WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Flint Sit-down Strike 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:07.000 Happy Saturday, everybody. We have an upcoming episode about organized 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:10.080 labor in the nineteen forties in the US, and it's 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:13.119 got some connections to the National Labor Relations Act of 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:17.360 nineteen thirty five, also known as the Wagner Act. We 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:20.440 talked about the Wagner Act and how it related to workers' 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.599 rights to unionize and strike in our episode on the 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:27.600 Flint sit Down Strike, so we are replaying that episode 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.800 as Today's Saturday Classic. This one originally came out on 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:38.440 December sixth, twenty twenty one. Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:48.600 Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:51.639 welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:55.600 Holly Frye. The eighty fifth anniversary of the Flint sit 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.200 Down Strike is this month. That's marked as starting on 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:02.200 December thirtieth of nineteen thirty six, but that name and 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:08.040 date don't quite capture the whole of the strike. Flint, 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:12.280 Michigan was absolutely at the heart of auto manufacturing for 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:16.679 General Motors, and the strike was largely centered around Flint, 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:20.399 but this strike also involved workers at GM factories all 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:24.319 over the United States, and while the major strike activity 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:28.360 in Flint started on December thirtieth. It also followed earlier 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:32.080 strikes in other parts of Michigan and in other states. 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.240 So this name and date, as they're commonly known, it's 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:38.200 really a little bit broader than that. We have talked 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:41.640 about several strikes on the show before, including strikes in 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:45.360 the United States, Canada, England, and Ireland. But this one 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:48.320 in particular has been cited as one of the most 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:53.280 significant and influential strikes in United States labor history, and 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:55.680 this strike took place while the world was still trying 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:59.640 to recover from the Great Depression. This economic catastrophe had, 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.400 of course been devastating to people all over the globe. 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.520 General Motors in particular had cut nearly half of its 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:11.640 staff while also increasing requirements for workers productivity and implementing 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:15.680 seasonal layoffs. Although the company would loan money to laid 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:18.080 off workers, they had to pay it back out of 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:21.280 their wages once they were back on the job. But 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.760 even people who had steady work at GM during the 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:27.840 Great Depression didn't really have a sense of job security. 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:31.200 There were so many people who were out of work 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.280 and just desperate for jobs that the company knew it 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.760 could fire anyone for essentially any reason, and have a 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:43.200 replacement waiting immediately. It was especially true in places like Flint, 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:47.079 where GM was by far the biggest employer. The US 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:50.240 government took various steps to try to bolster the nation's 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:54.760 economy during the depression. One was the National Industrial Recovery 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:58.080 Act of nineteen thirty three. This was part of President 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:01.160 Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, and he signed it into 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:04.480 law during his first one hundred days in office. This 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:08.680 was an act quote to encourage national Industrial recovery, to 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.600 foster fair competition, to provide for the construction of certain 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:17.359 useful public works, and for other purposes. The National Industrial 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:21.560 Recovery Act suspended a lot of the antitrust legislation that 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:26.040 we talked about recently in our episodes on Ida Tarbell. Instead, 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:30.240 this Act encouraged businesses to form alliances and to establish 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:34.800 codes of fair competition. These codes were meant to apply 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:39.840 across whole industries, setting standards for things like consumer protections, 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:44.240 fair wages, and prices for goods. The idea was that 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:48.080 these codes would reduce unfair business practices that were making 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:52.200 it harder for struggling businesses to stay afloat during the crisis, 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.360 so things like undercutting competitors' prices to the point that 0:03:56.440 --> 0:04:00.240 they just could not go that low. Section se an 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:04.080 A of the Act read quote, Every code of fair competition, agreement, 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:08.400 and license, approved, prescribed, or issued under this Title shall 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:12.520 contain the following conditions. One that employees shall have the 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:16.040 right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.600 own choosing, and shall be free from the interference, restraint, 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.919 or coercion of employers of labor or their agents in 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:26.839 the designation of such representatives or in self organization or 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.280 in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:34.760 or other mutual aid or protection. Two that no employee 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:37.719 and no one seeking employment, shall be required, as a 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:41.240 condition of employment, to join any company union, or to 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:45.680 refrain from joining, organizing, or assisting a labor organization of 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:50.279 his own choosing. And three that employers shall comply with 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.640 the maximum hours of labor, minimum rates of pay, and 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:58.000 other conditions of employment approved or prescribed by the President. 