Dan Forchione was an active member of the UAW from the 1940s until his retirement in 1988. He helped organize UAW Local 542 at the Ford Motor Company forge plant in Canton, Ohio, in the 1940s and served as the Local’s president and bargaining committee chairperson. In 1954 he was appointed an International representative and assigned to the UAW Ford Department staff. He transferred to the UAW Region 2 staff in 1957 and serviced local unions around Ohio. Forchione was elected director of UAW Region 2 and served from 1968 to 1970. He returned to the National Ford Department in the 1970s and served as administrative assistant under UAW vice-presidents Ken Bannon, Donald Ephlin, and Stephen Yokich from 1974 until the 1980s. In this role he was deeply involved in collective bargaining, contract negotiations and union membership, leading the UAW bargaining team in the 1980s in negotiations over job security, profit sharing and worker participation in management.

These papers reflect Forchione’s work primarily in the UAW National Ford Department, but also his work with local unions in Ohio and UAW Region 2. There are records, notes and correspondence from contract negotiations beginning in the 1950s, with the bulk in the 1970s-1980s. There are many documents on the history of specific local unions, the UAW and Ford Motor Company, as well as records of union arbitration cases.