The flint sit down strike. Black History Month 2022-10-24
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The Flint Sit-Down Strike was a pivotal moment in American labor history that took place in 1936 at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan. The strike was organized by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union and led by union activists such as Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen.
The strike began on December 30, 1936, when a group of workers at the Fisher Body plant in Flint occupied the factory in protest of their working conditions and the company's refusal to recognize the UAW as their bargaining representative. The workers were supported by thousands of other workers at the plant, as well as by other UAW members and supporters from around the country.
The strike was met with strong resistance from General Motors, which hired strikebreakers and used violence and intimidation to try to break the strike. However, the workers remained resolute and held out for 44 days, despite being subjected to harsh winter weather and difficult living conditions.
The strike finally ended on February 11, 1937, when General Motors agreed to recognize the UAW as the exclusive bargaining representative for its workers. This was a major victory for the UAW and marked the beginning of a long and successful relationship between the union and the company.
The Flint Sit-Down Strike had far-reaching consequences for the labor movement in the United States. It demonstrated the power of workers to stand up for their rights and to use nonviolent tactics to achieve their goals. It also led to the growth and development of the UAW, which became one of the most influential and successful unions in the country.
In conclusion, the Flint Sit-Down Strike was a turning point in American labor history that had a lasting impact on the rights and working conditions of workers in the United States. It was a testament to the determination and perseverance of the workers who participated in the strike, and it helped to pave the way for a more just and equitable society.
The Flint sit
The sit-down strike was considered the first major win for unionization in America. But it is relevant and enlightening as a bare outline and guide to how the workers can fight today to extend their rights to include the right to seize and occupy the plants. Rasputin, a Siberian-born muzhik, or peasant, who. The former occurred January 11 when city police in riot gear tried to storm the weakly-held Fisher 2 plant. They were able to withstand several waves of attack, eventually ending the standoff.
According to historian Timothy P. . The union is so weak, politically, that it could not stop the Michigan legislature from passing a right-to-work law in 2012, or Gov. Supporters even arranged food deliveries. The crisis was a radicalizing experience for many of those workers. In the meantime, workers from Chevy 6 came over to help shut down the massive No.
Fourteen strikers were injured by gunfire during the battle. Lynch, General Motors But then the Great Depression hit in 1929. Workers later reduced their demands to the automaker recognizing United Auto Workers as a sole bargaining agent for the employees. It was a major victory and the sit-down spread to other areas. Continues his narration of the takover- In both of the major battles of the strike, women played a key role in the union's successes.
When we did, we worked from six in the morning to six or seven in the evening. The massive three-storied plant employed about seventy-three hundred workers and was turning out fourteen hundred Buick bodies daily. Because it was the first breakthrough, and it was a national… almost an international breakthrough. Workers at Fisher Body Plant No. Cover image of sit-down strikers in the Fisher body plant factory number three. Edward McClelland is the author of Midnight in Vehicle City and How to Speak Midwestern, and other books. But like the Black heroes of 1937, they have to contend with vicious union busting, like that directed at the Black-majority Amazon workforce in Bessemer, Alabama, or the fired Starbucks workers in Memphis, Tennessee.
Automakers slashed jobs, axing thousands of employees with no regard for seniority. We recommend that subscribers with internet access get our free email subscription and share our articles with your contacts and on social media. They would merely be defending their right to their property—their jobs. 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. According to the Sloan Museum of Discovery in Flint, then-Michigan Gov. The strike ended after 44 days.
86 years ago today, Flint autoworkers started the Flint Sit
Virginia Merrimack off Hampton Roads,. . Others took up picket and food-gathering activities on the outside. Their politics, which came to light after the strike, simply helps to explain their great devotion to the strikers' cause. Company spies did their job, and on the night of February 1 all of the company's resources were diverted to No. They did not want to shoot women in the back.
American Vanguard: The United Auto Workers During the Reuther Years, 1935—1970. . Now would be a good time for auto workers to speak out for their right to take over the plants. The Many and the Few: A Chronicle of the Dynamic Auto Workers. Subscribers should have received a printed paper since September 2021. This graphic pays tribute to Black sit-down striker Roscoe Van Zandt.
Flint was the model of a community whose wealth was shared broadly, rather than concentrated among an elite. The pay and benefit differential between unionized and nonunionized workers is greatest for Black and other workers of color. FedEx is a totally nonunion company. Can the middle class rise again? He was captured the next day after firing 23 shots at a Norfolk, Virginia, medical clinic. The report recommended turning all of the mines over to the miners to run them collectively! Our top concern, however, is student success, and we have a policy to not take on additional enrollments if we cannot guarantee that all students will have a quality online learning experience.
Wages also increased by 300% after other sit-down strikes occurred in Detroit, leading to Packard, Goodyear and Goodrich announcing changes to wages. There are a few monuments honoring the sit-down strikers in Flint. Miner Trying to organize a union at General Motors was dangerous. The General Motors body plant in Flint, Michigan was usually a thankless place, filled with loud sounds and the feverish, dangerous work of turning metal into auto bodies. . They had one man who would come around with one of them old pint milk bottles, rinse it out and give you water. As the largest creditors, the auto unions could legally exercise the right to seize the plants.
Instead, craft unions that organized workers across specialties The automobile industry had long discouraged unions. Black United Auto Workers supporters had to meet in secret by candlelight, in church basements and private homes. You take your usual spot in the General Motors Plant Number One, except this time you sit down on the grimy, cold concrete along with hundreds of other workers. . In the 1970s, General Motors was the largest private employer in the United States. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. The Iroquois Theater, designed by Benjamin.