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.599 This Act contain lots of provisions that we haven't gotten 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:06.880 into here, including authorizing the President to establish a federal 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:11.080 emergency Administration of public works. But in terms of the 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:15.480 Flint sit down strike, Section seven A was key. It 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:20.359 protected employee's right to organize and bargain collectively, and this 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.680 was a huge deal. Although the term collective bargaining had 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:27.360 been coined by British social reformer Beatrice web in eighteen 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:30.400 ninety one, workers had been trying to work together to 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:34.359 secure better pay in working conditions for centuries, and in 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:38.000 the US, trade unions and other efforts to collectively bargain 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:42.600 had been illegal. They were treated as criminal conspiracies. The 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:47.120 National Industrial Recovery Act was the first federal law legalizing 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:52.480 union membership and collective bargaining, but in general employers were 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:56.720 reluctant to comply with various provisions of the Act. There 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.720 were also questions about whether the Supreme Court would find 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:04.520 it to be unconstitutional. Some employers used this uncertainty to 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.400 justify their non compliance with the law, and they kept 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:13.280 working directly against their employees' legal right to unionize. As 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:17.800 a result, labor disputes, including strikes, surged as workers and 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.680 their unions fought for the kinds of rights and protections 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:24.200 they were legally entitled to, and some of these disputes 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:28.240 led to violence. In August of nineteen thirty three, Roosevelt 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.560 established the National Labor Board, chaired by Senator Robert F. 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.560 Wagner of New York, to try to mediate between the 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.840 growing labor movement and industry leaders. In addition to Wagner, 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:43.120 the Board had six members, three each representing labor and industry. 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:48.600 But the board really didn't have much enforcement power. Companies 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.040 that were operating under one of the codes that had 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:54.359 been established under the new law were allowed to display 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:57.919 an emblem of a blue eagle, and all that the 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.400 NLB could really do when companies stopped following the rules 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:04.400 was to make them take their eagle down. In May 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.200 of nineteen thirty five, the Supreme Court issued its decision 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:11.120 in Scheckter Poultry Corps versus United States, which did indeed 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:15.920 find the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional. At 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.400 the same time, though the act's industrial provisions were supposed 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.880 to expire after two years or sooner if the President 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:26.920 or Congress decided they were no longer needed, this decision 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:31.120 came just a few weeks before that expiration date. A 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:35.320 big reason behind that decision was that this act delegated 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:38.240 a lot of legislative power to the president without really 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:41.680 setting guidelines on how the president could use that power. 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.640 That was not the whole decision, obviously, but that's sort 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:50.160 of the crux. People were divided as to whether or 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:53.160 to what extent this Act had been effective at what 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:56.160 it set out to do. It was supposed to quote, 0:07:56.200 --> 0:08:00.520 remove obstructions to the free flow of interstate and foreign commerce. 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.120 It was supposed to do that by reducing labor disputes, 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:08.520 reducing unfair competitive practices, and making sure industries were working 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:12.960 at full capacity. It had generally improved workers pay and 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.520 working conditions, and it had cut down on some of 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:19.480 the competitive practices that were undermining the economic recovery, but 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:22.320 it was also blamed for things like making various goods 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:26.720 more expensive and slowing the pace of production. The government 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.880 still had a vested interest in this idea of removing 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:35.280 obstructions to interstate commerce, including obstructions that stemmed from labor disputes, 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.000 and labor activists were advocating for the protections that had 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:42.559 been part of the National Industrial Recovery Act to be restored. 