A Decade of Turmoil...
In 1970 Walter and May Reuther died in an airplane crash. Walter Reuther was the best there was when it came to being a leader for the American labor movement. His vision was the strength of labor leaders everywhere. He worked to better the lives of all humanity. It was a sad time for all those that admired and respected him.
In 1971 Bill Adams was reelected. There was a mix of political winners. With opposition within the union leadership, there was an effort to remove Adams from office, saying that he violated the code of ethics in the UAW constitution. The international became involved, Adams never stood trail and the issue changesthe way the UAW governed itself.
In the early 1970’s Ford lost a discrimination case and had to hire women right into the regular work force. There were no women’s facilities available for the women. Men were also reluctant to help the women. The men made it clear that women had to work equally to get equal pay. Their ability to do the work earned the respect of many but there was still a discrimination problem for them. The UAW encouraged women to become involved so the Women’s Committee was formed. The local insisted on women having access to all the jobs in the plant.
There was little attention paid to ergonomics at this time. In the 1980’s ergonomics became an important factor to prevent repetitive motion injuries. Gloves were an ergonomic problem for workers with smaller hands. It generated grievances. Health and safety continued to be a problem. The principle issue now wasnoise abatement. Again the company was slow to move on this issue so the membership local authorized another strike. The vote alone had the company moving on the issue and a strike was averted.
The local wanted to elect their health and safety representative, the International agreement was to appoint that representative. After the local elected their representative, Local 897 asked for their elected representative to be their appointed representative. Although it violated the national agreement, the compromise was made to keep peace between the international ad the local.
In 1973 Buffalo Stamping plant was the world’s largest stamping plant. Because BSP was so critical to Ford’s production, the last thing Ford wanted was another strike. There were great strides made locally at this time. The national contract won dental benefits and another holiday. There was also modification of voluntary overtime. The local agreement had a clause that the workers could refuse overtime, the national agreement restricted that opportunity. This among other issues caused tense relations between the local and the international union.
With OPEC boycotting the countries that supported Israel, economic disaster struck. Car sales plummeted. Ford started to layoff hourly workers. It was a long hard winter for the workers and their families. The workers returned to work slowly and started to rebuild their membership.
In 1976 Local 897 joined Ford UAW members in another strike. A settlement came within a month. The UAW won 12 Paid Personal Holidays over the 3 year agreement, vision benefits, a hearing aid program and an appointed full time benefits representative. Employment continued to recover in 1977 & 1978. There were over 6100 workers in December of 1978. Seniority issues still plagued the workers and the union. The union continued to fight to save the workers rights. The inverse seniority provision was abenefit that was won and was a way to help protect the less senior workers.
In 1978 Nick LaRosa was elected as president. He was an officer for 9 nine years previous to his presidency. Inflation was continuing to rise and gasoline prices shot up again. The plant population went down to 3600 by December of 1979.
The next contract still contained many improvements. Labor relations improved and a National Joint Committee on Employee Involvement was established. The contract was ratified in spite of continuing layoffs. In January of 1980 BSP was shut down temporarily. Automation flooded the plant and fewer workers returned to work