General Motors, At The Dawn Of The UAW

An interesting video that shows both why the UAW was formed and the limitations that ultimately weakened it. Working in an automobile factory was no day at the beach, and the union was formed in reaction to the noise, grinding repetition and danger of factory work. But, listen to the UAW, and you will hear lots of rhetoric about the "dignity" of factory work, which suggests that unionization efforts were driven as much by the desire for respect as anything else. While the UAW could improve the wages and benefits enjoyed by workers, and support politicians who would at least pay lip service to greater workplace safety (through the formation of OSHA), it had a tougher time winning respect for factory workers. Why? Because we respect occupations that are perceived as glamorous (movie actor), require great skill and intelligence to master (brain surgeon) or are a combination of both (airline pilot). Like it or not, most people do not put factory work in those categories. People don't dream of working on the assembly line of an automobile plant. The UAW was able to gain a very comfortable living for its members through collective bargaining, although the oligopoly enjoyed by GM, Ford and Chrysler from about 1950 through 1980 had as much to do with the union's success as anything else. But the real revolution in assembly line work was brought about by the Japanese transplants, who wanted workers who could think on their feet. Today's assembly line workers really do need initiative and smarts to do their jobs effectively. This ain't your father's assembly line... The UAW fought this as long as it could, as it undermined the rigid job classification system and work rules (both of which, ironically enough, were actually invented by management!) built up over the years. Bottom line is that times changed, but the UAW didn't. In some ways, it's about as relevant to today's automobile industry as a 1936 Chevrolet is to today's car buyers.

God almighty!, the mind numbing complexity of building an internal combustion engine from the sand castings up.. and compare that to the simplicity and low tolerances needed for an electric motor. A successful car company today must master the process of making an ICE otherwise there is no hope of making a profit making cars.. contrast this with motors handwound in third world countries, essentially 190 year old technology. I think in the future we will see a lot of small niche electric car manufaturers just buying parts from suppliers and assembling the cars.

Watching this film of 30's automotive manufacturing demonstrates why the unions were needed in the 20's and 30's; mind-numbing repetition and frequently dangerous working conditions. While the UAW was able to improve pay and working conditions for their members, but with the arrival of the Japanese auto plants changed everything. They revolutionized the manufacturing process by doing away with rigid work rules and job classifications. Toyota moves their workers around every four hours to different jobs to improve workers' job skills and help prevent boredom. If the UAW continues to cling to the old "them vs. us" mindset, they are finished.

What fascinated me about the first few minutes of the film was how closely the images matched those of Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" - the scenes of levers being pulled, the dials registering values, and the movement of large machinery was shockingly similar. The other thing I found interesting was how little skilled labor was shown after the first segment on casting - it shows just how much Scientific Management and Fordism had altered the nature of the workplace by the 1930s. As others have already commented, it is no wonder unions proved popular in the mind-numbing assembly line factories of the American auto industry of the 1930s.