– Robert J. Dewar is a former Ford Motor Company general foreman and author of A Savage Factory: An Eyewitness Account of the Auto Industry’s Self-Destruction. He currently lives in Cincinnati, OH and runs a successful packaging business with his wife and family. The views expressed are his own. –
The war in the auto plants never ended. It flared up and died down, but it never ceased. Management and labor circle each other like sumo wrestlers searching for an opening. Like any war, it ignores honesty, human dignity and common sense. Like any conflict, it leaves collateral damage.
As a supervisor at Ford Motor Company’s largest transmission plant, I fought on the front lines. Despite leaving the auto company many years ago, the factory skirmishes were a key factor in the industry’s disastrous decline in the 1980s, and likely continue to play a part in the failures of the industry today.
The factory foremen had one big gun: Form 4600. It was the stepwise disciplinary tool that could take an employee up the punitive ladder to termination. Many supervisors rose in the management ranks not because of job performance, but by virtue of their 4600 tally. The auto industry rewarded tyrants rather than qualified managers with integrity and an ability to successfully lead.
The UAW arsenal easily outgunned management. Production was sabotaged. Critical employees were absent when high production was most needed. Tools mysteriously disappeared. Bad quality was run purposely. The weakest, least desirable employees were protected with the full power of the labor contract. When management and the UAW stood eyeball to eyeball, management always backed down – they had too – productivity and profitability hung in the balance.
The Ford factory was operated by two warring gangs. Clearly, this business model is doomed for failure.
The spark that ignites the factory battles is ever changing, but the underlying philosophy “us against them” remains the same. Foremen lead by oppression, intentionally making the work environment as uncomfortable as possible for the hourly employees. They justify these conditions with high salary. The UAW fights back the only way they can – production sabotage.
My time in the trenches still haunts me. One particular occasion I was assigned the task of scrutinizing a single employee’s every move for an entire eight hour shift. My only assignment was to nail him with something, anything, by the end of the day. The orders were clear. At the end of the shift someone would lose their job – it would either be him or me. What good was a supervisor who could not nail one single employee after observing him for eight hours?
Like a voyeuristic watchdog I was expected to follow the man to the rest room, noting how long he took to relieve himself, hand count and record his hourly output, follow his every move…
One employee brought his snub nose .38 to work with the explicit intention of murdering me. Fortunately he was so drunk that he left the gun under the seat of his car, and fell into a drunken stupor at his work station. The UAW saved his job despite repeatedly showing up for work intoxicated.
There were the regular bathroom sweeps – teams of supervisors and security guards periodically raided restrooms to ensure nobody was resting. Anyone caught not standing at a urinal or sitting on a commode was slapped with a 4600 disciplinary form.
The Coffee Pot War during the midnight shift was particularly noteworthy. Management confiscated and held hostage the only coffee pot available to the hourly employees, reportedly because they were taking too many breaks. This ill-conceived plan was designed to punish the workers and increase productivity. Things quickly turned sour. Machines stopped running properly. Production dropped. A critical tool that was needed for all the machines went missing. Squads of supervisors and security guards raided lockers, searched cars in the parking lot, and overturned trash cans. Foremen and UAW committeemen screamed in each others faces. Production came to a standstill. The critical tool could not be found.
The Coffee Pot War raged for days. Bleary eyed supervisors, fighting fatigue, faced the possible shutdown of assembly plants in four states because they were running out of transmissions. The foreman of that department had a nervous breakdown, and was carried out of the plant by mental health workers. In desperation, management returned the coffee pot. Within a few hours the missing tool showed up as mysteriously as it had disappeared. Production returned to a normal level.
These never-ending battles on the factory floor ushered in the quality control nightmare of the 1970s that caused 33 states to pass “Lemon Laws” designed to protect American car buyers from the Big Three. The wars destroyed confidence and trust in American built cars, which marked the beginning of the end of the U.S. auto industry. It opened the door for smaller, weaker, less experienced foreign auto companies to come to our shores and beat us at our own game. The wars drove the final nail in the coffin of Detroit.
