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New Blood
One day, an elaborately tattooed man with long earrings walked into the Chance Vought employment office and said he’d like to make airplanes. He’s had a lot of experience as a fire-eater and sword-swallower with circuses. Chance Vought has not had to hire sword-swallowers as plane makers. Despite the huge number of persons to be hired as a result of the move, the Dallas area has provided an excellent pool of labor with backgrounds related to aircraft manufacturing operations. Chance Vought was sure, before it made the move, that there would be people in Dallas to fill its 6500 jobs. Prior to the transfer, Chance Vought personnel men had visited Dallas, consulted with personnel men for other large companies, and with the Texas Employment Commission, and had prepared surveys showing that there was enough trained labor available, and a sufficient quantity of men who could be trained. They had taken into consideration things that might make employment difficult such as the distance of the plant from Dallas. But they were assured that this would be offset by a fact that people are interested in a new, large stable company with wide employment possibilities and a good chance of promotion.
An employment office, opened at the plant a day after the move was announced, took care of early applicants. In July, a second office was opened downtown. Local men were hired as interviewers, for they were familiar with the community’s industries, and with the characteristics and habits of the people. Immediately a great horde of applicants began to flood both offices. On one busy day an interviewer handled 60 applicants. At the mid-point of the move, more than a hundred persons a week were coming in to look over the jobs at Chance Vought. The Vought personnel people had anticipated that they would run into a shortage of labor in some highly technical categories, but their apprehensions did not materialize. Even for such skilled jobs as tool and die making and pattern making, there were applicants. There were so many applicants, in fact, for all jobs, that Chance Vought could only take care of one out of every eleven who came in.
As all of the industries of Dallas had cooperated with Chance Vought, so Vought tried to cooperate with them by setting up a policy not to drain labor from other industries. Whenever possible, they checked with other firms where applicants were employed. Employment representatives contacted nearby colleges and universities to find personnel for specialized jobs such as metallurgists and engineers. Interviewers also went out to towns within a 100-mile radius of Dallas to make contacts with workers and employment agencies so that, in the event of a sudden hiring rush, there would be a wide pool to draw from. Hiring, at all times, centered around the supervision that was being transferred from Stratford. Assembly workers, for instance, were hired when an assembly supervisor and foreman had been transferred from Stratford to train them. Even if they were experienced, they still had to be trained to Chance Vought’s methods.
Eventually, as all departments of the plant went into operation, the newly employed Texans infiltrated Chance Vought. They carried out their jobs with the usual Texas gusto, and spread the word around the area that Chance Vought was a good outfit. They liked the Chance Vought Club, with its athletic and social activities. They liked the company’s philosophy that they were working on a “team”. They cooperated wholeheartedly with Chance Vought’s insistence on a quality product and an efficient and economical operation. The first two awards for improvements in operations went to Texans. The Texans got along fine with their new Connecticut co-workers, and the Easterners were soon sold on the Texans. Harlie Foster, the first foreman to come to Dallas, hired thirteen Dallasites right away. “They’re fine boys,” he said after they’d been working for a while. “Operations are going along fine,” said a tool and die supervisor when his men had been at work about three months. “In fact, these boys are putting so much effort and enthusiasm into their jobs that they get more work done than we had scheduled for them. These fellows are greedy for work.”
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