This series contains one of the best and most complete collections of materials on worker dislocation and plant closings resulting from structural changes in the American economy. It could be of inestimable value to scholars and researchers and anyone wanting to know about worker adjustment programs or large-scale worker displacement and its impact on individuals and communities and learn how public policy to deal with these issues in America has been fashioned during the past quarter century, especially as the country continues to deal with these same problems today and will in the future. Dr. Hansen accumulated this extensive collection of materials about worker dislocation and plant closings through his active participation in regional and national responses to formulate adjustment policies and programs to address the problems.

Beginning in the late 1970s, faculty members and graduate students at Utah State University were among the first to conduct research and demonstrate how dislocated workers and plant closings affected workers and communities in the mining and sugar refining industries in Utah and neighboring states.

In the early 1980s, worker dislocation resulting from mass layoffs and plant closings became a national concern in America and elicited a number of private and public responses. Subsequently, research on plant closings and worker dislocation expanded throughout the entire country and eventually led to the passage of national legislation: the Economic Dislocation and Worker Adjustment Assistance Act (EDWAAA).

In early 1983, Dr. Hansen was asked by the Ford Motor Company and the United Auto Workers Union to document the closing of the San Jose Assembly Plant in California and the Sheffield Aluminum Casting Plant in Alabama. The adjustment assistance and training programs they provided to displaced Ford workers at these two plants was among the most effective and successful carried out in the United States and served as a model of how this process should be done. The documents and materials collected and reports resulting from these projects are in this section.

In 1985, Professor Hansen served on the U.S. Secretary of Labor's Task Force to study worker dislocation in America and to recommend what should be done to address and ameliorate this problem. After a year of work, the Task Force completed its deliberations and submitted its report. The recommendations of the Task Force were subsequently incorporated into the EDWAAA legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. All of the documents, materials and papers that were part of Prof. Hansen's work on this task force are included in this section.