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.480 This led to the National Labor Relations Act, introduced by 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:49.800 Senator Wagner and also called the Wagner Act, which was 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.880 signed into law on July sixth, nineteen thirty five. This 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.600 was an act to quote diminish the causes of labor 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:01.120 disputes burdening or obstructing interstate and foreign commerce, to create 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:05.640 a National Labor Relations Board, and for other purposes. The 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:09.360 Act applied to all employers involved in interstate commerce, with 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:14.840 the exception of airlines, railroads, agriculture, and the government. It 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:19.640 framed employer's refusal to respect their employee's right to unionize 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:23.920 or to accept collective bargaining as the cause of industrial 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:28.760 strife leading to strikes another unrest. The Act also noted 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.319 that companies have a lot more of power than their 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:35.440 employees do, especially when those employees aren't protected by a 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:40.080 fair contract or allowed to collectively bargain. It once again 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:45.440 legalized employee's right to organize and outlawed employer's interference with 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.120 that right, and it also empowered the National Labor Relations 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:53.160 Board to oversee this whole process and mediate disputes. But 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:57.360 since the Supreme Court had overturned the National Industrial Recovery Act, 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.880 many employers expected the National Labor Relations Act to be 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:04.439 struck down as well. Even though the law barred employers 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.760 from interfering with employees' right to unionize. Many employers kept 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:13.839 doing exactly that, things like hiring detectives to investigate, spy 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:19.120 on and harass union organizers and members, establishing company unions 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:21.800 that really represented the interest of the business rather than 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:26.000 its employees, and firing or demoting people who were suspected 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.800 of organizing or joining a union. So this brings us 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:34.040 to the US automotive industry and specifically to Flint, Michigan, 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:46.240 which we will get to after a sponsor break. The 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:50.120 American Federation of Labor was established in the late nineteenth 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:54.360 century to bring craft and trade unions together under one umbrella. 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:59.760 Its first member unions represented people like tailors, iron molders, 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.080 and carpenters, and in its early years, the AFL did 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:08.439 not work with industrial unions at all. Craft unions representing 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:13.600 people like carpenters were considered to represent skilled workers, while 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:18.280 industrial workers so people who worked on factory assembly lines 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.760 were thought of as unskilled. But around the time the 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:25.800 Wagner Act was passed, the AFL established a Committee for 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:32.199 Industrial Organization. This committee soon split off from the AFL 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:36.240 and it re established itself as its own organization, which 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:41.200 was the Congress of Industrial Organizations United Auto Workers, was 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.880 established in Detroit, Michigan, in nineteen thirty five, and at 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:48.520 first it became part of the AFL, and like the AFL, 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:52.560 its initial focus was mainly on the automotive industry skilled workers, 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:56.080 not the people who worked on assembly lines in factories. 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.400 But when the CIO split off from the AFL, the 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:04.160 United Autoworkers went too soon. The UAW was trying to 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:09.040 organize factory workers, especially at the Big three automakers, GM, 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:13.480 Ford and Chrysler. GM was the largest auto manufacturer in 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:15.880 the world at the time, with sixty nine plants in 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:20.760 thirty five cities, many in the Midwest. Initially, the UAW 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.680 focused more on GM and Chrysler because Henry Ford was 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:30.800 vehemently anti union. GM actively worked against these unionization efforts. 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:35.400 According to information unearthed and Senate committee hearings, between nineteen 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.640 thirty four and nineteen thirty six, GM spent more than 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:43.600 eight hundred thirty nine thousand dollars on labor detective services, 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:46.920 more than half of it paid to the Pinkertons. This 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:52.920 detective work involved everything from investigating union organizers to planting 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:58.400 spies within the union to harassing and threatening workers. This 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:03.000 Congressional committee described GM's spy work as quote a monument 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:07.040 to the most colossal supersystem of spies yet devised in 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:12.560 any American corporation. There are also reports that GM conscripted 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:16.280 an organization known as the Black Legion to intimidate and 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:20.080 threaten its employees. The Black Legion was compared to the 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:25.360 KKK and was aggressively anti union, and this went beyond 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.880 targeting the union itself and the workers at the factories. 