What is the Most popular Ford motor?

Bill Ford of Ford Motor Co. who did not take bailout: Labor unions saved Ford in our 'darkest' hour. What do you think of this?

• "When we got into a really tough period, I sat down with Ron and I said, 'You have to help me save the Ford Motor Company so we didn't have to go through bankruptcy, so we didn't have to get a federal bailout,'" Ford said. "And he did that." Ford credited the union with helping his company regain a foothold in the North American market. He added that the UAW helped the entire industry "get back on its feet." http://www.cnbc.com/id/101529786#.

• Answer:

  It is true. When things hung in the balance, the unions proved to be amenable. Although part of that had to do with their weakened position and part of it had to do with their willingness to create a two tier wage system wherein older workers were protected but incoming young workers got a far lower wage rate for the same work. That was an extraordinary action, but in effect it punished the younger workers who are needed to support retiring workers. In effect, it was a transfer of wealth from the poorest demographic to the richest. In terms of Ford, it allowed them to avoid the need for a government bailout. It also showed that the traditional antipathy between labor and management was not baked into the cake, and in fact was historically the exception and not the rule. That rivalry came about because management, for a long time, was willing to agree to union demands and simply pass the costs on to consumers. That worked very well until the 1970s when Japanese, West German and South Korean manufacturers began to get on their feet and cut into not only U.S. international market share, but even domestic market share. At that point a somnambulistic American management woke up and balked at union demands. Not surprisingly the unions were surprised and displeased and we got the massive labor unrest of the 70s. That is until the economy imploded in the 1980-82 double dip recession and the rate of unemployment hit 10.8% - still the highest level we have reached since 1939. (Not even this most recent recession, bad it was, hit that level.) By the time the economy recovered in the 80s, too much market share was lost and the unions - and the U.S. auto industry - have never really recovered. (Union workers in the 1960s made up about 35% of the non-government labor force. It has since fallen to about 7% of the private sector labor force.) Interestingly, the unions were also not always hostile to Republicans. The Teamsters famously endorsed Mr. Reagan twice, and the UAW and the AFL-CIO worked with the Reagan Administration to assist the Solidarity union in Poland in the 80s. (The Reagan Administration also famously negotiated "voluntary trade restraints" with Japan to protect the UAW, its general support of free trade notwithstanding.) In fact, historically, the unions had been strongly anti-communist all through even the 1930s. There is a much more complicated history there then most seem to realize, and the union relationship to management has not always been as hostile as is popularly believed.