Hayden Tool Company Case

The Hayden Tool Company is located in a large manufacturing center in southern Connecticut. It is a small, family owned corporation with the majority of stock ownership in the hands of Mr. Hayden, the founder and active manager of the business. The company is engaged in the manufacture of machine tools and dies and of machine parts and subassemblies, all on contract for other manufacturing concerns. The shop consists of one large building and, except for a small office at the front, it is completely unpartitioned. The total staff consists of Mr. Hayden, who spends most of his time out of the office as a salesman and customer-contact man, Miss Holman, who handles all of the office work, and Mr. Becker, general foreman and shop superintendent. The company employs two die makers, four master machinists, and six apprentice machinists. The national economy, in general, and the machine tool industry in particular, are in the midst of a severe depression. The outlook is for business conditions to become worse before they become better. Hayden is finding new order difficult to obtain, and is doing everything possible to retain the clients he has as well as everything he can to get new customers. All employees of the company, except Mr. Hayden and Miss Holman, are members of the machinists’ union, and Hayden is a former member. Becker is not active in the union, but he pays his dues and carries a card. The union is gaining strength in the community, and employers are having increasing difficulties with union leaders. A number of strikes by machinist have already occurred in the area, but Hayden, up to now, has had no trouble. On July 11, 1931, Paul Keller and Jack Edwards, apprentice machinists had been assigned to a job order under the supervision of one of the master machinists. Both had been with the company for slightly over one year and, up to the time of the present incident, they had been regarded as eminently satisfactory by the general foreman and the master machinists. On the day in question, Keller and Edwards were working on a rush order for small machine parts which were to be turned out by two simple operations on the turret lathes. After the machines had been set up, both men had received the necessary directions for accomplishment of the task. They had both been working hard, for they had been impressed with the need for speed, and the work was begun by 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. No difficulties were encountered; both Keller and Edwards worked without assistance or supervision until shortly after ten o’clock. At this time, Mr. Becker, on his way through the shop stopped behind Keller, looked over his shoulder, frowned, and uttered a somewhat disturbed “Tsk, tsk.” No words were spoken, however, and Becker soon passed on to other duties. Some ten minutes later he returned and repeated the first performance. Then again, a short time later, Mr. Becker appeared for the third time and repeated his previous routines. Keller turned abruptly and, shaking his clenched fist in Mr. Becker’s face, cried out above the noise of the running machinery, “I’m warning you, Becker, If you don’t stay away from me, I’ll punch ya’ in the kisser.” Mr. Becker looked startled, but said nothing and walked away. He went to the office and instructed Miss Holman to make out a discharge notice for Mr. Keller and to deliver it immediately. These instructions were carried out, and Mr. Keller left the shop within thirty minutes. In the early afternoon, Mr. Curley, president of the machinists’ union, called on Mr. Hayden and protested Keller’s discharge. He repeated the facts as told to him by Keller and exactly as they had happened. Hayden had already been notified of Keller’s discharge when Curley called. In fact, he was about to call Becker to get the details when Curley arrived. After listening to Curley’s complaint, Hayden stated that he had just learned of Keller’s dismissal, and he would have to have a little time to investigate and consider before he would be able to tell Curley anything. He promised to look into the matter immediately, and he assured Curley he would get in touch with him in a few days.

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