ON THE LINE.

•

•

ther died, and Jerry Weinhaus
returned home. He had to find
work quickly to help support
the family.
He studied accounting at
Walsh College and worked
part-time as a cost accountant.
But he continually was laid off.
His distant cousin, Gerald
Greenwald, who would be-
come president of Ford Motor
Co. in Venezuela and later
chairman of Chrysler Corp.,
was working at Ford and of-
fered to help find him a job.
"I didn't think I'd work on
the line forever," Mr. Wein-
haus says. "I thought I'd move
into an office job when there
was an opening. I didn't want
to stay there. Things just hap-
pen."
For $3.82 an hour, Jerry
Weinhaus took a job on the
line in 1972. It was depress-
ing, boring, something he nev-
er learned to like. When he
went to sleep at home, he con-
stantly dreamed about the
perpetual motion of his task
on the line.
For many years he worked
60 hours a week. He didn't an-
ticipate getting wealthy this
way. "I was working for my
family."
Today, he says, he makes
decent money (over $50,000 a
year) as an inspector. He
knows the jobs are monoto-
nous, but he has no tolerance
for people who say auto work-
ers are lazy, stupid and over-
paid for easy work.
_ His family never under-
stood why he stayed at his job.
But he says they respect him.
"They thought it was de-
grading that a Jewish boy was
working in a factory," he re-
calls. "When people would ask,
my mother would only say
that I work for Ford.
"Pm not envious of anybody.
There is no shame," he says.
"We all came here as immi-
grants. We all worked. I have
a terrific family. My son is in
college and wants to be a
lawyer.
"I wouldn't want my son to
do this kind of work," he says.
"He has a better opportunity
than I did."

.

Bernie Hamburger dreams on the line about his guitar business.

1111

ost assembly-line
workers don't car- •
ry business cards
in their wallets. 'I
But most assem- .
bly-line workers don't run side
businesses like Bernie Ham- 4
burger, 39, of Westland.
He makes and repairs gui-
tars under the business name ...,
HamburGuitar.
In fact, next week he is fly- ••
ing to London to try to sell one •
of his hand-crafted creations
to an employee of former Bea- .
tle George Harrison.
To date, he has made and "
sold 49 guitars. His client list.,
includes the rock group Iron
Maiden, Howard Leese from
Heart (who has eight Ham-
burger guitars), and Andy
_ ai
Summers from the Police.
- "Nobody taught me any-
thing," he says. "As a young- -4
ster, I dreamed of being on
stage in a rock group. The next
best thing to being on stage
was to see Howard Leese on
stage playing one of my gui-
tars."
Like Mr. Weinhaus, Mr. --I
Hamburger never intended to .
spend his life on the line. He
was 17 when he started. It was
supposed to be a summer job. .
But after high school grad-
uation, he couldn't decide what r
he wanted to do. He liked mu-
sic. And he fussed with gui- '
- tars, designing electric and
bass models.
Guitars took a long time to •
make, and materials were
costly. He needed some in-
come. His father Felix, a Holo-
caust survivor, taught him
college was important but
there was a great way to guar- 'PI
antee a paycheck and a pen-
sion — Bernie has been at 4
Ford now for 22 years.
Felix Hamburger didn't
work on the line, but he did
spend most of his working
years repairing machines at •
the Ford Truck Plant. Felix
also was a union representa-
tive, and he told his son he .
should stay until retirement.
Bernie Hamburger despis-
es his job on the line. For an
entire shift, he moves painted.
Continued on Page 28

