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Labor History in Flint

by Liz Svoboda on 2023-10-10T13:46:00-04:00 in History: Local, Library Information: Archives | 0 Comments

With "hot labor summer" extending into the Fall, we're highlighting one of the most significant events in Flint history - the Sit-Down strike. Beginning on December 30, 1936 (following similar strikes in Atlanta, Kansas City, Cleveland, and Detroit) and ending on February 11, 1937, the 44 day strike was in response to General Motors refusing to bargaining with the U.A.W. about issues of safety and pay. The strike is called a sit-down because workers occupied the plants to completely stop work at multiple plants in and around Flint, notably the Fisher body plants along Chevrolet Avenue. Eventually the strike spread nation-wide, with over 100,000 workers on strike. The strike is also notable for several reasons including

  • its length of time the workers occupied the factories - previous sit-down strikes hadn't lasted that long,
  • the role played by the Women's Emergency Brigade which supported the GM workers and families throughout the strike by walking the picket line, creating a shared cafeteria, and most dramatically breaking factory windows to let out tear gas deployed to against the factory workers, and 
  • GM recognized the U.A.W. as the sole bargaining representative for GM members, swelling the ranks of U.A.W. membership.

Want to learn more about the Sit-Down Strike? We have some suggestions.

Cover ArtSit-Down by Sidney Fine

Call Number: HD 8039 .A82 F56 2020 or ebook
In this classic study, Sidney Fine portrays the dramatic events of the 1936-37 Flint Sit-down Strike against General Motors, which catapulted the UAW into prominence and touched off a wave of sit-down strikes across the United States. Basing his account on an impressive variety of manuscript sources, Fine analyzes the strategy and tactics of GM and the UAW, describes the life of the workers in the occupied plants, and examines the troubled governmental and public reaction to the alleged breakdown of law and order in the strikes. In addition, Fine provides vivid portraits of the major figures on both sides of the conflict: Governor Frank Murphy; Alfred Sloan, Jr.; William Knudsen; Robert Travis; Roy, Victor, and Walter Reuther; Homer Martin; and Wyndham Mortimer. The GM sit-down strike marks the close of one era of labor-management relations in the United States and the beginning of another. A half century after its initial publication, Fine's work remains the definitive account of that momentous conflict. A new foreword by Kim Moody's revisits Sit-Down in order to demonstrate its continued relevance to today's unions, workers, and activists.
 

Cover ArtThe Many and the Few by Henry Kraus

Call Number: HD 5325 .A82 1937 .F5 1985
The Many and the Few recounts the dramatic "inside" story of one of the pivotal strikes in American history. For six weeks in 1937, workers at General Motors' Flint, Michigan, plant refused to budge from their sit-down strike. That action changed the course of industrial and labor history, when General Motors finally agreed to recognize the United Auto Workers as the sole bargaining agent in all GM plants. Through it all, UAW activist Henry Kraus was there.
 

Cover ArtMidnight in Vehicle City by Edward McClelland

Call Number: HD 5325 .A82 1936-1937 M43 2021 or ebook
The tumultuous Flint sit-down strike of 1936-1937 was the birth of the United Auto Workers, which set the standard for wages in every industry. Midnight in Vehicle City tells the gripping story of how workers defeated General Motors, the largest industrial corporation in the world. Journalist and historian Edward McClelland brings the action-packed events of the strike back to life--through the voices of those who lived it. In vivid play-by-plays, McClelland narrates the dramatic scenes including of the takeovers of GM plants; violent showdowns between picketers and the police; Michigan governor Frank Murphy's activation of the National Guard; the actions of the militaristic Women's Emergency Brigade who carried billy clubs and vowed to protect strikers from police; and tense negotiations between labor leader John L. Lewis, GM chairman Alfred P. Sloan, and labor secretary Frances Perkins. The epic tale of the strike and its lasting legacy shows why the middle class is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century and will guide our understanding of what we will lose if we don't revive it.
 
Want to hear from the strikers themselves? The Genesee Historical Collections Center hosts the University of Michigan-Flint Labor History Project, an oral history project that interviewed over 170 people including "labor organizers and strike leaders, rank-and-file workers with varying degrees of support for unionization, radicals, community members, policemen, National Guardsmen, and others. For more resources check out our guide to local labor history and visit the Genesee Historical Collections Center.

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