New employees may often be found asleep in a ruined building a mile or so from the Yards. Said the ...

Selections From the Henry J. Kaiser Pictorial Collection, 1941-1946

BANC PIC 1983.019:063--PIC

Image

The Bancroft Library

Full titleNew employees may often be found asleep in a ruined building a mile or so from the Yards. Said the man in the foreground, "I'm a Texan. I got a construction job right away when I came here. I couldn't find me a room, so I slept in my jalopy at first. Then I found this place, so I sold my car for $7.50 because the tires were shot. I used that money to eat on, and sent my first check home to my babies. At night I just bummed around town - what else can you do? One night I had a little argument, hurt my hand. I didn't go back to work, figuring my hand would be better in a few days. But it isn't." When the Labor-Management Committee's investigator saw the hand, he drove the man to the Richmond Shipyards Field Hospital, where the doctors said, "You brought this man in just in time. A few days longer, and he'd have lost his hand." Lack of cleanliness, lack of hot water in proper living quarters nearly cost one able-bodied defense worker.

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