Isn't it odd how the industries with the most powerful unions are all going overseas? Has anyone who is pro-UAW ever looked at the disparity between what auto workers and other industrial workers make? And please don't even try to argue the quality of the product. Time and experience have shown us that neither the workers or management cared about quality. The UAW fought authority, and authority won. And every American lost, and is still losing. Wow. How novel. Thanks, Michigan.
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I have been constantly of auto industries alarming downtrend in U.S.A. market.
Here, in India, we also faced problems of over production,rate of loan interest was high,some sudden job losses in major IT and manufacturing sectors.
But auto market starts giving some less prices,Governments new economic,verdict on stable government formation,appreciable insulated banking policies have started showing sales in this sector.
In USA,we have to wait and watch economic stimulants to show results.
Hope for the best.
I work for the US Postal Service…the environment you describe is alive and well at USPS…
Let me list all the ideas
Turn as many Empty Factories in Every State of the Union into Greenhouses that catch as much water, sun, and energy
to be as self sufficient as possible. They can be oasis’s of Food, Heat, Shelter with Structure as Homes around these Depressed areas are Rebuilt. Plus, We would not be so dependent on food being shipped, less gas used, less pollutants.
By placing just One Solar Panel and One Wind Generator with a new Battery (A large one they will use in Electric cars) The Jobs created to make the Panels, Generators, and Batteries will be an Immediate help to our economy. The Instillation will create Jobs.
Homes that can Produce their Own energy will Lessen OUR need for Fossil Fuels across this country. This will put less pollutants in the air, as well as lessening the demand for MORE power-plants. Our National security as well as Security for the Population will increase since homes can produce their own Energy in Emergencies.
Creating a Magnetic Train system(Like Europe, but MUCH better) will lessen the amount of OIL needed for air travel since the train,Using Solar panels ALL ALONG the tracks, with wind catchers to catch the trains passing wind and mother nature, should help power itself, making it cheaper to operate, making it cheaper to travel! If we connect ALL State Capitals, Major Cities, Universities, and Casino’s how easy would it be to see OUR COUNTRY in all her Glory?
Small Business thrives on tourists!
Casino’s have always been hubs of underworld activities like Prostitution, Drugs, and Money Laundering. Why should we let Gambling make Millionaires and Billionaires out of Mafia Types, who wish to make money on our vices, when we can take that money and create a Free Health Care System. How much can we save when we CUT OUT ALL HEALTH INSURERS, who don’t care about your health, only THEIR PROFIT! Doctors pay would not be affected since Skill and Ability in that field always rise to the top. Malpractice would be rethought, since Insurers are not involved. How much better could Health Care in general be when we take out the PROFIT motive, and focus on Healing and Caring for the Ill, not making as much as possible off of them.
Where is all the State Lotto money going? I thought it was supposed to go towards Schools? YET School budgets get slashed every year while the money spent on Lotto’s keep going UP? This needs to be looked into, this discrepancy in BUDGETS.
Where is could the money come from to start these projects? How much has been spent to bailout “BANKS” and those who have been ripping us off? These people made how many BILLIONS off of the Public, you and me, NOW they get more BILLIONS to rescue them from THEIR MISTAKES, and HAVE YET to start letting the “CREDIT” flow?
Big Oil has been “Speculating”, “Price Fixing”, and engaged in “Anti-Competition” practices for HOW LONG? When was the last time you saw a “Gas Price War” from your Local Gas Stations? I’m not saying Nationalize, but why don’t we Freeze some of the Accounts of Leaders, go through these Oil Company Patents and see if they have BOUGHT technology that would improve Gas Mileage. Remember, Big Oil makes money PER GALLON, so the lower MPG your car gets, the better for them, and they have how many BILLIONS to LOBBY Congress? No wonder America’s MPG Standard is the Lowest in the World.
It is only a subtle shift in Thinking. Instead of PROFIT and CONTROL being the Focus of our Economy, we need to Make our Economy Strong, Steady, and Reliable by Building it to be that way. We just need to change LEADERSHIP at some places atop these TOO LARGE MULTINATIONALS, who do not care about the individual, region, or Nation, they only care about them, theirs, and their Bottom Line.
In the scenario i’ve laid out, you know what the amazing thing is? It all can be attributed to some really bad decision by Upper Management.
