Master Hands - Chevrolet Manufacturing (1936)

That's why workers need a union. If there's an assembly line station that's too hard, that's a union grievance. There's a way to work out a solution, with the worker being in a strong position. Happens all the time in a union plant. Expecting someone to lift tires overhead for mounting on a production line is way out of date. Here's how it's done in a Ford plant. First, they show the old way, where they had a platform at just the right height to roll the wheel into position. The worker then pushes it onto the lugs and hub. Then, they show the fully robotized operation.[1] Here's an older, manual system, but with a counterbalanced lifting aid to do the heavy part.[2] Simple setups like that are routine. If anybody is lifting anything heavy on an assembly line, you're doing it wrong. There are many simple ways to fix that. To see tires lifted entirely by hand in an auto plant, you have to go back to this famous Chevy film from 1936.[3] That was before the big GM strike. Tesla is still learning how to run an auto plant. Tesla isn't as good at this as they pretend to be. Their head count in Fremont is quite high for the number of vehicles produced. [1] [link] [2] [link] [3] [this video]