The United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) union is one of the most powerful in labor history.  Its formation in 1935 has changed the face of labor relations in the United States.  Not only is the UAW involved in labor relations, it was a major factor in fighting Communist control in the United States and the world during World War II, involved in developing affirmative action programs concerning women and African American workers, and influenced national politics.  As you will see, the UAW is a force that grew out of discontent with work issues to become one of the largest and most diverse unions in North America (www.uaw.org).

The UAW was established through a merger of the Federal unions (new industrial unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL)) in 1935.  Becoming disenchanted with the AFL's lack of support, the UAW broke off in 1936 under the leadership of George Addes, Richard Frankensteen, Homer Martin and Walter Reuther and joined the Committee for Industrial Organization (C.I.O).  The first struggle of this new union (UAW) was during 1936.  The autoworkers had many grievances.  Even though they earned high hourly wages, seasonal layoffs reduced their annual income to low levels.  Also, since an assembly line method was used to produce the product, they worked under a "speed-up" that caused unbearable pressure (Rayback 352).  With approximately 300,000 members, the UAW demanded recognition from General Motors Corporation (GM), Chrysler, and Ford.  But, these companies defied the Wagner Act and refused to acknowledge them and consider collective bargaining.  William S. Knudsen, the VP of General Motors suggested if the workers had any grievances, they should be discussed with the local plant managers.   This infuriated the members at the Flint, MI plant who decided to do something about it (Renshaw 27).

Flint was considered a "company" town and the birthplace of GM.  On December 29, 1936 the union shut down the Fisher Body plant, one of five GM plants in the town.  There were 7,300 workers at this plant that supplied the bodies for the Buick division of cars (Zieger 46).  Instead of walking out, the workers sat down.  This sit-down became a famous episode in the history of the union and labor relations in general.  The UAW members held the Flint plants for six weeks led by Homer Martin, the union President.  Since the workers occupied the building, management was unable to bring in temporary or scab workers to perform their duties.  The plant was effectively shut down with no production to be completed.  Also, management was unable to bring in police, armed troops or other help to disband the strikers because they would take a chance on having their equipment and building damaged in the process (Petra Press 52).  General Motors stated that this act was an unlawful invasion of property rights and demanded the immediate ejection of the strikers from the plant (Rayback 353).  A court injunction failed which forced GM to consider other methods of ejection.  Company guards turned off the heat in the plant (it was 16 degrees outside) and refused to allow food to be brought in to the strikers.  On January 11, 1937 the strikers forced open the factory gates to allow food to be brought in.  This prompted the GM management to call in the police for help.  Using tear gas, billy clubs, and guns they stormed the plant.  The strikers turned them away by spraying them with fire hoses and throwing two-pound car hinges at them.  The police and sheriff's deputies attempted three separate times to drive out the strikers, to no avail (Petra Press 54).  These retreats came to be known as the "Battle of the Running Bulls" (Rayback 354).

Early in February 1937 General Motors was able to get a court order to remove the strikers from their plant.  A deadline of February 3rd was given as the date by which they had to be evacuated.  But the strikers stated that they were determined "to make General Motors Corporation obey the law and engage in collective bargaining"  (quoted in Rayback 354).  Frank Murphy, the Governor of Michigan who was sympathetic to the strikers and wanted no bloodshed, suggested that a conference be called with Knudsen (GM's VP) and John L. Lewis (he led the group that formed the C.I.O. and became its President) to begin negotiations for peace (Zieger 44).   The deadline date came and went without an agreement.  President Roosevelt stepped in the following day and pressured for the talks to continue.  It took a week, but finally an agreement was reached between GM and the UAW (Renshaw 28).