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:33.440 Part of GM's union busting effort involved telling male workers' 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.800 wives that their husband's union activities were going to get 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.040 them fired, as well as convincing women that their husbands 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.160 were up to no good, suggesting that they were out 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:46.319 late partying or soliciting sex workers, or that they were 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.160 lying about the union and that they were really spending 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:55.480 their afterwork time having extramarital affairs. As UAW organizers tried 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:59.560 to unionize GM's factories, they were working against all of this, 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.800 and they were finding common themes among the workers' gravances 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.520 from plants a plant. A lot of it was in 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:10.040 line with what we already discussed, like firings that seemed 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:15.040 arbitrary or retaliatory. The factories were also poorly ventilated, and 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:18.760 during periods of hot weather, workers passed out or even 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:23.680 died from overheating, with their coworkers expected to keep working 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.880 until someone came to remove the body. Many of the 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.960 jobs were dangerous, including working around dangerous substances with no 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:36.080 ventilation or protective equipment. There was also an immense focus 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:38.960 on speed, to the point that workers on the assembly 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:41.359 line did not have time to go to the bathroom. 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:44.280 There was also nobody who could cover for a person 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:47.880 who became ill or injured on the job. Workers talked 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.560 about people who got sick during the day and kept 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:53.560 working on the assembly line even though they were vomiting. 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.600 There was also speed up during peak production times, with 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:01.400 workers expected to complete their tasks on the assembly line 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:05.800 at seemingly superhuman speeds. If a factory was in danger 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:09.040 of missing its daily quota, speed up would start near 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:12.120 the end of people's shifts, when they were already exhausted. 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:16.440 For many workers, take home pay was not the biggest issue, 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:20.360 but the way wages were calculated was a problem. Many 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.480 workers on the line weren't paid an hourly or a 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.560 daily rate. They were paid by the peace, and the 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:30.240 rate for each piece didn't necessarily stay the same. It 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:32.760 was often set at a higher amount at the start 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:34.960 of a pay period to encourage the workers to go 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.840 as quickly as possible, but then it would drop as 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:42.239 payday approached. People wound up making less than they expected, 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:45.000 and this whole shifting pay rate felt like a bait 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.840 and switch. Women working at the GM factories faced an 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:53.480 additional layer of hostility. Some reported being sexually harassed and 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:57.160 even assaulted by their supervisors, who would then use the 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.800 assault as leverage to try to guarantee the women compliance 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.720 at work. All of these factors fed into the sit 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:08.080 down strike. Most of the strikes that had taken place 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:11.359 in the United States before this point had involved workers 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:17.960 leaving their job sites and organizing things like picket lines, demonstrations, protests, pamphleteering, 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.520 and speeches. While the strike at GM in nineteen thirty 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:24.920 six and thirty seven still involved things like picket lines 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.520 and other activities outside the building, those were primarily the 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.920 work of the striking workers' supporters, because in a sit 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:36.920 down strike, employees stayed inside the factory, physically occupying it. 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:41.440 This strategy had some advantages for the striking workers. A 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.640 typical strike could only be effective if the vast majority 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:48.160 of the workers participated. If only a few people walked out, 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.680 the company could just redistribute their work among their coworkers 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.440 or higher replacements without too much trouble. But a sit 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:58.240 down strike allowed a smaller number of people to take 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:02.760 control of the whole workplace. Employers also couldn't simply hire 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.320 replacement workers to take over, since the striking workers had 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:10.400 control of the building. Remaining inside the workplace also gave 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:14.560 the workers more protection from violence. Employers were reluctant to 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.800 remove workers by force due to the risk of damaging 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:22.560 expensive machinery and equipment, but there were also some downsides. 