Ford Builds the Buffalo Stamping Plant...
After World War II Both the UAW and Ford Motor Company emerged stronger than they were before war. There now were over 1,300,000 UAW members. Ford Motor Company was saved by the work the war provided and the enormous military budget.
On July 6, 1949 Ford Motor Company announced its plans to build a Stamping Plant on 118 acres on Lake Shore Boulevard in Woodlawn. Promises to expand the operations and buy steel from Bethlehem Steel sealed the deal. Construction started in late summer. It cost $30 million to build. It was originally built to employ 3500 hourly workers and 300 salary personal, and was to run 19 press lines.
Construction lasted throughout the winter months. 900 workers were involved in the construction. Weather delayed construction and postpones the installation of the first press line. The presses arrived before construction was completed. The company scheduled installation of the first press line for the early part of the summer so production could start in July. It wasn’t October 29, 1950 that Ford announced 3 of the 19 press lines would be in operations. There would be 2 shifts and 450 hourly workers to start operations. It was planned that by the spring of 1951 the plant would reach 60% of its capacity and full capacity within the year.
The company still needed 3000 workers. Their hiring policies dictated where many of its new employees came from and that was outside the Buffalo area. Ford ignored the local laborers that were in place during the war. Ford Motor Company refused to hire women. They had no problem hiring Afro-Americans, however they were hired as cleaners only. Ford Motor Company tried to discourage these workers from bidding on better paying jobs.
The company went to Catholic Charities to find displaced European to recruit for work. The company used its connections with religious organizations as a way to discipline the workforce. If a worker violated work rules he suffered consequences in both places. The Company constantly worked on ways to divide the work force in an effort to keep the plant non-union. The Company then hired “upgraders” to fill skilled trade vacancies. They had some experience in a trade, but not a journeyman’s card. The Company was in a rush and had the workers work so much overtime without the proper training that it led to significant quality problems. It took a year before quality was back to Ford standards.
The plant opened on a non-union basis. The company hired a very diverse work force with nontraditional skilled trade’s classifications and hired “upgraders” to divide the workforce. Ford wanted to cause problems between the workers and keep the union out.