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Stan Weir: Interview 3e. Segment 1
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Weir developed his ideas about informal work groups during the early 1950's. The concept (referred to interchangeably as informal work group, informal group, primary group, primary work group) was developed at Hawthorne, the Cicero AT&T plant, between 1927 and 1932. Informal work groups are not "purists;" they're wracked by love and hate and have serious disagreements, but close ranks when attacked. The struggle between them and management is unceasing. Management understands that if you can buy off a leader you can foul up the group temporarily. However, a new leader will appear as the group regenerates itself.
b. 1920 d. 2001 Stan Weir was a rank and file activist and organizer in the auto and longshore industries in California. Raised in Los Angeles, Weir attended UCLA briefly after graduating from high school in East Los Angeles. He joined the Merchant Marine when WWII began and his political education began on the first ship on which he sailed. His class consciousness and view of industrial unionism was heightened as he came into contact with the organized left through the Sailors Union of the Pacific. After the war, Weir worked in a variety of unionized jobs in both southern and northern California. He helped to foment a brief wildcat sit-down strike in the East Oakland Chevrolet plant. Beginning in the late 1950s, and for the next five years, his activism on behalf of other ILWU members who were classified as "B" workers eventually forced him out of the union. And despite the lawsuit against the ILWU that he filed along with other representatives of the "B" workers, he later resumed work on the docks in San Pedro. Weir remained an independent labor and socialist activist throughout the years, regardless of the particular jobs he held, and in the mid-1980s founded "Singlejack Books" in an effort to bring affordable "little books" to workers. Singlejack Solidarity, a collection of Weir's writing was published posthumously by University of Minnesota Press in 2004. The lengthy oral history with Stan Weir was conducted by Patrick McAuley while he was a graduate student at CSULB. A transcript prepared by Weir's wife, Mary, is on deposit at the Wayne State Labor Archive. The original recordings and accompanying summaries are on deposit in the Archive of California State University, Long Beach.
Interview 3e Topics on this side of the tape include: concept of informal work group ideas; conflict with Teamsters; Hungarian revolution and 1956 layofff at GM; driving truck for Welch's Overalls,LA; firing; removal by Teamsters and losing arbitration; job painting custom made trucks.
Stan Weir was interviewed on 12/5/1990 by Pat McCauley: This rather long interview is the third of six sessions with Stan Weir. The session was recorded in Weir's office in San Pedro. The life history project was initiated by Pat McCauley while he was a graduate student in history at CSULB.
Citation: Weir, Stan. Interviewed by Pat McCauley. 12/5/1990. Labor History: Individual Labor Activists. The Virtual Oral/Aural History Archive, California State University, Long Beach. Interview 3e Segment 1 (00:00-3:00) Segkey: sws1092. February 09, 2010. <http://www.csulb.edu/voaha>.
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Stan Weir: Interview 3e. Segment 2
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Weir illustrates how informal work groups regenerate, drawing on his experience when he worked by himself in the Chevrolet spraying cellar. He recounts an incident in Norfolk port when a Shipping Commissioner from Department of Commerce came aboard so that the crew could sign articles for the voyage. As bos'n Weir was the first to be called. The Commissioner became livid when Weir refused to call him "sir," and threatened to stop Weir from making his trip. Two young deck hands stepped up and said, if he doesn't go, we don't go; and the skipper chimed in and told the Commissioner to sign him on. To this day Weir remembers how wonderful those two kids were.
b. 1920 d. 2001 Stan Weir was a rank and file activist and organizer in the auto and longshore industries in California. Raised in Los Angeles, Weir attended UCLA briefly after graduating from high school in East Los Angeles. He joined the Merchant Marine when WWII began and his political education began on the first ship on which he sailed. His class consciousness and view of industrial unionism was heightened as he came into contact with the organized left through the Sailors Union of the Pacific. After the war, Weir worked in a variety of unionized jobs in both southern and northern California. He helped to foment a brief wildcat sit-down strike in the East Oakland Chevrolet plant. Beginning in the late 1950s, and for the next five years, his activism on behalf of other ILWU members who were classified as "B" workers eventually forced him out of the union. And despite the lawsuit against the ILWU that he filed along with other representatives of the "B" workers, he later resumed work on the docks in San Pedro. Weir remained an independent labor and socialist activist throughout the years, regardless of the particular jobs he held, and in the mid-1980s founded "Singlejack Books" in an effort to bring affordable "little books" to workers. Singlejack Solidarity, a collection of Weir's writing was published posthumously by University of Minnesota Press in 2004. The lengthy oral history with Stan Weir was conducted by Patrick McAuley while he was a graduate student at CSULB. A transcript prepared by Weir's wife, Mary, is on deposit at the Wayne State Labor Archive. The original recordings and accompanying summaries are on deposit in the Archive of California State University, Long Beach.
