"Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

[Michael H.]

Does anyone have any detailed information about a "work stoppage" at the St. Louis plant in late November 62? I have some paperwork that mentions the fact, dated 30 Nov, but there are no details. From the text, it sounds like this may have lasted at least a week or posibly two. It advises that orderes placed for late Nov delivery will be set back two weeks. If this is the case, there must be a void in the Nov built cars on the birthday calculator.

[Tom P.]

Re: "Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

Michael;

My car is # 3914. It is date coded "C5" which would be the last week of November 1962. So the plant was definitely working in late November.

But there was obviously a production stoppage or slowdown of some sort in November 1962. Have always wondered about the numbers.

Hope somebody has the answers!!

Cars produced:

September 675
October 2081
November 1291 (790 cars less than October)
December 1925

January 2004
February 1838
March 2019
April 2295
May 2281
June 2115
July 2466
August 523

(Source: NCRS 1953-1972 Specifications Guide )

Tom

[Michael H.]

Re: "Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

Thanks Tom. The monthy totals would seem to confirm the "work stoppage" that the paperwork described. The production numbers would indicate that the stoppage lasted aprox eight working days and occured in the 2nd/3rd week of November. I'll post the actual text from GM later. (have to hand type all of it) This may mean there is no such thing as a C4 time buile coded 63? (could be C3)

[John H.]

Re: "Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

Michael -

There was a brief strike from November 13th through the 21st over the usual "production standards and health & safety issues".

[Michael H.]

The GM document.....

(Here's the official GM document on the "work stoppage" for Nov 1962)( I changed two words in the text)

**CORVETTE**

DEALER INQUIRIES

In order to reduce dealer inquiries as to a particular Corvette order that may be running late, this is to advise that this delay was caused due to a recient work stoppage at our St. Louis assembly plant. The following two explanations should bring you up to date on Corvette orders that may be delayed:

1. Production "week ending" information received by the dealer prior to November 27 will be set back approximately two weeks and the plant will send out ammended production in the regular manner.

2. Orders placed by the zone for late November will be carried over for production in early december and orders placed by the zone for late December will be carried over for production early in Janury. The plant will establish "week ending" production information on all orders at the earliest possible date.

The foregoing explanations, obviously, are predicted on the availability of the optional equipment specified upon the individual orders involved.

[Michael H.]

Re: "Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

Thanks john. I was guessing it was somewhere around eight working days. I'll have to look at the 1962 calendar to see if that included one entire work week. Would be interesting if there were no vehicles built at all one week. (no such thing as a C3 build?)

[Tom P.]

Re: "Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

Michael and John:

If the work stoppage was from Tuesday, November 13th through Wednesday November 21st, then there are C3 and C4 63's out there but only a couple days production of each. Wonder if the birthday calculator takes this into consideration?

Great to have the mystery of November 1962 resolved!!

Tom

[Michael H.]

Re: "Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

Tom,

Yes, looks like C3 production was limited to Monday, 12 November. The rest of the week would have been off. Probably only around 80 cars in the C3 build range.

[Verne Frantz]

Re: "Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

John,
Do you know if that was limited to the Corvette line, or if it affected all assembly plants? Was it a global union action, or just a plant action?

Verne

[Michael H.]

Re: "Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

Verne,

I can't be sure if indeed there was a strike/work stoppage at the pass car building but all of the paperwork I have for the 63 model year makes no mention of a slow down or shortage of pass units. Much discussion of the shortage of B-W 4-speeds (4 to 6 week delay) and long delays for some 409 equipped cars.

By the way, did you know that the "chrome wheel" option for pass car finally became available some time mid 63 production? There's even a chrome wheel listed in the 63 parts book.

Also lotta discussion about when the vinyl top became available for pass car and also the AM-FM.

[Verne Frantz]

Re: "Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

Yes Michael,
I'm well aware of the few new mid '63 Pass options. In '63 the chrome 14x5 wheel became an option. In '64, the 14x6JK wheel was also available in chrome.

Warner Gear's slow production lead to GM's acquirement of Muncie and the first shipments of the new Muncies were made to the Baltimore plant in Feb '63.

Vinyl roof covering, self-adjustng brakes, mercury switch trunk light, tilt steering column, amber parking light lenses, AM/FM radio (only 856 produced), etc.

But this forum is not for Pass car issues. I will mention though, that my monthly production totals do indicate that the Nov. Pass car production at St. Louis was about 9000 cars less than Oct or Dec. A small sampling of other plants indicates there was not a reduction of production in Nov.

I'd still like to hear from John H. as to how wide the action spread.

Verne....

[James G.]

Re: "Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1962 THRU WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 21,1962

[Michael H.]

Re: "Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

So, it sounds like the strike did affect the pass line at St Louis. Not surprised I suppose. That would have been the same union, if indeed there was one there at that time.

[Kent K.]

Re: "Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

Michael,

Considering that sometimes the news is misrepresented by anxious reporters, has anyone thought about checking newspaper archives either at a local library in the municipality or, if necessary, at the Library of Congress. If you are so close, that kind of research would not require searching through massive piles of old newspapers; you pick the week(s) and view the microfish. You may find the missing button.

Regards,
Kent #6201

[Michael H.]

Re: "Work Stoppage" At The St Louis Plant

Kent,

I think John Hinckley had the exact dates of the strike. Probably came directly from GM records but I'm not sure. Very interesting how the number of units declined for the month of November. The total missing for that month seems to line up well with the number of strike days.