Peace is easy when both sides come to the table wishing it.
Isn’t that right Israel? All of Judea is not to blame for the wishes of so few. Chosen of God? What PROOF do you have of your GODLY actions?
Enough blood has fallen in Jerusalem, and Afghanistan, Pakistan.
A little about me
I remember the first time i heard The Band with Dave Mathews. (So sorry guys) I was sitting in engineering in School there in Virginia.
Changed my life. What could I do with LOVE?
I also beat the first Zelda with my NES. Found Every Heart with out cheating. Know how? Methodically bombed every nook and cranny.
I want love. But i will not be a slave or a Forced Dependent to no Man or Corporation. Nor will i wish it for any people.
I’m telling you, LOVE is the only way to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
My eyes my eyes
my double crossing spies
Are they wise these blue-gray eyes?
This child of compromise?
After the LAST civil war there was a Promise.
That no matter how dark the hour
No Soldier, Sailor, or Civilian
Any One with AMERICAN blood in them
We will not harm our own
No matter What
United WE Stand
divided WE fall
If anyone thinks this is a bad idea, please, by all means tell my why and i would Love to discuss it civilly.
Friends,
I do not wish revenge, that would be more needless war.
I am not inconsistent with my Love. We need to start bringing our Soldiers home, they have been used enough.
We need to help each other. What have our Soldiers been doing? Building Infrastructure? Trying to Keep Peace. What do we need here at home? Time is nothing, Timing is everything.
If you want to throw the first punch, any enemy of mine.
I’ll finish this fight.
But isn’t peace easier on your soul?
And the Whole World?
Why fight each other
Lets rebuild together
Those responsible
Justice under the Law
Not revenge, lets not demean ourselves
Justice. Fairness.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness through
Love and some Responsibility
My Friends and Allies,
Where is Osama Bin Ladin? My Father told me of the cunning tunnels Mr. Charlie conceived. Do you not think China has done the same? How close is the Chinese border to Afghanistan? How easy would it have been for Osama to slip over, or in this case Under, the Chinese border into that country?
Our Military can not enter without war? Don’t the Terrorists use Communist AK-47’s? Who has been funding Osama and his networks?
Who has the most to gain from a collapsing American Economy, and a tired Military that has been LIED TO, USED, and ABUSED. China is building it Navy? Why? Invasion?!
If we are poor, broke, tired, and Weary of a needless war in the Middle East, and a burnt our economy, who has the most to gain?
CHINA
How else did a small town midwest farmer with only a high school education saw this at only 31?
In my book, “Going Up Through The Looking Glass”
on deviantart.com, FOR FREE
I say that God whispers his love to everyone.
The devil twists his words with greed, lust, pride, hate.
I can hear without the devil yelling.
Folks,
You have to ask yourself a fundamental question.
What kind of person does it take to control a “Multinational” corporation?
How did a person even Gain Control in the CUT THROAT world or Upper Executive Management?
Most of the Fortune 100 make more money than most countries.
So what does Cheney do as soon as he gains office? As soon as he gains control of the largets Military in the World?
Create a situation where his Haliburton and KBR get NO BID contracts worth BILLIONS? Big OIL is in for sure! Once in under Military Protection, Hmmmmmm, Almost Free OIL! that they can sell to us for how much?
Need Arabian contacts? ISRAEL has those, and most definately could use a Islamic Rising to their advantage to grab more Palestinian land.
The truth will set you free.
Maybe the 4 horseman of the apocalypse really is
Cheney War
Rumsfeld Pestilance (G.D. Searle- How did it pass FDA?)
Rove Lies and Deceit
Gramm Money Greed (Whatdid he have with Houseing)
It fits to me if you just look at these people in POWER who wish to CONTROL who are full of GREED and DID NOT get to where they were by living with LOVE!
And NOW, you know why Cheney and his administration allowed TORTURE. Under torture a person will say anything.
Throw blame where ever, on who ever, for whatever reason.
Waterboarded 83 times? After that “I” might even say I MASTERMINDED the whole 9/11 attack.
Think about it for yourself.
Is China(Look how they treat their own people, and Tibet) capable and will to try and enslave the whole world?
