Hudson Motor Car Company

Hudsonrules

What hours did Hudson build cars, were they a 24 hour operation 7 days a week?

railknight

If you read the book, "Hudson, the Postwar Years," by Richard M. Langworth, you get the impression that the high auto production rate at Hudson's Jefferson Ave assembly plant in Detroit in the early stepdown years of the late 1940's would indicate that Hudson probably needed to be in operation 24 hours per day and perhaps for each day of the week. There were assembly line shut down interruptions during this time, however, resulting from material shortages, model change overs and the occasional Union labor strikes.

A quote from the book, "Fun at Work, Hudson Style," by Harry F. Kraus, reads:   "Previous to my employment with Hudson Motor, it had been their common practice to call all employees in to work and when sufficient cars had been built, they were all sent home, often after only an hour or two of work.  Pay was, naturally, by the hour, and this could happen for weeks at a time."  Mr. Kraus goes on, "By 1947 I was "guaranteed' three hours work if called in."

Dan