Pay My Workers
Parker Rose
"The factory is closing, you're losing your job." One hour earlier, John Dover walked into the factory. John Dover was thin, small, and jolly. His black cheeks were stained with ash and tar from the factory. The textile factory he worked in was big, but barely had any space to move around in. His boss called him over. John loudly bellowed out, "Coming!" He crawled through the tubes and got his white shirt covered in dirt and soot. John finally got to the other side of the factory where his boss was. His boss had a troubled look on his face. "Step into my office," his boss said. John sat down in the chair while his boss did. "You heard about the accident three days ago.", the boss said. John heard about it, but did not know much about it. A child got caught in one of the machines and died. "The company is shutting down our factory because of the accident," the boss said. The big company that he worked for, Maron Mills, didn't want the bad press, so they shut down the factory. That means that John and 1240 people lost their jobs. John quietly said "Okay", and left the factory.
John took a big walk around the city of Detroit, where he lived. He was wondering what to do next. He was torn about if he should tell his wife. John and his wife, Sherry, had 3 kids. They were 7, 8, and 12. He vowed when his kids were born that he would never let them work as children. John decided to tell his wife. He came home at 11:30 am. His shift normally started at 6 a.m. and ended at 11p.m. Sherry saw him open the door and asked him, "What'yre doin' here! Your shift donnent end till 11!" He had her sit down and quietly told her the news. She started crying. His twelve year old son, James came in and asked if everything was okay. He said, "No son. I just lost my job." James had a troubled look on his face and said, "Everything's gonna be okay, mom. Dad will get a new job." Sherry gave both of them a big hug, and the other kids ran in and joined the hug. John said, "I'm going to go look for a job.", and walked out of the house. Sherry yelled after him,"Wait! Donnya want some lunch!" He tipped his hat and kept walking.
He walked out onto the streets and went and found a newspaper stand. The sign said 1 penny a paper. He threw a nickel and said, "Keep the change." John sat down on a nearby bench and he started reading a paper. On the dirt roads, this strange black box with strange wheels on the bottom was driving down. It was a early car. Then, all of a sudden, it hit a rock and it flipped over. Everyone ran away, except for John who ran over to it. The car was remarkably light, and he could tip it over using a 5 foot stone for leverage. The man in the car was unconscious, and had a huge gash on his head. John took the man and carried him 5 miles to his house. Sherry saw the man and gasped. They put the man in their bed and he took some bandages and stopped the bleeding. The man woke up 4 hours later. John walked into the room and saw that he was awake. The man said softly, "Where am I?" John explained the crash and the man remembered everything."Who are you?" John said. The man said, "I am Henry Ford. I make these motorized vehicles. They will be all over some day." John explained who he was. Henry listened intently and said, "I am starting a new factory. For your service, I would like you to run my factory for me, since you have 30 years of factory experience." John agreed. Henry said,"I rented out this factory that just shut down, and I have this new car design that I would like you to help me with. We are only producing a few though. I have this technique called the assembly line that I will show you. We couldn't produce the last car I made cheap enough. You start tomorrow. Now excuse me, I need to go set up." Henry left. John went into the next room where his wife was and told her the good news. She jumped up and down for joy. All five of them slept easier that night.
When John went into the factory the next day, it was the old factory he worked at, but with completely different machines. There were new machines and equipment all over that shined in the light. The tubes and crawl space were gone, and all the old workers, including his old boss, were here and now worked for him. Henry said, "I need you to produce one thousand of these", setting the blueprints down on the table. "Good Luck." He walked out.
John yelled out,"Everyone come into this room." Everyone did. "Everyone listen. Every single one of you is going to make 1 part. They will pass the part to the next person that will add-on another part. We will do this over and over again until we make 1000. Let's go!" With that, everyone went to a station and got to work. Parts were flying down the line like crazy. He motivated the whole team to be more productive. They produced the 1000 in 1 week. All the cars were in their storage lot, when Henry came in again and clapped. He said, "I just sold these! Start making as many as you can." So he did. They were making the cars just as fast as Henry could sell them.
Two years passed since then, and Henry and John were now very good friends. They each valued each other's opinion. Now there Ford factories all over Detroit, and John was the general manager of all the factories. Ford orders were at 2 million cars and growing. But one day, no one showed up to work besides John and Henry. They looked outside the factory and saw a bunch of people picketing down the street. John ran down to the riot and saw what they were protesting for. They wanted higher wages. That had been something that John and Henry argued about, but John gave up. John went back to Henry and asked him if he could give his workers higher wages. He even said he would take some out of his salary. Henry said no. The riots continued for 5 weeks. If the workers did not come back soon, than the Ford company would go bankrupt.
John went out one day and addressed the crowd. He said, "I tried to get you higher wages. The big corporate guys won't let me. So, since I get a big paycheck, everyone who works for me is getting a raise to $5 a day!" The crowd roared in applause. Someone the crowd started chanting, "John! John! John! John! John!" Then everyone started repeating it. He said, "This credit is not due for me. I am just giving you what you rightfully deserve and walked back to his house. He had enough money to live, he thought. But what if he ran out? Henry heard the great news and said to John, "Good job. I want to give you a promotion and pay raise." John rejected and said, "No. If you do one thing, pay my workers." Henry did. John decided that he had enough to retire and spend more time with his family. Henry let him retire, and John lived a peaceful life raising his kids.
The Ford company is huge now, but it wouldn't have grown as much as it did if it wasn't for John and Henry working together. One stone made the difference to a successful company.