Do you think Cheney is the kind of person who seeks that kind of control over another human being?
Do you think Cheney has friends like him? I do.
You decide.
Does no one find it an amazing coincidence that we are in Iraq and Afghanistan on some seriously SHADY intel, basically lied to by Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, and Gramm?
Republicans so far gone to Business. Look at all their connections to “Business” since the 70’s, since Nixon went to China.
Could they have PURPOSELY started a war in that part of the world, The part of the world where the IMF & WTO & CHINA have the least amount of Influence?
CHINA was the first to invent Gunpowder and Guns. Sun Tzu wrote “The Art of War” 2400 years ago. CHINA can not beat us Militarily, but by buying certain Republicans, and working slowly, bit by bit for 40 years, they have almost BOUGHT the whole of America and other Industialized Nations.
9/11 could have been a CHINA plot, throw blame to Arabs, Use the Republicans they have in office to “FORCE” a war in the area. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gramm, Rove, all made HOW MUCH through KBR, and Haliburton?
The economic conditions right after 9/11 allowed the FED and its supporting banks to do what? Allowed Big OIL to do what? The Bush administration relaxed how many Regulations, that led to “BANKS” and “Business” to grab how much private property?
We are at war my Friends and Allies, Know your enemy!
How many America Soldiers have died for WHOM! and WHY!?!
NATO, her ALLIES, and other Nations that wish to stay FREE simply need to become “Self Dependent”, meaning we depend on NO ONE, NO COMMUNIST NATION for what we can make ourselves.
We, America, EU, NATO, and other Nations can simply band together for form an economic block of Freedom. We can set our own prices for pay, set up a truly free capitalistic society not based on EXTORTING and PROFIT, but based on Liberty and Freedom.
That Liberty and Freedom can be achieved! We just need to disengage from letting our ENEMIES make products for us. WE CAN MAKE OUR OWN!
IMF & WTO & CHINA use words like “More Productive” to fool you into giving them business, which they use to undermine what little economy we have left, and it matters not if it is in America, or France, England, or Germany they use those “Phrases” and “Lingo” to trick, deceive, and fool the masses.
We need to sift out these double-crossing economic SPIES and FREE ourselves from CHINA IMF WTO before it is too late and THEY DO OWN EVERYTHING.
International Banks (IMF & WTO) USE words like “Protectionism” so they can keep using CHINA and other SLAVE labor countries to keep undermining EVERY NATIONS economy. When other NATIONS economies are wrecked, they (IMF &WTO) can them come in with money and products from CHINA to “Save” the economies they wrecked.
When you(or a nation) depend on another, you become a Slave to them. Welcome to the new war folks. MONEY, MANUFACTURING, PRODUCTION, and economic PROPAGANDA are the new weapons. COMMUNIST CHINA and the IMF and WTO are out to own everything by undermining the World Economy.
If I’m wrong, prove to me the actions of CHINA and the IMF and WTO are not doing what I say they are doing.
The wicked never rest, guess i can’t either.
Paul-
“It seems to me the enormous pressure on this country will be to lower the cost of labor to match the low cost labor of other developing and more productive countries.”
China is follow America’s manufacturing blueprint from the 50’s and 60’s, but instead of using their wealth to better the lives of their people, Communist China is using their SLAVES(people) to undermine ALL ECONOMIES of the world.
Since we are dependent on Communist China for almost all of our manufacturing, we are slaves to them, and they are using the money we send to them, to buy our debt.
OWNING US in a way.
And our Fed and Banks, even “Businesses” that depend on Communist CHINA for products are helping them OWN US by raising the cost of our homes, the cost of living, the cost of credit, the cost of ANYTHING keeps going up as AMERICANS are being paid less and less, if they can even get a job.
Wake up people, Communist China is buying America, It already owns our BANKS and BUSINESS. Don’t listen to the words, look at their actions.
Why did we start doing business with the enemy? When did it start to happen? Nixon went to China in the early 70’s for what? Republicans ALWAYS back the BANKS and BUSINESS for what reason?
“It seems to me the enormous pressure on this country will be to lower the cost of labor to match the low cost labor of other developing and more productive countries”
Why don’t industrialized countries like England, France, USA, Germany, and Other EU and NATO countries say F U to China and other slave labor countries and start making stuff for themselves.
