First, allow me to thank my esteemed colleagues of JPP for the opportunity to participate in this forum. While the unions of America have had a tumultuous first century of ups and downs, it's become obvious that with the decline of the actual manufacturing phase of our economy to one driven by a more technological and analytical skill set the union as we know it today is changing and will never be the force of labor organization it once was.
Why is this? Interestingly, the one man responsible for the surge of union organization in the early Twentieth Century is the man who fought union organization within his own company for nearly thirty years: Henry Ford. The same man whose development of mechanized auto manufacture led to fixed workweeks, paid holidays, the forty hour workweek, vacation time, and health care benefits to his employees with the establishment of the Henry Ford Hospital in Dearborn in October, 1915. All mainstays of modern union contracts adopted by competing automakers.
Despite the "Battle of the Overpass" in 1937, a bloody battle between management and employees, Ford managed to stave off signing a contract with the United Auto Workers until 1941 at the behest of his wife, Clara. That was six years after the Wagner Act was passed by Congress and following the UAW walkout at his River Rouge plant.
Interestingly, Ford's eventual acceptance of the union culture also led to it's downfall. Why? Because the atmosphere of the manufacturing process he developed also dramatically transformed the work ethic of the union worker; an atmosphere of repetitive, routine-based monotonous duties that predicated an industry now dependent upon unskilled or highly specialized operatioin of robotics, replacing the skilled worker. I envision a day very soon when assembly line workers are replaced totally by computers.
Why is this? Interestingly, the one man responsible for the surge of union organization in the early Twentieth Century is the man who fought union organization within his own company for nearly thirty years: Henry Ford. The same man whose development of mechanized auto manufacture led to fixed workweeks, paid holidays, the forty hour workweek, vacation time, and health care benefits to his employees with the establishment of the Henry Ford Hospital in Dearborn in October, 1915. All mainstays of modern union contracts adopted by competing automakers.
Despite the "Battle of the Overpass" in 1937, a bloody battle between management and employees, Ford managed to stave off signing a contract with the United Auto Workers until 1941 at the behest of his wife, Clara. That was six years after the Wagner Act was passed by Congress and following the UAW walkout at his River Rouge plant.
Interestingly, Ford's eventual acceptance of the union culture also led to it's downfall. Why? Because the atmosphere of the manufacturing process he developed also dramatically transformed the work ethic of the union worker; an atmosphere of repetitive, routine-based monotonous duties that predicated an industry now dependent upon unskilled or highly specialized operatioin of robotics, replacing the skilled worker. I envision a day very soon when assembly line workers are replaced totally by computers.
