Rights Of Men, Rites Of Passage: Hunting And Masculinity At Reo Motors Of Lansing, Michigan, 1945-1975 [1]

Journal of Social History, Summer, 2000 by Lisa M. Fine

"From what I hear and the people have told their supervisors, about 50% will not be here Friday." Smith, the company attorney asked Barnes, "All day, Ralph?"

"Yes" said Barnes. And when management pointed out that the deer season didn't open until noon, Barnes responded, "By the time they get oiled up and their guns ready it would be noon."

President of the union Reed added, "Last year they did shut down for the day if I recall."

To which Gerald Byrne, director of personnel replied, "We were forced to shut down."

We attempted to start the line."

Smith added, "The year before last, wasn't that?"

Barnes, "It was the year before and we sent them home at 10."

Smith, "Last year, we found in advance we were going to have the same situation so they did not run at all, as I recall."

Foust (Mgmt) "There is just as good hunting on Saturday as on Friday."

Reed: "it is only normal they want to go out the first day."

Byrne: "You are telling us now that we can expect about 50% absenteeism on Friday."

Barnes: "I would not say it would be full 50% but there will be a lot of them off."

Reed: "This is every year." [45]

This candid interchange occurred in the middle of a negotiating session devoted to resolving important issues but both sides had to resign themselves to the fact that this absenteeism around the opening of hunting season was not open for negotiation. Certainly there was a give and take here, but both parties understood that given the history of hunting and their workers, altering these practices would be futile. Even union officials suffered the same fate whenever their meetings were scheduled in October and November. [46]

Official and legitimate leave for hunting was dispensed by the foreman, which left for a great deal of favoritism and inequality. Grievances and sometimes discharges resulted when certain employees were held to the letter of the law as others around them experienced privileged treatment. [47] In many ways, the dispensation of hunting leave might be one of the last vestiges of the prerogative of the foreman in the twentieth century.

From the middle of the 1940s through the 1950s, the company and the union sought to codify in print the relationship between vacation leave and hunting leave undoubtedly to avoid excessive absenteeism and grievances. The company made it clear through its stated vacation leave policy statements, as well as through its representatives on the management bargaining committees that, "Time off during fishing or hunting season should be discouraged excepting to employees eligible for regular vacations," and objected to the practice of some supervisors who granted so-called deer hunting leaves to employees without seniority or who had previously used up their vacation time. [48] Reo's management not only had their hands full with errant workers, anxious to exercise their rights to make their annual exodus to the forests, but also had to keep their foremen and supervisors in line with regular reminders regarding the language of the contract. [49] None of this seemed to make any difference. At the start of hunting sea son, 1957 the workers reported an "epidemic of Asian Flu," on Monday, October 21, the beginning of pheasant season. [50]