Lordstown Revisited: Whatever Happened to those Blue‐collar Blues?

Abstract

“I'll never go back to that zoo!” exclaimed the General Motors Assembly Division's Vice‐President of Manufacturing. He had just toured the Lordstown plant, where he had come under fire from a shower of nuts and bolts accompanied by colourful cat‐calls. This was during the winter of 1971/72, when Lordstown, making the Vega sub‐compact car, was becoming a byword for industrial warfare and worker alienation. Yet at the end of 1976, he did go back. This time he was received with such goodwill that men came off the line to shake his hand. The President of the General Motors Corporation itself then visited the plant, planned to stay for only two hours, but was so impressed with what he saw that he remained for five. A remarkable change had taken place in labour relations at Lordstown, yet it has attracted remarkably little comment. The popular image of Lordstown is still drawn from the acute problem of some six and seven years ago.

Citation

Child, J. (1980), "Lordstown Revisited: Whatever Happened to those Blue‐collar Blues?", Management Research News, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 2-19. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027763