Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line

In 1977, Ben Hamper became the fourth-generation “shoprat” in his family when he went to work at a General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan. For 10 years, Hamper, as did many of his fellow workers, showed up to work drunk and on drugs, was repeatedly laid off and called back, and battled continuously with foremen and supervisors.

Eventually his talent for depicting these wretched work conditions formed into a column, called “Rivethead,” that appeared in Midwest newspapers as well as in Mother Jones. This book is based on that column, which takes well-aimed potshots at American management and business and illuminates the world of the automobile builder and lunch pail carrier in hard-edged, vernacular prose.