page 10 & 11, December 23, 1943

THE SIX-
DAY WEEK

On December 12 all Maritime shipyards received notice from Rear Admiral Howard L. Vickery, vice-chairman of the U. S. Maritime Commission, that all shipyards under its jurisdiction ?would close down every Sunday after January 1. The following work schedule for the Christmas holidays and the new 6-day work week has been worked out by local shipyard management in cooperation with the labor unions and the Maritime Commission.

There will be no work on Friday, December 24, and Saturday, December 25, for any shift, except for special work authorized in writing by the Yard Management, and these workers will present their work authorization at gates for admittance.

Effective Sunday, December 19, 1943, "letter day off" of all employees is cancelled and ALL EMPLOYEES will work their regular shift on December 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 26.

Effective Monday, December 27, 1943, the new work week will start on Monday and end on Sunday of each week thereafter.

PAYDAY WILL BE EVERY FRIDAY STARTING DECEMBER 31st.

Because of the change from a 7?day work week to a 6-day work week, with Sunday as the newly established day off for all employees, it will be necessary to have the payroll start with the beginning of the day shift on Monday of each week, therefore, to accomplish this, the period starting Sunday, December 19, and ending Sunday, December 26, will be a special 88 day payroll week.

Those employees covered by the MASTER AGREEMENT and TECHNICAL ENGINEERS AGREEMENT, who work on December 26, will receive credit for a shift worked for Saturday, December 25. Under these conditions, work on Sunday, December 26, would be the 7th shift, providing employees had also worked on December 19, 20; 21, 22 and 23.

All other HOURLY RATED employees not covered by above Agreements, such as CLERICAL WORKERS, GUARDS and BUILDING SERVICE EMPLOYERS, etc., will be paid time and one?half for all hours actually worked in excess of forty hours between dates of December 19 and December 26, inclusive.

FACILITIES WORKERS will be paid time and one?half for all work performed op Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays as heretofore.

NEW YEAR'S DAY -work as usual.
J. O. MURRAY,
Personnel Director.

The six-day week means a big increase in bus passengers. With every available bus in service, no more busses can be added to these already over crowded lines. Although 50 new busses are on order, they can not be expected before the end of February. For these months there is only one answer - more riders in private cars.

If you need gas, consult the transportation department in the Personnel building in your yard where you can obtain a list of prospective passengers who live near your home and want a ride and the transportation department will assist you in getting additional gasoline. See the story "How About Tires" on page 5.


	VANPORT TRANSPORTATION There is trouble brewing because of the bus service from Vanport City to and from Swan Island. In the afternoon, the bus from the Administration building is so crowded, workers have to catch a transfer bus to Interstate, which costs an extra dime. Why not a transfer? In the morning, there is not one bus from Vanport, which does not require every bus to stop and transfer passengers at the St. Johns overhead. This could all be avoided by a through bus from Vanport City in the morning, as well as in the evening. The Maritime Commission own these busses; let them use them for that purpose. -- O. B. Peabody, Swan Island Barracks.

	SWAN ISLAND COMMANDO TRAINING The new enclosures surrounding entrances to check windows, would with a few added features be ideal. A perfect idyll to the employee using them twice daily. For instance, a series of locked gates, each gate having a different key. Have a husky guard stationed at alternate gates, when employee has proper key ready to insert in lock, have the guard suddenly and abruptly knock keys from hand. This would be great sport: Another good idea would be a series of 4-foot smooth hurdles, each with barbed wire across top or with a series of sharpened spikes. It would be a lot of fun to have the firemen come out as each shift was checking in and out and have them turn the hose on employees standing in line. If this idea works at check stations, it could also be included at entrances to Mock's Bottom. With the addition of a few ingenious features, it could be arranged so that hardly a person could get to work on time and most certain that each individual would miss his bus. It seems peculiar that with lumber too scarce to build lunch rooms for use of employees on ways, that some moron's fan-tasy is erected without effort. -- G.,E. Hill, Shipfitter, Swan Island.

SWAN Island's Tanker Champs are setting another record in December with the delivery of 7 ships. In this same period Swan Islanders expect to launch 5 tankers to make a total of 1143 ships launched in 1943.

The addition of five Navy Fleet Oilers launched by Marinship has placed an extra load on the tanker yard, but production figures show a persistent trend downward as Swan Island winds up 1943.

Taking keel - to - launching and launching-to-delivery figures for the first 45 hulls, the chart below shows how effectively time has been cut down since the Schenectady was started in July, 1942.

Arthur E. Peterson chose his wife to christen the SS "Wallowa " Swan Island's 42nd tanker on December 4. Peterson, a graveyard welder, won this honor when he secured 12 welder trainees for his yard in the recent "Sponsor a Ship" contest.

The SS "Grand Ronde" was launched at Swan Island on December 9. The sponsor was 'Mrs. Mike Fader, wife of the superintendent of the Chipping and Tank Test department. The" Grand Ronde" was launched in only 48 days.

Along the Swan Island Outfitting Dock are these five Marinship Tankers undergoing conversion to Navy Oilers.

Conversion of tankers to navy oilers calls for an additional navigation bridge, Radar room, several gun emplacements, larger deck space, additional berthing arrangements. These tankers are also equipped to carry deck cargo.