That way, NATO, EU, maybe even India and Russia can keep the price of labor at a level you can live at, instead of Letting China use SLAVES to undermine Free and Liberated peoples economies and societies.
Nixon goes to China in the 70’s, and slowly China, like an evil octopus undermines all of the free worlds economies, thus the free worlds society because it undermines peoples pay, undermines the quality of life.
One commenter suggests that the problems we face now are due to lack of investment. How? All the leveraging and dubious financial instrument trading of the past 20 years was nothing but “investing”.
The problem may be there are no real opportunities for the ‘dis-invested”. This country had it’s boom days when it was still largely agricultural with a much smaller percentage of industrial activity - prior to the thirties.
It seems to me the enormous pressure on this country will be to lower the cost of labor to match the low cost labor of other developing and more productive countries. We can’t all be engaged in medical billing, or stuff the state and federal bureaucracies with bodies. We can’t all work for school systems.
And the atmosphere of government control over everything will be more pervasive because it is the former communist countries and those still making a transition to free market economies, that will be trying to ensue that there is still a safety net to ensure population stability. I am sure China is terrified of it’s own massive and historically very volatile population. How else did the present regime get there then by violent revolution. When was the least time this country saw a labor riot?
The problem we all have is we can’t escape anymore to the great planes or the wide open west. The problem is we cannot effectively work for ourselves for peanuts and invest in our own homesteads. We don’t raise large families that can work almost at slavery conditions to keep the farm alive. WE cannot easily lower our overhead costs for a deferred better day. The day when those hard worked children inherit the farm - or at least a piece of it.
I also tend to think that education is a false mantra. I have been over-educated for most jobs I ever held or else had the wrong education. And almost no place I ever worked really cared how productive I was. My best paying employment was the least productive. I worked in a service department of a defense industry company and that was practically welfare with a jacket and tie.
Maybe the only solution in the future will be the guaranteed government issued paycheck that can be augmented with employment if that can be found. A “Bread and circuses” economy. Perhaps the near future will require people who can learn how to live on very little and know how to use their leisure. But I doubt it. We will have massive wars first and try to thin the herd.
World War two and the death of about 85 million people is probably what really what ended the Great Depression. We probably aren’t above the rules of the natural world after all. We can overgraze our habitat, so to speak, unless we can find more. And the oceans still sit there slowly turning into a garbage can. There is 75% of the earth’s surface waiting to be occupied. Why waste so much energy and billions of pounds of natural resources building vehicles with built in obsolescence or stick built square miles of rotting and burnable housing that can’t stand even a few weeks of abandonment when we could be building floating cities for a more relaxed and less consumer driven lifestyle.
How much money should one make? Or how hard should one expect to work to be able to claim one is making a decent living? It seems that what we really need is a way of life not driven by consumption. An economy driven by the production of long lasting assets and durable goods would provide an affordable life without the need to replace the same things over and over again.
I could damn the computer manufacture that sent me an update that disabled my ability to system restore. They want my four year old machine to become useless so I am forced to get a new one when I have no real need for a newer or much larger or much faster computer. Or automobile with computer chips programmed to die when the manufacturer feels it is time for me to spend more money on transportation.
We live in a clumsy, stupid and archaic economic system with no real clear priorities and too much interest in fashion driven manias.
I thought long and hard. I re-read Benny’s stuff. I can now see why he thought i was like him. It can seem like I want to just take from the Bankers and Executives and just distribute the money.
Before i rest, i must explain the difference between His and mine, as i suddenly see it.
In a “welfare” system, like Benny poses, one where everyone just gets a “Stream of Wealth” or “Piece of the GDP”, you become a Slave to whoever gives you the “Stream” or “Piece”. Meaning you are a dependent, you depend on them. And once your a dependent; they can do whatever to you they wish.
In My system, my “Working” system, You are a Free man or a Free Woman. Dependent on no one but YOURSELF, your hands, your work. It is a little harder, my way, the “Working” way. But you are Free and Liberated from the demands of others.
Liberty and Freedom are never easy.
Now i can sleep. Sorry Benny.