where we could do other work but also open it up so again – so that we could keep it clean also and, you know, if – with, with Just in Time inventory out there, we didn’t have trucks that had been setting out for six months in a parking lot collecting dust and dirt also, so even in a sense, the parts that we brought in were cleaner.  We didn’t bring as much dirt into the plant and then when we ch-, switched over – and I don’t know what year it was but when we went from, uh, coal fire boilers to a gas-fired boiler, that made a big difference too because we didn’t have all the coal dust blowing in the plant.

Cheryl McQuaid:	[44:29] You were here – uh, when you hired in it was Fisher Body.

Bob Rennells:	When I hired in it was Fisher Body.

Cheryl McQuaid:	It changed to BOC.

Bob Rennells:	[Inaudible 44:36].

Cheryl McQuaid:	Then we went on to Lansing Car Assembly. [44:39] What are some’a your thoughts about the name changes, going through all that?

Bob Rennells:	First, my thoughts on that…

Female:	[Can we stop] [inaudible 44:48].

Bob Rennells:	Well, uh, talking about the changes throughout the plant here.  I hired in, it was Fisher Body.  Then it changed to BOC; Buick, Olds, Cadillac; and then it changed to…

Michael Fleming:	LCA.

Bob Rennells:	[Inaudible 45:11] LCA, all under the roof of [inaudible 45:14].  You know, as an employee, what is [inaudible 45:18]?  It doesn’t mean anything to me.  Even a fact – going back when we were Fisher Body, when we changed to BOC and they stopped putting the Fisher Body coach in the rocker panels, that, that was a – it seemed like we were giving up our distinction, you know.  We were proud – still are but we were proud of the fact that we worked at Fisher Body, made the bodies, and we were recognized as a body builder, not just an assembly plant that we, we built Fisher bodies and it – and when it changed, it, it, it affected – to us – it affected your pride.  I mean, we still did a good job.  We – but it was like, you know, okay, we don’t count anymore in a sense.  It didn’t cost’m any more to have that little coach stamped in a rocker panel than to not have it.  I mean, it was part of the dye making process or whatever you wanna call it and, uh, back when, uh, Oldsmobile – I mean, they had their rocket, their rocket engines.  There w-, that was different than a Chevy or Pontiac and when that went away, uh, then it was harder to tell – well, you know, why should I buy this or buy that ‘cause there was loyalty there from the people that worked here plus the outside public, at least as perceived in working here and I think, you know, the more they take the – call it takin’ away the individual – even though we were a collective group of Fisher Body workers, uh, and we’re still Fisher Body workers.  Even though our name is gone, that’s how we refer to ourselves.  There’s some pride in that and when you take that away from people, you can’t help but affect the work force.

Doreen Howard:	[47:30] Are you going to go to the Delta plant?  You said you’re not sure?

Bob Rennells:	I’m not sure if I’m gonna go to the Delta plant or not.  I, I’m – in all honesty, I’m not looking forward to it.  Again, I’ve been here for over 30 years and very comfortable in what I did for a living here and I’m real not sure what I’m gonna do for a living out there if I do go out there because the jobs have changed and I don’t know that I’m all that receptive [laughter] to doing that. [laughter]

Doreen Howard:	[48:03] Well, with your, your years of experience here, um, can you elaborate on maybe some words of wisdom that you may pass on to the people that – moving forward and possibly new, new people coming in to old Fisher Body [inaudible 48:26]?

Bob Rennells:	As far as words of wisdom, I don’t know about that.  I do know that, you know, for years and years and years, management told me that they needed me to come to work every day ‘cause nobody could do my job as good as I did it and right or wrong, now they’re going to a team concept where they want you to learn everybody’s job within your team group, which means that, well, if – not sayin’ the old philosophy was right or wrong but, uh, coming from old school where all these years they told me nobody could do my job as good as I c-, did it, now they want me to go to a new plant, to a new school.  The new train of thought is that, well, everybody can do your job as good as you did it and you can do everybody else’s job as well as you did it and I’m not very receptive to that and everybody has to make up their own mind on that.  It may be the new way of doing business, uh, but I don’t believe that in reality that it, if you, if you take an individual, any individual, and you teach them a craft, whether it be writing, speaking – uh, if all’s you can teach’m is to put a washer and a nut on a bolt, they will do their best that they can at that and when you start mixing these people up – I don’t know but for me, I – it’s just not me.

Marilyn Coulter:	Now you said – just kinda goin’ away from that for a second.  Um, you said that you had lunch at Harry’s. [50:27] You wanna tell us a little bit about what’s Harry’s and…?

Bob Rennells:	Harry’s is a bar across the street but it was more than just a bar.  Uh, you could cash your paycheck there, you could get a meal there; more than just a cold sandwich.  You could get – uh, had an array of sandwiches and french fries.  You could get coffee there.  You could get a glass of milk there if you wanted it and it was, uh, right across the street.  It was a place where you could go with your fellow workers to cash a check, get lunch, whatever, and you could wear your shop coat in there [laughter], your clothes in there.  You were treated like family when you walked in there and if you walked in there after work and had to wait for a taxi, a bus, whatever, you were still treated like family.  It, it, it was part of the – it is part of the Fisher Body family and you – but yet, you – we’re expected to behave in there also. [laughter]

Jerri Smith:	Bob, we could talk to you all day and I just wanna say that I really appreciate you spendin’ this time with us. [51:38] Um, is there anything that we didn’t ask you that you’d like to share?

Bob Rennells:	Uh, off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything.  I appreciate this opportunity to speak to you and make this record for future people but if anything else, it’s always gonna change, understand that, and change is hard for people but if you look at it [coughing] one of the things in the – that I do know in the time I’ve spent here [coughing] is it does circle around.  A great idea tomorrow is probably something that we did in the past and because we do learn from history and our mistakes, that at some point we will make this circle again.

Jerri Smith:	Thank you.

Michael Fleming:	Thank you Bob.

Doreen Howard:	Thank you.


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