If ever you've looked at '68 Mustang production numbers and wondered why they were considerably lower than '67, a lengthy UAW strike in the fall of 1967 answers the question.

Few automakers can say they've experienced the same kind of success Ford has with its sporty Mustang.  With sales figures in excess of 600,000 the first model year, Ford was a force to be reckoned with in the largely untapped pony car market.  In 1967, Chevy introduced Camaro, Pontiac - the Firebird, and Chrysler - an all-new Plymouth Barracuda. A market Mustang enjoyed all to itself was suddenly crawling with tough competition. 

At that, Ford still sold 472,121 Mustang units.  Imagine if there hadn't been competition - likely another 500,000+ unit grand slam for Mustang.

Naturally, you would expect this same kind of success again for '68, but it didn't happen that way.  For '68, Ford produced 317,404 Mustang units - down more than 150,000 units from '67.  Of course competition robbed Ford of Mustang sales no question because Detroit came up with tough challenges for Mustang.  However, a devastating 66-day United Auto Workers (UAW) strike shut all Ford plants down beginning on September 15th ending November 11th.  It wasn't until well into December Ford was back up and running. 

Why so long? Because factories large and small are the sum total of systems that support them.  It takes a lot of fuel - and time - to get huge furnaces and boilers back up to operating temperature when they had to be shut down.  Takes a while for suppliers to get back on the beam.  And, it takes time for plant inventories to get back where they were.

There was never supposed to be a strike, that's the irony.  You'd figure the UAW and Detroit automakers would have figured out a path to peace by now.  The UAW's strategy was to strike one automaker at a time, and that's what they did in the fall of 1967.  They struck Ford that year. 

Ford offered a new three-year contract to its 159,800 UAW members seeking approval of all workers and the unions across the board.  Here's what Ford was offering the UAW - 13-cent an hour raise, then, 2.8% in the next two consecutive years.  A revised cost of living formula.  Better supplemental unemployment insurance benefits.  Income protection for up to five years of disability along with survivor benefits.  Better survivor benefits.  Special pay for those who were more skilled.  Improved hospitalization.  Better retirement pay and benefits.

Ford's offer fell on a dead, cold silence.  Workers elected to stay home.  And a grueling two-month strike continued until mid-November.

The UAW counter offered Ford the following:  Wage increase of 20 cents an hour.  Thirty cents for those who were skilled labor.  Larger pay increases in years two and three.  Higher cost of living increases.  Greater pensions.  Holiday pay with provisions.  Twelve more minutes of relief time for harder jobs.  Improved hospitalization.  Better survivor benefits.     

Despite the strike, Ford dealers elected to promote '68 models anyway on September 22, 1967 - peddling what they had in inventory from both '67 and '68 model years.  When they couldn't sell '68 models, they sold '67s at a discount.  Quite a few '67 Mustangs were sold new that fall.  Ford dealers managed to sell 19,626 new cars and trucks despite the strike that first day.  Dealers had a thirty day supply, but it got darned tight.

On November 17, 1967, Ford called plant workers back to work. The pressure on suppliers was so great the railroads ran out of boxcars to haul components to assembly plants. 

It is believed Ford lost the sale of some 600,000 vehicles in Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury divisions due to the strike.  Mustang took a hard hit from the strike not only in lost sales, but changes to standard equipment and the option sheet.  Color-keyed side markers went from being Mustang specific being shared with the Cougar.  Crash and windshield pillar pads went away.  Disc brakes, once standard with the GT Equipment Group, became optional.  Wheel covers changed from rather elegant pieces to something less.  Cost cutting hurt Ford quality in the months and years to follow as a result of the strike.  In time, UAW union issues became such a huge thorn for Ford that quality suffered well into the 1970s because morale did not improve.  Quality experienced a huge positive turnaround when Ford and the UAW learned how to work together peacefully in the 1980s.  Quality has steadily improved since.