A repost from CL-

Ford's labor philosophy:
Henry Ford was a pioneer of "welfare capitalism" designed to improve the lot of his workers and especially to reduce the heavy turnover that had many departments hiring 300 men a year to fill 100 slots. Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best workers. On January 5, 1914, Ford announced his five-dollar a day program. The revolutionary program called for a reduction in length of the workday from 9 to 8 hours, a 5 day work week, and a raise in minimum daily pay from $2.34 to $5 for qualifying workers, way above prevailing wages of the day.[6] Ford never favored the union movements of the day and had a policy of fighting "fire with fire" by hiring his own thugs to fight the union thugs as they tryed strong arm tactics to unionize everything and everybody for control. Union dues brought power, power brought members, members brought votes, votes brought back alley deals favorable to union goals. Henry Ford brought more high standards of better living to the middle class than any union organization. These,groups have always tryed to take credit, for items that Ford was responsble for gaining for the American worker, it still goes on today.

Ford had been criticized by Wall Street for starting the 40 hour work week and a minimum wage. He proved, however, that paying people more would enable Ford workers to afford the cars they were producing, and therefore be good for the economy. Ford labeled the increased compensation as profit-sharing rather than wages. The wage was offered to men over age 22, who had worked at the company for 6 months or more, and, importantly, conducted their lives in a manner of which Ford's "Sociological Department" approved. They frowned on heavy drinking and gambling. The Sociological Department used 150 investigators and support staff to maintain employee standards; a large percentage of workers were able to qualify for the profit-sharing.

Ford was adamantly against labor unions in his plants. To forestall union activity, he promoted Harry Bennett, a former Navy boxer, to be the head of the Service Department. Bennett employed various intimidation tactics to squash union organizing. The most famous incident, in 1937, was a bloody brawl between company security men and organizers that became known as "The Battle of the Overpass." Ford had great ideas of expanding the Ford Motor Company into an International global power. Ford had business dealings with many world leaders as he made Ford a strong employer of Americas middle class. He has been unfairly tagged as dealing with Hitler as he expanded his operations into Germany (something many U.S. companies were doing at the time) but all of these contracts and expansion efforts were BEFORE Hitler went rogue and attempted to take over the world. If Ford can be slapped for his companies growth efforts so can dozens and dozens of U.S.companies existing today, includung General Motors.

Ford was the last Detroit automaker to recognize the United Auto Workers union (UAW). A sit-down strike by the UAW union in April 1941 closed the River Rouge Plant. Under pressure from Edsel, Henry Ford finally agreed to collective bargaining at Ford plants, and the first contract with the UAW was signed in June 1941.