Labor unions saved Ford in our 'darkest' hour: Bill Ford
- Thread starter Sparx
- Start date
Well, they organized under his watch so maybe that's what put him there.
Edsel Ford took over as President of the company in 1919. The UAW did not organize Ford until 1943. Henry died in 1947. So he was alive to see it...but was in pretty bad shape by all accounts, so its hard to say what he was aware of..or not.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-signs-first-contract-with-autoworkers-union
Edsel Ford, president of Ford Motor, recognized that the Wagner Act had made unionization inevitable, and tried to reason with his father. The elder Ford, who despised labor unions, instead put his trust in Harry Bennett, head of Ford's Service Department, who promised to keep the unions at bay. In the much-publicized "Battle of the Overpass" on May 26, 1937, Ford henchmen brutally beat several UAW organizers (including Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen) attempting to hand out leaflets at Ford's River Rouge plant. In the aftermath of this incident, Ford Motor Company was found guilty of violating the Wagner Act, and in early 1941 the National Labor Relations Board ordered the company to stop interfering with the union's attempts to organize.
Larry Gude
Strung Out
Article should say "Ford work force saves company". To say 'labor unions' is not accurate. Ford and it's relationship with their people is the story. Not unions.
One of the great crimes of the bailout era is that Ford did the right thing. Made the tough choices for their company and worked with their people and yet, they had to sit there with the people, GM and Chrysler, who had NOT done the right things, and thus Ford was not able to reap the rewards of weaker competition losing market share. This is where the BIG LIE comes into play; all the comments about 'having to save those GM jobs'. Well, guess who would have saved them? Ford would have hired them when their market share went up because Ford earned it and the government took that way, punished good behavior and rewarded bad.
That's the story of the bail outs. The untold story. GM proved why Too Big To Fail is our national goal; everyone knows, bank, insurers, car maker, greenhouse, all you gotta be is big enough to be rewarded when you screw up, to be big enough where there is no such thing as 'bad' decisions or 'poor' performance.
Quality doesn't matter. Service doesn't matter. Cost doesn't matter. Just be big.
Larry Gude
Strung Out
Don't put it all on them. Maybe GM failed to offer enough? Maybe they both, management and labor, said, "Look, the government won't let us fail. We're too big. Let's just hang in there and see how this goes. Maybe neither of us has to do much of anything."
A bigger lie, and one you obviously believe, is that there is a difference between a union and its members. Unions of employees work on the same representative style of democracy as this great country, only with more restrictions imposed on their leadership than our elected government officials. So, I wonder, why is it that our citizens must pay our taxes to our government for it's services but in right-to-work states, non-members of a union don't have to pay dues for the same negotiated benefits as those who do pay?
I'll agree some labor unions (through the wishes of a majority of their members), have gone to far in the past, in their demands, that it was detrimental to their own good, but I see this as a lesson learned, not a reason to hate unions. After all, you're hating the members of those unions, not something you believe to be a third party interfering between labor and management.
C
czygvtwkr
Guest
GM was their own worst enemy, there was a fairly long time period that they borrowed money just to pay dividends. To do this they issued debt (bonds) and guess what happened to those bondholders? In a traditional world the bondholders hold advantage over stockholders so if a company liquidates they get paid first. I owned GM stock at one point just for the dividends but after a while I knew they couldn't sustain it so I bailed, wasted my time but broken even more or less.
Larry Gude
Strung Out
I am not sure if you can't read for comprehension or are intentionally misreading what I wrote? So, instead of assuming, and before I waste my time responding, which is it?
cwo_ghwebb
No Use for Donk Twits
I never had to belong to a union, as I was smart enough to negotiate my own contract (which was higher than the union negotiated contract). I can't believe the union members are either that stupid or that lazy.
Exactly what I said. You slow?
Henry Ford turned over the reins in 1919. Edsel was not know for his stones.
Last edited:
That explains why unions represent barely 6% of the private workforce now?..and continuing to decline, inevitably to virtually zero.
Unfortunately, the more destructive unions are those that represent public employees and they are still quite numerous. A ludicrous situation; the union buys elected offices and then negotiates member wages and benefits with the elected officials that they bought and paid for.
Last edited:
.......and when that happens, it will be a day to celebrate the USA worker for what he is and not someone looking for a handout.
Larry Gude
Strung Out
That's not very fair. Unions, with plenty of bad along the way, have served good purposes in this country.
Larry Gude
Strung Out
Are you asking me from the standpoint of right and wrong or what we, America, does?