General Motors agreed to recognize the U.A.W. as the bargaining agent for the autoworkers.  They also agreed to drop the injunctions against the strikers (for taking over the plants), take up such grievances as the production line speed-up and to make no discrimination against union members in its hiring policy.  This was not a complete victory for the union, but it was the first step towards the union's conquest of the auto industry (Rayback 354).  The UAW did not achieve exclusive representation rights, but GM agreed not to bargain with any other organizations during the term of the new agreement.  Also, the settlement did not provide any form of union security for the workers.  But most importantly, it did achieve the fundamental right to organize and bargain collectively in one of the largest multinational business enterprises in the world).  The repercussions of this action spread throughout the country.  A wave of unionism and strikes began (Renshaw 29).  Approximately 10% of the 47,000 workers in the Flint plants were members of the UAW at the beginning of this conflict, but this work stoppage brought in thousands of new recruits from all of the plants in the city (Zieger 46).   The steel industry was the first to react to the news of conflict.  US Steel signed an agreement with Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) as their bargaining agent.  They were able to negotiate a settlement with management without a strike.  Over one hundred other independent steel companies followed and by May, 1937 SWOC had over 300,000 members.  These victories were decisive landmarks in labor history.  Historian Sydney Fine declared that the GM sit-down strike was "the most significant American labor conflict in the twentieth century" (quoted in Zieger 48).  The nation's two greatest open-shop industries ? GM and US Steel ? had fallen to their respective unions (Renshaw 29).  This tactic was used to organize Chrysler workers as well as the glass, rubber, and textile industries.  Industrial unionization had been achieved.  By 1938, the CIO membership reached 3.7 million workers (Fossum 43).

During the time of this history-making strike, another issue was beginning to surface in the industry.  African American workers were being excluded from unionization.  They saw the labor movement as an enemy, but praised Henry Ford who provided industrial jobs to Detroit-area workers (it must be noted that at this time Ford was not a union organization).  Traditionally, African American workers were hired to "break" strikes and therefore were subject to the union's criticism.  Eventually their presence in the union was seen as vital to its growth (Zieger 52).  This began the union's involvement in the affirmative action movement.  Not only was the union concerned with the African American worker, it became disturbed by the way women workers in the country were treated.  Today the UAW is committed to diversity and full participation within its union locals and in society as a whole.  Women and people of color are growing in the roles of leadership and staff positions within the union movement.  To promote diversity, the union movement supports these groups that are developing new leaders while building ties to the communities to ensure that their concerns are at the top of the union's labor agenda.  The union is also promoting diversity through collective bargaining, education, outreach programs, mentoring and representation (www.uaw.org).

The World War II years brought another issue to the forefront of the UAW concerns.  American Communists began what became political problems within the United States and the union.  They defended Soviet work ethics and more importantly Soviet alliance with Germany.  They were against labor's efforts to support Great Britain against Germany with a military buildup.  Leaders of the American Communists began to call for unceasing militancy within the various unions in the country, not just the UAW.  They were against the moderate unionists whom they considered "stooges of the war-hungry Roosevelt administration" (Zieger 72).  John L. Lewis, the President of the CIO at the time, was also opposed to Roosevelt.   Lewis and the American Communists became allies in the fight against the unions' intended obligation to support the war effort by increasing defense production.  Lewis began to shield the Communists as they agitated members of various unions to strike the defense industry.  The North American Strike (North American Aviation was the nation's largest supplier of fighter aircraft) was thwarted by the UAW's support of the Roosevelt decision to send in federal troops to end the strike that was begun by a UAW local in which the Communists played an integral role.  On June 22, 1941, Hitler attacked the Soviet Union.  Almost overnight, the American Communists abandoned their earlier stance and became staunch supporters of beefed-up military production.   They also became eager to stamp out labor militancy (Zieger 72).

