"You are a member of the United Auto
Workers, a small but ambitious union. There is talk among the membership
that the time is right to make a push for full unionization of the massive
car companies. Others say it is an impossible task, especially with
unemployment still very high. Your union leaders are talking about
starting strikes at car plants in order to unionize them. What do
you think of this? Is the time right? Are you willing to go on strike,
possibly losing the job you so dearly clung to during the depression (www.uaw.org)?"
This is the dilemma the employees at the Flint, Michigan plant were facing.
"We were a pretty good
bunch of guys in those days. No Seniority. No Union.
No Contract. No Committeeman. No Pay. No Nothing but
work, work, work, and more work. There wasn't a war on then, but
we worked 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. Absenteeism was unheard
of. Failure to report to work cost you your job ("Whadda Yuh Mean,
Tough Cookies," The Searchlight, Jan. 29, 1944, p.2)." Work conditions
were terrible for most employees after the depression. Especially
at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan. The employees depended
so mush on their job that the company ran their lives. Eighty percent
of the population in Flint, Michigan were directly dependent on General
Motors and the other twenty percent were indirectly dependent. In
this town every city official: the mayor, city manager, police chief, and
the judges, were either GM stockholders, GM officials, or both. GM
owned the only local newspaper. The GM Corporation ran the town and
the people in the town. "One company more that any other, General
Motors can be singled out as 'the key to the organization of the auto workers'
because it was the largest manufacturer in the industry, and the largest
manufacturing corporation in the work, and was the first to be organized
(http://webmap.missouri.edu/mapbest/97020916/e.flint.html)."
Something needed to be
done. Working conditions were horrendous. In 1936 the United
Auto Workers (UAW) sent a representative to Flint, Michigan. Workers
began to wonder about what would happen if they did organize. This
is the dilemma that the employees had to deal with that is mentioned previously.
As a defense to this unionizing GM tried to introduce company unions known
as Works Councils. Individual grievances were introduced, however
workers began to find the Works Councils generally sided with management,
and again the workers felt powerless. Without GM recognizing the
union there was nothing they could do to help the situation. The
problem was not just happening in Flint, but all over. General Motors
was a worldwide company. On November 18, 1936 the GM employees in
Atlanta sat down. They continued by themselves for 27 days and then
in December, the Kansas City plant sat down. Then simultaneously
the plant in Cleveland, then Flint sat down. On December 30, 1936,
management in the Fisher II factory in Flint, Michigan attempted to release
three UAW members. The employees then sat down. 140,000 of
the 150,000 GM worker were on strike. Over 18 plants were shut down.
The GM employees demanded recognition of the union and they wanted a national
auto contract. Because of the importance of the plant in Flint, Michigan,
attention was focused on them. Out side the plant, hundreds of people
picketed all hours of the day to protect the sit-down strikers. The
women of the community helped tremendously. They provided food for
the strikers, helped to organize the picketing, and they carried baseball
bats and other homemade weapons to keep the police who shot tear gas and
shot-gun bullets into the plant and at the supporters outside of the plant.
These women played a very important role because GM's only plan was to
freeze and starve out the strikers.
On January 3,1937, UAW
delegates from all over met in Flint, Michigan to create a Board of Strategy.
Kermit Johnson, a rank and file auto worker at the Chevrolet Engine Plant,
was elected as the head of the Board of Strategy. These delegates
authorized a company wide strike. They also created eight demands.
These include: that representatives from the UAW and GM meet to discuss
differences, the abolishment of piece work and strait hourly rates, thirty
hour weeks and six hour days with time and a half overtime, a minimum wage
that goes with the American standard of living, the UAW be recognized,
and the speed of production must be mutually agreed upon by management
and the union committee.
Finally, on February
11, 1937, after 44 days, the GM management gave in. "For 44 days,
from December 39, 1936 to February 11, 1937, the GM workers fought the
corporation in a great sit-down struggle, centered in Flint, to test whether
a union could or could not exist in General Motors. In this test,
GM employed every tactic its strength and cunning could devise, including
full use of every level of government it controlled. The workers
employing the tactic of the sit-down to a degree unequalled in the country's
history, met attack with counter attack, took the offensive and finally
emerged in victory (http://webmap.missouri.edu/mapbest/97020916/e.flint.html)."
The workers had gained a union contract and the pay for employees increased
by three million dollars that year. As a result of this victory,
Ford and Chrysler soon became unionized. "The victorious Flint sit-down
strike broke the back of the open shop. Sit-down strikes swept the
country (http://webmap.missouri.edu/mapbest/97020916/e.flint.html)."
The sit down strike became
a great advantage for unions in the United States. It prevented the
use of scabs to operate the factory when the workers are on strike, since
the strikers guard all the machines. The companies were reluctant
to use violence to break the strikes because of the property belonging
to the company that may have been damaged. It was also more difficult
to pick out faces of the strikers while they were inside. It was
a lot easier on the workers when they were involved in a sit-down strike
compared to a picketing strike. They knew for sure there were no
scabs doing and taking their jobs. They were always inside which
protected them from weather. The introduction of the sit-down strike
did wonders for unions in the United States, especially the UAW.