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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production

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Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Tracy new Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. Anniversary of

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Speaker 1: the Flint sit down strike is this month. That's marked

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Speaker 1: as starting on December six, But that name and they

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Speaker 1: don't quite capture the whole of the strike. Flint, Michigan

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Speaker 1: was absolutely at the heart of auto manufacturing for General Motors,

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Speaker 1: and the strike was largely centered around Flint, but this

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Speaker 1: strike also involved workers at GM factories all over the

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Speaker 1: United States. And while the major strike activity in Flint

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Speaker 1: started on December, it also followed earlier strikes in other

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Speaker 1: parts of Michigan and in other states. So this name

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Speaker 1: and date, as they're commonly known, it's really a little

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Speaker 1: bit broader than that. We have talked about several strikes

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Speaker 1: on the show before, including strikes in the United States, Canada, England,

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Speaker 1: and Ireland, but this one in particular has been cited

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Speaker 1: as one of the most significant and influential strikes in

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Speaker 1: United States labor history, and this strike took place while

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Speaker 1: the world was still trying to recover from the Great Depression.

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Speaker 1: This economic catastrophe had of course been devastating to people

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Speaker 1: all over the globe. General Motors in particular, had cut

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Speaker 1: nearly half of its staff while also increasing requirements for

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Speaker 1: workers productivity and implementing seasonal layoffs. Although the company would

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Speaker 1: loan money to laid off workers, they had to pay

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Speaker 1: it back out of their wages once they were back

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Speaker 1: on the job. But even people who had steady work

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Speaker 1: at GM during the Great Depression didn't really have a

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Speaker 1: sense of job security. There were so many people who

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Speaker 1: were out of work and just desperate for jobs that

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Speaker 1: the company knew it could fire anyone for essentially any

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Speaker 1: reason and have a replacement waiting immediately. This was especially

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Speaker 1: true in places like Flint, where GM was by far

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Speaker 1: the biggest employer. The US government took various steps to

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Speaker 1: try to bolster the nation's economy during the depression. One

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Speaker 1: was the National Industrial Recovery Act of ninety three. This

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Speaker 1: was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, and

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Speaker 1: he signed it into law during his first one hundred

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Speaker 1: days in office. This was an act quote to encourage

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Speaker 1: national industrial recovery, to foster fair competition, to provide for

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Speaker 1: the construction of certain useful public works, and for other purposes.

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Speaker 1: The National Industrial Recovery Acts suspended a lot of the

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Speaker 1: antitrust legislation that we talked about recently in our episodes

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Speaker 1: on Ida Tarbell. Instead, this Act encouraged businesses to form

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Speaker 1: alliances and to establish codes of fair competition. These codes

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Speaker 1: were meant to apply across whole end streets, setting standards

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Speaker 1: for things like consumer protections, fair wages, and prices for goods.

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Speaker 1: The idea was that these codes would reduce unfair business

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Speaker 1: practices that we're making it harder for struggling businesses to

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Speaker 1: stay afloat during the crisis, so things like undercutting competitors

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Speaker 1: prices to the point that they just could not go

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Speaker 1: that low. Section seven A of the Act read quote,

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Speaker 1: Every code of fair competition, agreement, and license, approved, prescribed,

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Speaker 1: or issued under this Title shall contain the following conditions.

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Speaker 1: One that employees shall have the right to organize and

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Speaker 1: bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and shall

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Speaker 1: be free from the interference, restraint, or coercion of employers

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Speaker 1: of labor or their agents in the designation of such representatives,

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Speaker 1: or in self organization or in other concerted activities for

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Speaker 1: the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection. Too,

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Speaker 1: That no employee, and no one seeking employe meant, shall

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Speaker 1: be required, as a condition of employment, to join any

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Speaker 1: company union, or to refrain from joining, organizing, or assisting

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Speaker 1: a labor organization of his own choosing. And three that

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Speaker 1: employers shall comply with the maximum hours of labor, minimum

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Speaker 1: rates of pay, and other conditions of employment approved or

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Speaker 1: prescribed by the President. This Act contained lots of provisions

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Speaker 1: that we haven't gotten into here, including authorizing the presidents

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Speaker 1: to establish a federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. But

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Speaker 1: in terms of the Flint sit down strike, Section seven

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Speaker 1: A was key. It protected employees right to organize and

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Speaker 1: bargain collectively, and this was a huge deal. Although the

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Speaker 1: term collective bargaining had been coined by British social reformer

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Speaker 1: Beatrice web In, workers have been trying to work together

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Speaker 1: to secure better pay and working conditions for centuries, and

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Speaker 1: in the US trade unions, other efforts to collectively bargain

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Speaker 1: had been illegal. They were treated as criminal conspiracies. The

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Speaker 1: National Industrial Recovery Act was the first federal law legalizing

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Speaker 1: union membership and collective bargaining, but in general, employers were

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Speaker 1: reluctant to comply with various provisions of the Act. There

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Speaker 1: were also questions about whether the Supreme Court would find

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Speaker 1: it to be unconstitutional. Some employers used this uncertainty to

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Speaker 1: justify their non compliance with the law, and they kept

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Speaker 1: working directly against their employees legal right to unionize. As

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Speaker 1: a result, labor disputes, including strikes, surged as workers and

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Speaker 1: their unions fought for the kinds of rights and protections

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Speaker 1: they were legally entitled to, and some of these disputes

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Speaker 1: led to violence. In August of nineteen thirty three, Roosevelt

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Speaker 1: established the National Labor Board, chaired by Senator Robert F.

