Word: fordisms
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...Benevolent Manufacturing State was the self-funded, full-employment, womb-to-tomb society - for autoworkers, auto executives, their families and their communities - that Henry Ford began in 1914 when he hiked the prevailing $3-a-day wage to $5. "Fordism" outraged capitalists; Ford viewed it as a way to make cars affordable to working people. His people. The industry sputtered during the Depression, an era that gave rise to the unions, but was revived by wartime production as Detroit's manufacturing capacity became a vital weapon in the Allies' arsenal. Detroit reshaped America, spurring a great migration from the South...
...also shaved an hour off the workday. In those years it was unthinkable that a guy could be paid that much for doing something that didn't involve an awful lot of training or education. The Wall Street Journal called the plan "an economic crime," and critics everywhere heaped "Fordism" with equal scorn...
That morning Reuther and his colleagues suspected the day's events could escalate into something historic as they prepared to hand out organizing leaflets (slogan: "Unionism, Not Fordism") to the plant's workers. Reuther had put on his Sunday suit, complete with vest, gold watch and chain. He had invited newspapermen, priests and local officials to be witnesses...
...across the street to street car tracks-at the No. 4 gate of Henry Ford's great River Rouge plant. The union had opened its Ford campaign by hiring two vacant bank buildings near the plant, as headquarters. Next step was to print handbills calling for "Unionism not Fordism," demanding a basic $8, six-hour day for workers, better not only than Ford's present $6, eight-hour day, but better than the terms obtained from any other motor company. Third step was to distribute the handbills to the 9,000 River Rouge workmen...
Then the Labor Board started to draw from a long procession of onetime Ford employes their story of Fordism v. Unionism. In as well as out of the River Rouge plant, Mr. Bennett's service men were the villains. They could be spotted, said the witness, by their broken noses, cauliflower ears and the fact that they never worked, only watched. One of their jobs was to enforce Ford's rigid rule against talking on the job. Another was to see that the men maintained their pace. Witness after witness told how he had been suddenly taken from...