No, we're not unionized. We have had a union election, but
Page 33 it didn't work. And we've never been approached again.
/Microphone rattles./ Oh, there was quite a study being made about
nervous wreck—/
[Interruption] —move to
inside factory/
—Assembling drive wheel assemblies, or assembling the seed plate
businesses. But he brings to conclusion a finished product. In other
words, if he's a hopper man, he's got to be sure that the gears and
sprockets are all working, and in order, and that he's put the proper
seed plate equipment to go with it. And he finishes a hopper. He doesn't
put the seed plate in, and pass that hopper on to another man to do
something else. He does it. Therefore, he gets the
satisfaction, and has a pride in having done, totally, a thing.
Instead of the assembly line concept, just sitting there putting [unknown] or something on it. Tightening nuts, or something
like that. Just the fastest thing. And they were very interested in
that, very interested in how we operated. And they had a national
conference on the thing, and I went up and explained our system, and
what we did with our men, and how they did it. An audience of about
three thousand people, I guess.
Then another thing that was innovative, that is followed now in a great
many places—another time that I spoke to an enormous audience in
Washington—was the fact that we are, primarily, a seasonal business. We
do not have a twelve months turnover period. We have a selling season; a
booking season for our products. And then our retail outlets have their
selling season from January one, until planting time, when farmers are
getting their equipment ready for field, and ready to get back out and
do their planting. So we told our men, as they were approaching
Page 34 age sixty-five—I'm the one that thought that up,
because I know some of `em I just hated to see leave, not be on the
premises, and not be with us. And we worked out a formula by which they
could retire, and then come back, at management's discretion. We
couldn't just tell everybody they could come back. But if we needed
them. In their specific department, they could come back with all their
skill, and all their know-how, and work for us during our big producing
months; and earn up to what the Social Security formula allowed then to
earn. Be the maximum they could earn without giving up their Social
Security. We still do it, and it works like a
charm.
And, then, not nearly all of them, but a great majority of them live out
in the county. Lot of them have small farms, and large gardens, and that
sort of thing. When we need them is from January one until about April
one, or May one. Some as early as December. That's the winter months
where they can't be fishing, they can't be gardening, they can't be
planting, they can't be doing anything. So they can come back, with all
their know-how and skills, when we need extra labor. And it's a
tremendous asset to us, and a great satisfaction to them.