Interview 3e Topics on this side of the tape include: concept of informal work group ideas; conflict with Teamsters; Hungarian revolution and 1956 layofff at GM; driving truck for Welch's Overalls,LA; firing; removal by Teamsters and losing arbitration; job painting custom made trucks.
Stan Weir was interviewed on 12/5/1990 by Pat McCauley: This rather long interview is the third of six sessions with Stan Weir. The session was recorded in Weir's office in San Pedro. The life history project was initiated by Pat McCauley while he was a graduate student in history at CSULB.
Citation: Weir, Stan. Interviewed by Pat McCauley. 12/5/1990. Labor History: Individual Labor Activists. The Virtual Oral/Aural History Archive, California State University, Long Beach. Interview 3e Segment 2 (3:00-5:58) Segkey: sws1093. February 09, 2010. <http://www.csulb.edu/voaha>.
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Stan Weir: Interview 3e. Segment 3
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According to both Weir and company literature, Informal Work Groups are more powerful than unions. One management consultant said that their whispers are more powerful than management orders. Weir recounts an incident of one of the men in his ride group who was stealing paint in his thermos. Then he stole a gun, cleaned it with lacquer thinner, and hid it in his crotch. Thinner leaked out and he was in agony. Weir told him that it served him right. It wasn't that Weir was against his stealing from GM he told him, but that he was against him getting caught and their losing a good man.
b. 1920 d. 2001 Stan Weir was a rank and file activist and organizer in the auto and longshore industries in California. Raised in Los Angeles, Weir attended UCLA briefly after graduating from high school in East Los Angeles. He joined the Merchant Marine when WWII began and his political education began on the first ship on which he sailed. His class consciousness and view of industrial unionism was heightened as he came into contact with the organized left through the Sailors Union of the Pacific. After the war, Weir worked in a variety of unionized jobs in both southern and northern California. He helped to foment a brief wildcat sit-down strike in the East Oakland Chevrolet plant. Beginning in the late 1950s, and for the next five years, his activism on behalf of other ILWU members who were classified as "B" workers eventually forced him out of the union. And despite the lawsuit against the ILWU that he filed along with other representatives of the "B" workers, he later resumed work on the docks in San Pedro. Weir remained an independent labor and socialist activist throughout the years, regardless of the particular jobs he held, and in the mid-1980s founded "Singlejack Books" in an effort to bring affordable "little books" to workers. Singlejack Solidarity, a collection of Weir's writing was published posthumously by University of Minnesota Press in 2004. The lengthy oral history with Stan Weir was conducted by Patrick McAuley while he was a graduate student at CSULB. A transcript prepared by Weir's wife, Mary, is on deposit at the Wayne State Labor Archive. The original recordings and accompanying summaries are on deposit in the Archive of California State University, Long Beach.
Interview 3e Topics on this side of the tape include: concept of informal work group ideas; conflict with Teamsters; Hungarian revolution and 1956 layofff at GM; driving truck for Welch's Overalls,LA; firing; removal by Teamsters and losing arbitration; job painting custom made trucks.
Stan Weir was interviewed on 12/5/1990 by Pat McCauley: This rather long interview is the third of six sessions with Stan Weir. The session was recorded in Weir's office in San Pedro. The life history project was initiated by Pat McCauley while he was a graduate student in history at CSULB.
Citation: Weir, Stan. Interviewed by Pat McCauley. 12/5/1990. Labor History: Individual Labor Activists. The Virtual Oral/Aural History Archive, California State University, Long Beach. Interview 3e Segment 3 (5:58-8:20) Segkey: sws1094. February 09, 2010. <http://www.csulb.edu/voaha>.
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Informal Work Groups
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