nd then turned its attention to the only remaining target, the Ford company. It took four years for the UAW under the leadership of Walter Reuther to get Ford to agree to a contract. It also took the full power of the federal courts to change the minds of industry.
Yates further notes that the history of the organization since has been a history of wild pendulum swings of power, of prejudicial acts on both sides, and of selfish and essentially self-destructive policies. By 1978 the union had reached the height of its power with 760,000 members, but there was an internal weakness in this power: "it had too long pursued a policy of demanding more pay for less work, a stance which would contribute to the destruction of the industry" (246). Detroit had long lived in an environment of constant bargaining based on respective claims of poverty by both labor and management. This battle had evolved out of the refusal by both sides to accept an
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