Front Flap Ford Motor Company's discrimination
lawsuits, financial setbacks and the huge drop in the value of its stock in 2002 should
serve as a warning to the nation. Bleeding Ford Blue is Jasper Garrison's inside story of
what happed to bring Ford so close to disaster, what it means to you and why you haven't
heard about it until now. Everyone knows that it's
self-defeating for corporations like the Big Three automakers to practice age, race and
sex discrimination. That's the reason that many people advance for ending affirmative
action. They argue that business leaders have learned that hiring and promoting the best
people they can find of any age, color or sex is the best way to make money. Others see an
ongoing problem with illegal discrimination in the workplace but make the mistake of
defending laws to curb the practice on the grounds of fairness to the affected groups.
What both sides of the argument fail to appreciate is the extent to which illegal
discrimination in companies like Ford, GM and Chrysler is a fact of life that adds to your
cost of a new car and imperials the entire economy. Before the Civil Rights act of 1964
less than one percent of the Big Three's designers, engineers and sculptors were black. It
took the women's movement of the early '70s to open the doors of these professions to
women. In the closing years of the 20th century women and black people seemed
to be everywhere in the auto-making process judging by their exposure in slick TV
commercials. Rear Flap Meanwhile, some of the white male
benefactors of the pre-affirmative action system, were being downgraded on their
performance reviews and offered special packages to retire. These men who sued Ford in a
highly publicized "reverse discrimination" case received generous settlements
totaling ten million dollars. Older blacks and older women received the same treatment in
disproportionate numbers. A lawsuit filed by older whites, blacks, men and women, which
received less publicity but affects more people, alleged only age discrimination. That was
the case that Ford chose to fight with a virtual blackout on news coverage. Ford's goal was to reduce its overall
salary costs by bringing more of its high-salaried workers down to the industry midpoint.
Ford pursued this course despite the fact that it had a well-earned reputation for
recruiting the best talent available and a salaried workforce that was older than the
industry average. Outside analysts looked at the number
of Ford's salaried workers with high performance ratings and concluded that the overall
ratings must have been inflated. The fact that these analysts knew nothing of the business
or the people involved did not stop Ford from imposing an arbitrary percentage of high and
low performers. Lower overall performance reviews meant lower overall salaries and lower
salaries seemed to mean higher profits. The value of that kind of accounting
is summed up in a 1990 exchange between two of Ford's Design Center employees who were not
designated top performers. Jasper Garrison was a mid-level clay modeler who had just
single-handedly rescued Motor Trend's 1993 Car
of the Year from oblivion. Kathleen Dalessandro was a low-level engineer
Mr. Garrison: "What did you do
today, Kathleen?" Ms. Dalessandro: "I found a way to
save the company five million dollars."
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Jasper Garrison was Chrysler's third black clay modeler. He was
American Motors' first black modeler and Ford's first black Master Modeler. He was one of
two African-Americans who pressed a ten-year legal battle against Ford for race
discrimination. He is the author of seven books: Invisible
Warriors, The Random Factor, Doing Without, Messiah, Iago
in Brentwood, The Smoking Gun and The Smoking Gun 2. All of Jasper Garrison's books
can be read online at