Ford and the UAW have a Better Idea: A Joint Labor-Management Approach to Plant Closings and Worker Retraining

Abstract

Responding to the severe recession in the U.S. automobile industry in the late 1970s, Ford Motor Company and the United Automobile Workers negotiated, as part of their 1982 national agreement, innovative provisions to deal with the problems faced by redundant workers. This article outlines the basic components of the UAW-Ford model for plant closings and describes the implementation of the model at a San Jose site. The UAW-Ford approach is an example of best practice in the area of joint labor-management cooperation when dealing with the human resource problems of a plant closure. Among the lessons learned from the San Jose experience are the value of early advance notice; the importance of an external catalyst and source of technical assistance in getting the program under way and moving in the right direction; the necessity of good union and management leadership; the importance of on-site delivery of services to the displaced workers; the importance of frequent communication with the workers; the value of having a flexible, readily available resource base to underpin the readjustment program; and the employer's sense of responsibility in discharging obligations to the dislocated work force.