Ford ruthlessly opposed unions.

Ford banned his workers from joining the United Automobile Workers Union (UAW).  He hired enforcers and spies to prevent unionization and in 1937 this caused the "Battle of the Overpass." 

The brutal "Battle of the Overpass":

"Seven times they raised me off the concrete and slammed me down on it. They pinned my arms . . . and I was punched and kicked and dragged by my feet to the stairway, thrown down the first flight of steps, picked up, slammed down on the platform and kicked down the second flight. On the ground they beat and kicked me some more. . . "  - Walter Reuther, UAW organizer, who was beaten at the Battle of the Overpass

In 1941, Ford finally allowed workers to join the UAW.