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:26.080 Striking workers had to be separated from their families and 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.560 their friends who didn't work with them, depending on where 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:33.120 the strike was taking place. Striking workers didn't have access 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.400 to things like bathing facilities or adequate sleeping spaces, although 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.960 some of the GM strikers were able to make reasonably 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:43.440 comfortable beds with the padding that was used to make 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:48.480 car seats. Sit down strikes were also questionably legal at best, 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:52.920 since strikers were essentially trespassing. The idea that a few 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:55.880 workers could decide to go on strike and take over 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:58.840 the whole building also ran against the spirit of the 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:01.879 National Labor Relation Act, which was really focused on the 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:06.200 idea of a majority of employees forming a union em bargaining, 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.159 not on a smaller number of employees forcing the issue 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:13.960 by occupying the building. In the US, the first sit 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.000 down strike is generally noted as having happened in nineteen 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.879 oh six, when members of the Industrial Workers of the 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:23.080 World stopped working but stayed at their stations at a 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:27.480 General Electric factory in Schenectady, New York. Workers in Europe 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:31.560 started occupying their workplaces after World War One, including roughly 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:34.000 half of the metal workers in Paris in the spring 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.240 of nineteen thirty six, and that led to sweeping labor 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:40.919 reforms in France. In the US, workers at a rubber 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:44.359 plant in Akron, Ohio, sat down in early nineteen thirty 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:48.640 six as well. Fisher Body was a division of GM 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.080 and Fisher Body workers in Atlanta sat down at two 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:55.600 different points in October and November of nineteen thirty six, 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:58.720 with the November strike spreading to other plants in the 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:02.639 Atlanta area as well. Well. Workers at Bendix Products in 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:06.840 South Bend, Indiana sat down. In mid November and mid December, 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:10.639 workers sat down at two GM plants in Kansas City, Missouri, 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:13.920 and then at a body stamping plant in Cleveland, Ohio, 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.760 as well as the Kelsey Hayes wheel plant in Detroit, Michigan. 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:22.640 All of these were either divisions of or suppliers of GM. 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.560 On December sixteenth, nineteen thirty six, the UAW asked for 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.480 a meeting with GM upper management, but GM refused, maintaining 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.399 that any collective bargaining would have to happen at the 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:37.200 local level, from plant to plant. But the UAW argued 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:39.800 that the issues that it wanted to discuss, things like 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:44.400 recognizing the union for collective bargaining, a seniority system for workers, 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:47.720 and the tremendous speeds expected of workers on the line, 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:51.280 were things that applied for every GM factory in the nation. 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.600 Late December also wasn't ideal for the UAW to be 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:01.080 planning a huge strike. Most of GM's workers celebrated Christmas, 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:03.280 so this was just not a great time for people 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:06.440 to lose their wages or to be separated from their families. 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:10.600 Since many of GM's factories were clustered together, in the Midwest, 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:13.840 the weather at the end of the year would probably 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:16.280 not be all that conducive to things like the pickets 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:18.560 and the protests that were needed to support the strike. 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:23.480 And Michigan had elected a new governor, Frank Murphy, who 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:27.040 was expected to be far more sympathetic to organize labor 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:30.000 than his predecessor had been, but he was not going 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:35.160 to take office until January first. However, workers themselves took 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.000 this decision out of the uaw's hands, and we're going 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:40.600 to get to that after we pause for a sponsor break. 