Three shifts?

[Steve Jelf]

At least during the peak production years of the twenties I assume Highland Park ran three shifts, 24/6 (always closed on Sunday). Is that right? If so, was graveyard shift production counted as the last of one day, or the first of the next day? In other words, did they start counting at midnight, or at 8:00 AM?

[ModelT46]

I was under the impression that the Highland plant in the 1920s was used only for parts manufacturing and parts assembly.

[Pep C Strebeck]

First shift is what most would consider the late/night/graveyard shift. Second shift would be the morning and the third would be afternoons (the third watch). Detroit was always a Third Shift town (with the factories), that is why bars and restaurants could star serving alcohol at 7:00AM, the first shift was getting out and they did not want breakfast, they wanted dinner. Forty-five+ years of factory work, fist shift was ALWAYS the night shift. You should read about Carnegie and The Long Turn when day shifts had to work 24 hours straight.

[Susanne]

All the times I worked the graveyard shift it was either the First shift, third shift, or the dog watch... (Does a greyhound shift go faster than a St. Bernard shift??)... depends on who you worked for and how they set up their scheduling boards...

I am guessing for prodution purposes the factory had a set time to pull numbers - I know when we did numbers it was exactly at Midnight (00:00:00), we even went so far as to switch physical ledger sheets, then part of my job for the next 3 hours was to compile them into the various stats that management wanted. I'm sure Ford's had a much more robust system than we did...

And BTW - we knew which local hash houses were open at 5 or 6 AM for dinner, which bars opened at 6 AM, etc. It was our own community, and it was pretty awesome to be part of the night owls, working while the rest of the world was asleep!

[Jerry VanOoteghem]

I was under the impression that the Highland plant in the 1920s was used only for parts manufacturing and parts assembly.

They did manufacturing and final assembly.

[Steve Jelf]

My dad was a refinery still man for forty years, for Shell, Pathfinder, and Union Oil. They called the shifts days, 4 to 12, and graveyards. His schedule was days for two weeks, 4 to 12 for two weeks, and graveyards for two weeks, in constant rotation. It was true shift work, and he did not enjoy it. He would have received more from Social Security if he had stuck it out for three more years, but he retired as soon as he hit 62.