| The problem of setting satisfactory
wage scales plagued DuPont officials throughout 1918. On March
22, DuPont officials from Wilmington and Old Hickory met in
Nashville to discuss wage scales. They decided that unskilled
workers and those classes of tradesmen which could be recruited
locally should be paid according to the prevailing wage rates in
the territory surrounding Nashville. They agreed that they would
have to establish higher scales for those trades for which the
supply would have to be recruited from areas north of Nashville.
Assuming that they could recruit sufficient laborers,
carpenters, and blacksmiths from the Nashville area and the
region south and southwest of Nashville, they established a
scale giving unskilled laborers ¢.30
per hour and carpenters ¢.40 or ¢.55,
depending on their skill. Electricians, iron-workers,
millwrights, machinists, pipe fitters, sheet metal workers, and
plumbers and steamfitters – those workers who would have to be
recruited from areas north of Nashville – were offered between
¢.55 and ¢.72
an hour, depending upon their skill levels. These wage scales
were put into effect on March 23.
The coming of the Old Hickory plant upset wage stability in
Nashville also. Leaders of businesses established in Nashville
before 1918 complained that the powder plant was stealing their
workers with unnecessarily high wages. The Nashville city
government, which had paid unskilled workers ¢.27
and hour prior to the beginning of the construction at Old
Hickory, considered raising its scale to ¢.37
1/2 in June. Mayor Henry Gupton of Nashville, with urging from
the resident engineer at Old Hickory, opposed such a raise and
convinced the city commissioners to raise the scale only to .30
an hour.
Fill the Empty Shell: The Story of the Government
Munitions Project at Old Hickory, Tennessee 1918-1919 – Thesis
of David E. Brand – May 1971
|
| In addition to setting up
acceptable wage scales, DuPont officials needed to
establish a policy for overtime pay. In the
beginning, no overtime pay at all was given at Old
Hickory. At Old Hickory and several of the other
DuPont war contract plants, workers demanded time and
a half or double-time pay for Saturday afternoon work
and double-time pay for Sundays. At first,
DuPont responded to these demands by informing workers
that they were not required to work on Saturday
afternoons or Sundays. Chief engineer Pierce
favored this policy because, if DuPont paid overtime
at some plants, "it will be necessary
probably to put it into effect through the entire
DuPont Organization."
DuPont resistance to overtime payments waned when
company officials learned that DuPont was probably the
only government contractor not paying double time and
that government boards had granted double-time
payments for Saturday afternoon and Sunday work in
each dispute they had mediated. Although DuPont
officials maintained that the government had no
jurisdiction over their labor practices, because of
the independence granted by the March 23 contract,
they decided to pay overtime at Old Hickory.
Beginning on June 16, 1918, the company paid double
time to all those who worked on Sundays after having
worked five and one-half days during the week.
Those who had taken more than one-half day off during
the week were given time and a half for Sunday work.
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