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:54.200 As the UAW tried to organize GM workers in Flint, Michigan, 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.399 GM tried to reduce its risk in the event of 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:01.120 a strike. On December twenty ninth, nineteenth six, the company 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:05.600 transferred union members out of its Chevrolet body stamping plant 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:09.840 in Flint that was known as Fisher Body Number two. Then, 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:13.600 on December thirtieth, the company started removing the dies that 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:17.240 were used to stamp out body parts from another Flint plant, 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:20.879 which was Fisher Body Number one. This was one of 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:24.280 only two sets of dyes that GM was using to 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.800 stamp out auto bodies, and their removal from the plant 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:30.720 represented not only a loss of jobs because the people 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:32.880 who did that work would not have work to do anymore, 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:37.320 but also a loss of leverage. If the workers took 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:40.840 over the plant with the dies still in it, that 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:45.240 would stop production on multiple models of GM cars. So 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:48.800 when the workers at Fisher I realized what was happening 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.760 with the dies, they immediately started a strike, taking over 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:55.840 the building and workers at Fisher iiO started striking on 0:21:55.880 --> 0:22:00.639 the same day. There are also oral history testimony suggesting 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:03.800 that another factor might have been at work here as well. 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:07.399 Flat glass workers had also gone on strike and that 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:11.200 was leading to a potential glass shortage for car manufacturing. 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:15.000 If the factories in Flint ran out of glass, production 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:18.720 would shut down anyway, so workers decided to strike before 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:23.520 that could happen. The strike's organizers decided that only men 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:27.200 could occupy the plants during the strike, so while there 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:30.560 were women working at GM, they could not be part 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:34.520 of the sit down, but women's participation in other aspects 0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:38.760 of the strike was absolutely critical. The Women's Auxiliary, which 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:41.960 was organized by twenty three year old Genora Johnson who 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:45.639 was later Genora Johnson Dollinger, set up a strike kitchen 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:49.200 to feed the striking workers and their families. They delivered 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:52.880 food directly to the factories. The Women's Auxiliary also did 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:55.720 the striker's laundry, and about three weeks into the strike, 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:59.199 they started a daycare for the striking workers' children. They 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:02.920 also brought to the factories to visit their family members, 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:05.600 and they picketed and did other work in support of 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:08.359 the strike. It took some time for some of these 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:10.879 efforts to get off the ground, in part because the 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:14.919 company had put so much effort into sowing distrust of 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:18.600 the union among the workers wives who support the Women's 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:22.920 Auxiliary needed. In oral histories recorded in the nineteen eighties 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:26.439 and nineties, women described going to the factories after the 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:29.639 strike started expecting to drag their husbands out of some 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:33.360 kind of debauchery or a radical communist frenzy, but then 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:35.960 staying to help make food once they realized what was 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:39.399 actually going on. Whether they worked at GM or not, 0:23:39.840 --> 0:23:43.360 the women involved in the auxiliary faced hostility from company 0:23:43.359 --> 0:23:48.159 supporters and the strike's critics, including people questioning their morality 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:52.080 and implying that they were sex workers. We should note 0:23:52.119 --> 0:23:57.760 that while there was not like a stereotypical, screaming radical 0:23:58.840 --> 0:24:03.920 conspiracy of communism happening in the strike. There were definitely 0:24:03.960 --> 0:24:07.320 communists and socialists among the strikers and within the labor 0:24:07.359 --> 0:24:11.800 movement in general. Both communism and socialism had and have 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:14.479 a focus on fair treatment of workers. This is not 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:18.400 really that surprising. Genora Johnson Dollinger, for example, had become 0:24:18.440 --> 0:24:21.120 a socialist at the age of sixteen. She was one 0:24:21.160 --> 0:24:23.879 of the more radical people involved with the strike, though 0:24:23.960 --> 0:24:28.080 many others had a general interest in communist or socialist 0:24:28.119 --> 0:24:31.879 ideals while not formally being a member of either party. 0:24:32.680 --> 0:24:34.520 And we should also take a moment to note that, 0:24:34.600 --> 0:24:37.320 at least as far as we know, all the women 0:24:37.400 --> 0:24:41.240 in the auxiliary in Flint were white. Although GM did 0:24:41.320 --> 0:24:44.479 employ black people in its factories, they were only hired 0:24:44.520 --> 0:24:48.359 in janitorial rules or to work in the foundry. Only 0:24:48.440 --> 0:24:51.879 one black employee, Roscoe van Zandt, is known to have 0:24:51.960 --> 0:24:55.360 sat down in Flint during this strike. During the sit 0:24:55.480 --> 0:24:59.600 down strike, workers inside the plants established rules for behavior, 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:05.320 including maintaining order, keeping things clean and organized, and mediating disputes. 0:25:05.359 --> 0:25:08.600 As people were cooped up together for weeks, workers held 0:25:08.720 --> 0:25:12.160 lectures and classes for one another. They read and played games, 0:25:12.160 --> 0:25:14.680 and sang songs in order to keep their spirits up. 0:25:15.200 --> 0:25:18.960 Songs included a union anthem called Solidarity Forever that was 0:25:19.080 --> 0:25:21.320 sung to the theme of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, 0:25:21.960 --> 0:25:25.919 and at first GM's response was mostly not to engage. 0:25:26.600 --> 0:25:30.040 GM President Alfred P. Sloan stated quote, we will not 0:25:30.240 --> 0:25:33.840 negotiate with a union while its agents forcibly hold possession 0:25:33.840 --> 0:25:37.680 of our property, and Executive vice president William S. Knudsen 0:25:37.800 --> 0:25:41.280 called the striking workers trespassers and violators of the law 0:25:41.320 --> 0:25:45.400 of the land. GM also argued that the union's bargaining 0:25:45.440 --> 0:25:48.680 efforts were not legal under the National Labor Relations Act 0:25:49.000 --> 0:25:51.879 since fewer than half of the employees had joined the union. 0:25:52.680 --> 0:25:56.560 The UAW countered that GM had illegally interfered with its 0:25:56.600 --> 0:25:59.680 effort to get workers to join, preventing it from getting 0:25:59.680 --> 0:26:03.679