In 1943, the women's equality issue came into play within the UAW.  Union President R. J. Thomas stated that substandard pay for women workers was " a women's problem".  This comment was contradictory to the stance of the UAW taken previously concerning equal wages for all of its workers, as well as its 250,000 women dues payers.  Discriminatory company regulations against women also went unchecked by the union.  Women workers began to fight back and eventually the UAW established a Women's Bureau.  The bureau fought for equal pay contracts and government legislation to combat discrimination against women (Zieger 79). Labor did little to organize women workers in other sectors because of the conservative consensus after the war.  This conservatism not only perpetuated women's status as marginal workers, but also helped to slow down the labor movement itself.  Women union members comprised only 1/6 of all union memberships in 1957.  During the 1960's and 1970's women's struggle with these issues throughout the country transformed politics and exposed the limitations of organized labor (Renshaw 154).  Women no longer supported the labor effort.  Women's issues within the UAW and other unions helped to lead to the collapse of the growth and power of labor unions within the United States.

After 1970 union membership began to decline.  Between 1978 and 1991, the UAW lost 659,000 members.  This was in part due to stalemated organizing initiatives, deteriorating contracts, women's issues and growing antagonism towards unions by politicians, employers, and working people themselves (Zieger 193).  The U.S. economy was failing due to the influx of international competition with American-made goods.  Plants were closing putting union (and non-union) workers out of jobs.  Workers observed the union as the problem, not part of the solution.  In Tennessee during 1989, a UAW organizing campaign at a new Nissan plant ended in overwhelming defeat.  Anti-union workers at the plant were seen celebrating this defeat by dancing and singing, wearing company shirts, and waving banners that read "Union Free and Proud" (Zieger 197).

Today's UAW is much different than what it was when it began in 1935.  It is now known as the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America.  It is one of the largest with members in virtually every sector of the economy.  The UAW represents workers in multinational corporations, small manufacturing plants, state and local governments, colleges and universities, hospitals, and private non-profit organizations.  There are approximately 710,000 active members in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.  There are more than 950 locals with contracts with nearly 3,200 employers (www.uaw.org).

Among some of the advances due to the collective bargaining efforts by the UAW over the years are:

1. The first employer-paid health insurance plan for industrial workers
2. The first cost-of-living allowances
3. Landmark job and income security provisions
4. Comprehensive training and educational programs (www.uaw.org)

The UAW is committed to improving the lives of working men and women.  It has actively participated in many legislative steps throughout the years.  Among those that have passed are the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Restoration Act of 1988, Medicare and Medicaid, Occupational Safety and Health Act, Employee Retirement Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.  The union is also fighting for better schools, secure health care and pensions for retirees, clean air and water, tougher workplace health and safety standards, stronger worker's compensation and unemployment insurance laws and fairer taxes (www.uaw.org).

What began as a group of a few members working to improve their working conditions in a Flint, MI plant has blossomed into an organization with strong aspirations to help all workers in all sectors.  American labor owes much to the committed men and women of this union.  Without their insight and continued effort towards changing the way business is conducted, much of what we have today as a nation would not be available.
 
 

Works Cited

Bronfenbrenner, Kate, et al, ed.  Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies.  Ithaca:
ILR Press, 1998.

Fossum, John A.  Labor Relations: Development, Structure, Process.  8th ed. Burr Ridge:
McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2002.

Petra Press.  A Cultural History of the United States Through the Decades: The 1930's.  San
Diego: Lucent Books, Inc. 1999.

Photo:  Sit-down Strike in Flint, MI.  Petra Press.  A Cultural History of the United States Through the Decades: The 1930's.  San
Diego: Lucent Books, Inc. 1999.

Rayback, Joseph G.  A History of American Labor.  New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc.
1959.

Renshaw, Patrick.  American Labor and Consensus Capitalism, 1935 ? 1990.  Jackson:
University Press of Mississippi.

UAW.  9-26-02.  <http://www.uaw.org/>.

UAW Banner.  UAW.  9-26-02.  <http://www.uaw.org/>.

Zieger, Robert H.  American Workers, American Unions.  2nd ed.  Baltimore: The John Hopkins
University Press.  1994.
 
 

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