Work Continues to Change…
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries…
Changed Wage-Skill
Relationship
•
•
•
Ford's five-dollar day often
cited as a key factor in
expanding the middle class
The five-dollar day reversed the
historical relationship between
wages and skill. Throughout
history, the way for workers to
increase the price they
demanded for their services
was to increase their skill level,
and the way for an employer to
lower labor costs was to lower
the skill required to do the work.
The five-dollar day created
something the world had never
seen before: the high-wage/low Workers at the Ford Motor Company
Rouge Plant Foundry, 1935
skill job.
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
But the new wage-skill
ID#THF68318
relationship had unintended
consequences for employers as
well…
Labor Unions
• Workers had power; if they
felt they were treated unfairly,
they could withhold their
labor and bring a company
or industry to a halt
• When Great Depression
prevented employers from
paying the wages workers
had grown accustomed to,
workers formed unions
• Using strikes, workers
forced employers to sign
written contracts, defining a
new balance of power
between worker and
employer
Union Representatives Handing out
Literature at Ford Rouge Plant,
August, 1937
From the Collections of The Henry
Ford, ID#THF23922
Multiple ways of working existed.
Example:
Japan:
• Flexible work rules
• Workers asked to provide
ideas on improving
process, quality
• Team-based
• Cutting-edge technology
(all factories built/rebuilt
after WWII)
U.S.:
• Unions had firm work
rules
• Management did not ask
workers’ opinions on
improving process and
quality
• Individualistic
• Many factories from turn
of the 20th century
In 21st century, U.S. industries becoming more similar to
Japanese industries
Mechanization
• Manufacturers continue
to innovate assembly
lines by using
machinery to assist
workers
• Machinery good for
repetitive or dangerous
tasks and measuring
quantity
• Human are needed to
innovate the process,
monitor quality, and
take care of machinery
Robot, First Unimate Robot Ever
Installed on an Assembly Line, 1961
From the Collections of The Henry
Ford, ID# THF17594
Globalization
• U.S. manufacturers
compete with
foreign companies
to sell products in
the United States
Advertisement for the 1986 Nissan
Stanza Wagon, "Nissan Innovation
Strikes Again"
From the Collections of The Henry Ford,
ID# THF73709
Globalization
• U.S. companies want people in foreign companies
to buy their cars. It is expensive to ship cars
around the world. Also, the people in these
markets need the money to purchase vehicles, so it
makes sense to employ these potential customers
in automobile factories, as was done with the $5
Day. Therefore factories are moved closer to these
new markets.
• Companies also manufacture overseas to avoid:
– Rules about work set by unions
– Laws about work and pollution
– Taxes
Industrial Work Force
• Auto industry needed many
workers
• Multiple generations of
families are often employed
in auto industry, in both lowskill and skilled jobs
• Whole regions depend on
industry
• Industrial work force has few
options when manufacturing
leaves area
• Today’s migration is FROM
Michigan TO other places
Three generations of this family
work for Ford Motor Company
Portrait of "Multigenerational" Family
of Ford Workers, 2000 From the
Collections of The Henry Ford,
ID#THF68348
Rust Belt to Sun Belt
Migration
• High costs associated
with unions (especially
work rules and
benefits) lead
companies to
manufacture in “right
to work” states
• Some auto plants
move from North to
Southeast
• New auto plants,
especially owned by
foreign companies,
open in Southeast
• People move to follow
jobs
Image Source: The Growth and Distribution of American Cities:
1790 to 2000. U.S. Census Bureau. Available via
http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/maps_1790to2000.html
Rust Belt to Sun Belt
Migration
Image Source: The Growth and Distribution of American Cities:
1790 to 2000. U.S. Census Bureau. Available via
http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/maps_1790to2000.html