Flint sit-down strike

The 1936–1937 Flint sit-down strike, also known as the General Motors sit-down strike, or the great GM sit-down strike, was a sitdown strike at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, United States. It changed the United Automobile Workers (UAW) from a collection of isolated local unions on the fringes of the industry into a major labor union and led to the unionization of the American automobile industry.[2]

Background

GM employed 208,981 hourly workers before the Great Depression. These workers were paid around $1,195 annually. After the Great Depression jobs were increasing, but GM had 30,000 fewer employees than before the Great Depression. The pay was increasing nationwide in 1936, but at GM the pay was stagnant. Work Progress estimated for a four-person family $1,434.79 was needed. GM's records document that the annual average for full-time workers was $1,200 to $1,300. Additionally, workers were required to work at a faster pace to make up for the loss from the Great Depression.[3]

The United Automobile Workers (UAW) labor union had only just been formed in 1935 and held its first convention in 1936.

The strike

Events forced the union to accelerate its plans when the workers at Cleveland's Fisher Body plant went on strike on December 28, 1936, due to two brothers being fired from the assembly line. The UAW immediately announced that it would not settle the Cleveland strike until it reached a national agreement with GM covering all of its plants. At the same time the union made plans to shut down Fisher #1 in Flint. Genora Johnson Dollinger was one of the main organizers and protesters for the Flint sit-down.[7] Dollinger also organized the all-female Emergency Brigade to protect strikers inside the factory.[8] Robert Travis was the UAW organizer during the strike. On December 30, at 8:00 AM, the union learned that GM was planning to move the dies out of Fisher #1. UAW lead organizer Bob Travis immediately called a lunchtime meeting at the union hall across the street from the plant, explained the situation, then sent the members across the street to occupy the plant. The Flint sit-down strike began.[9]

In a conventional strike, union members leave the plant and establish a picket line to discourage other employees from entering, thus preventing the employer from operating. In a sit-down strike, the workers physically occupy the plant, keeping management and others out. By remaining inside the factory rather than picketing outside it, striking workers prevented owners from bringing strikebreakers to resume production. It was in some ways easier to maintain the morale of participants in a sit-down than in a conventional strike. The strikers were removed from outside pressures and the hostility of the community that their action might have induced. Bad weather did not constitute a problem for sit-downers as it did for the pickets in an outside strike.

The Flint sit-down strikers set up their own civil system within the strike. A mayor and other civic officials were elected by the workers to maintain order within the plant. Departments included Organized Recreation, Information, Postal Service, and Sanitation. All rules were enforced by what was called a "Kangaroo Court" by the workers. Any person who broke the rules was given a trial, and punishments ranged from washing dishes to expulsion from the plant (in the most extreme cases). It was important for the strikers to maintain order in the plant, because if property damage occurred, the Governor would intervene with the National Guard. The civic government also ensured a steady stream of supplies from friendly vendors outside the plant. Most of the meals for the approximately 2,000 workers occupying the plant were provided free of charge by a diner across the street.[10]

Resistance

The police, armed with guns and tear gas, attempted to enter the Fisher Body 2 plant on January 11, 1937. The strikers inside the plant pelted them with hinges, bottles, and bolts, led by Bob Travis and Roy Reuther.[15] They were able to withstand several waves of attack, eventually ending the standoff. The strikers dubbed this "The Battle of Running Bulls", a mocking reference to the police ("bulls"). Fourteen strikers were injured by gunfire during the battle.

At the time, Vice President John Nance Garner supported federal intervention to break up the Flint strike, but this idea was rejected by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The president urged GM to recognize a union so the plants could re-open.

GM obtained a second injunction against the strike on February 2, 1937. GM was granted the injunction by Judge Edward S. Black. Black owned over three thousand shares of GM and was disbarred from the case after the UAW found out about this. The union ignored the order, and spread the strike to Chevrolet Plant #4. To avoid tipping its hand, the union let it be known in the hours before the move that it intended to go after another plant in the complex, changing directions only at the last minute. GM, tipped off by an informant within the UAW, was ready and waiting for the union at the other plant and caught completely off guard at Plant #4. The strike ended after 44 days.

That development forced GM to bargain with the union. John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers and founder and leader of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, spoke for the UAW in those negotiations; UAW President Homer Martin was sent on a speaking tour to keep him out of the way. GM's representatives refused to be in the same room as the UAW's, so Governor Frank Murphy acted as courier and intermediary between the two groups. Murphy sent in the Michigan National Guard, not to evict the strikers, but rather to protect them from the police and corporate strike-breakers. The two parties reached agreement on February 11, 1937, on a one-page agreement that recognized the UAW as the exclusive bargaining representative for GM's employees who were members of the union for the next six months.[16]

Conclusion

The agreement that GM consented to was to rehire workers that were a part of the strike, allow workers to wear buttons and other symbols that represented unions, and granted 6 months of negotiations in the plants that participated in a strike to UAW-CIO.[3]

As short as this agreement was, it gave the UAW instant legitimacy.[9] The workers there also got a 5% increase in pay and were allowed to talk about the union during lunch.[17] The UAW capitalized on that opportunity, signing up 100,000 GM employees and building the union's strength through grievance strikes at GM plants throughout the country. Several participants in the strike, including Charles I. Krause, went on to greater prominence within the union. Other notable participants in the sit-down strike were future D-Day hero and Greco-Roman wrestling champion Dean Rockwell, labor leader and future UAW president Walter Reuther, and the uncle of documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, whose debut feature Roger & Me contains a clip from the strike.

In the next year, UAW membership grew from 30,000 to 500,000 members. Employees of other car manufacturers such as Ford joined, as the entire industry was rapidly unionized. As later noted by the BBC, "the strike was heard 'round the world".[18]

The sit-down strike became a principal weapon of mass organization in the labor industry. Labor workers could unionize regardless of race and education status, creating opportunities for membership agreements, payroll negotiation, and even government protection for workers. The strike gave the workers a newfound confidence to join unions and use their voice.[19]

However, public support for sit-down strikes did not endure. For years, corporate media campaigns consistently excoriated these protests. People either came to agree with that messaging or grew tired of the consistent disruptions caused by the sit-down. In 1939, the United States Supreme Court held in NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. that the NLRB could not protect workers who engaged in sit-down strikes because sit-down strikes were illegal.[20]

title	Flint sit-down strike
date	December 30, 1936 – February 11, 1937
place	Flint, Michigan
result	Recognition of the UAW
side1	United Automobile Workers National Guard
side2	General Motors Flint Police Department
howmany1	136,000+ GM workers‡R1R‡

Flint sit-down strike

Background

The strike

Spread of the strike

Resistance

Conclusion

See also

Further reading

External links

References