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Working Class Manhood

Working Class Manhood. Henry Ford, the Model T and the Five Dollar Day. Fordism: The Five Dollar Day and the Model T Ford. Henry Ford developed the Model T Ford, “the motorcar for the great multitude” around 1908 Standard Design, High Quality, Simple to operate

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Working Class Manhood

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  1. Working Class Manhood Henry Ford, the Model T and the Five Dollar Day

  2. Fordism: The Five Dollar Day and the Model T Ford • Henry Ford developed the Model T Ford, “the motorcar for the great multitude” around 1908 • Standard Design, High Quality, Simple to operate • By 1916, Ford controlled half of world auto production • Demand required high volume production

  3. The Model T: Motorcar for the Great Multitude

  4. Production Principles • Used Frederick Taylor’s Method of Scientific Management • The factory was designed as an integrated system • Work was standardized. Moving assembly line was copied from meatpacking industry (which is a ‘disassembly line’) • The ‘autoworker’ was created.

  5. Assembling Cars before Ford

  6. Ford’s Assembly Line: 1910

  7. Ford’s Assembly Line

  8. Assembly Line

  9. Assembly Line:Joining Engines to Frames, 1914, Highland Park

  10. Ford’s Highland Park Factory

  11. Highland Park Plant

  12. Kenilworth Building, UWM

  13. The Workforce

  14. Problems with the Human Element of Production • Taylor’s methods claimed higher rates of efficiency than Ford achieved. • Ford discovered his “labor problems.” • absenteeism: 10% a day • high quit rate (300% turnover in 1913) • soldiering and output restriction • unionism • immigrant culture

  15. First Attempts at Labor Reform • Creates an employment office • Develops a wage classification system • Institutes a savings and loan system for workers • These reforms don’t achieve necessary improvements. So the alternative…...

  16. Five Dollar Day: 1914 • Prevailing auto worker wage was $2.40 /day • Ford promises $5.00/day if one ‘qualified.’ • How did one qualify? Through an investigation of one’s home life by the “Sociological Department.” • Marriage proved • “Good home conditions” • Good personal habits • Demonstrated thrift • If single, must be age 22, for ‘profits’

  17. Questions: paternalism .vs individual liberty • Can one’s employer enforce living arrangements off the job? • Can one’s employer demand alteration of religious practices? • Can one’s employer demand particular family arrangements of workers?

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