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Speaker 1: Wagner of New York, to try to mediate between the

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Speaker 1: growing labor movement and industry leaders. In addition to Wagner,

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Speaker 1: the board had six members, three each representing labor and industry.

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Speaker 1: But the board really didn't have much enforcement power. Companies

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Speaker 1: that were operating under one of the codes that had

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Speaker 1: been established under the new law were allowed to display

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Speaker 1: an emblem of a blue eagle, and all that the

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Speaker 1: NLB could really do when companies stopped following the rules

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Speaker 1: was to make them take their eagle down. In May

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Speaker 1: of ninety five, the Supreme Court issued its decision in

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Speaker 1: Scheckter Poultry Corps versus United States, which did indeed find

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Speaker 1: the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional. At the

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Speaker 1: same time, though the act's industrial provisions were supposed to

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Speaker 1: expire after two years or sooner if the President or

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Speaker 1: Congress decided they were no longer needed, this decision came

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Speaker 1: just a few weeks before that expiration date. A big

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Speaker 1: reason behind that decision was that this Act delegated a

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Speaker 1: lot of legis aative power to the president without really

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Speaker 1: setting guidelines on how the president could use that power. Uh.

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Speaker 1: It was not the whole decision, obviously, but that's sort

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Speaker 1: of the crux. People were divided as to whether or

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Speaker 1: to what extent this Act had been effective at what

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Speaker 1: it set out to do. It was supposed to quote,

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Speaker 1: remove obstructions to the free flow of interstate and foreign commerce.

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Speaker 1: It was supposed to do that by reducing labor disputes,

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Speaker 1: reducing unfair competitive practices, and making sure industries were working

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Speaker 1: at full capacity. It had generally improved workers pay and

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Speaker 1: working conditions, and it had cut down on some of

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Speaker 1: the competitive practices that were undermining the economic recovery, but

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Speaker 1: it was also blamed for things like making various goods

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Speaker 1: more expensive and slowing the pace of production. The government

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Speaker 1: still had a vested interest in this idea of removing

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Speaker 1: obstructions to interstate commerce, including obstructions that stemmed from labor disputes,

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Speaker 1: and of her activists were advocating for the protections that

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Speaker 1: had been part of the National Industrial Recovery Act to

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Speaker 1: be restored. This led to the National Labor Relations Act,

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Speaker 1: introduced by Senator Wagner and also called the Wagner Act,

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Speaker 1: which was signed into law on July six. This was

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Speaker 1: an act to quote diminish the causes of labor disputes

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Speaker 1: burdening or obstructing interstate and foreign commerce, to create a

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Speaker 1: National Labor Relations Board, and for other purposes. The Act

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Speaker 1: applied to all employers involved in interstate commerce, with the

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Speaker 1: exception of airlines, railroads, agriculture, and the government. It framed

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Speaker 1: employers refusal to respect their employees right to unionize or

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Speaker 1: to accept collective burgaining as the cause of industrial strife

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Speaker 1: leading to strikes and other unrest. The Act also noted

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Speaker 1: that companies have a lot more of power than their

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Speaker 1: employees do especially when those employees aren't protected by a

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Speaker 1: fair contra act or allowed to collectively bargain. It once

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Speaker 1: again legalized employees right to organize an outlawed employers interference

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Speaker 1: with that right, and it also empowered the National Labor

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Speaker 1: Relations Board to oversee this whole process and mediate disputes.

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Speaker 1: But since the Supreme Court had overturned the National Industrial

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Speaker 1: Recovery Act, many employers expected the National Labor Relations Act

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Speaker 1: to be struck down as well. Even though the law

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Speaker 1: barred employers from interfering with employees right to unionize, many

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Speaker 1: employers kept doing exactly that, things like hiring detectives to investigate,

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Speaker 1: spy on and harass union organizers and members, establishing company

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Speaker 1: unions that really represented the interest of the business rather

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Speaker 1: than its employees, and firing or demoting people who were

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Speaker 1: suspected of organizing or joining a union. So this brings

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Speaker 1: us to the US automotive industry and specifically to Flint, Michigan,

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Speaker 1: which we will get to after a spot a break.

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Speaker 1: The American Federation of Labor was established in the late

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Speaker 1: nineteenth century to bring craft and trade unions together under

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Speaker 1: one umbrella. It's first member unions represented people like tailor's,

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Speaker 1: iron molders and carpenters, and in its early years, the

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Speaker 1: a f L did not work with industrial unions at all.

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Speaker 1: Craft unions representing people like carpenters were considered to represent

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Speaker 1: skilled workers, while industrial workers, so people who worked on

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Speaker 1: factory assembly lines were thought of as unskilled. But around

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Speaker 1: the time the Wagner Act was passed, the a f

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Speaker 1: L established a Committee for Industrial Organization. This committee soon

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Speaker 1: split off from the a f L and it re

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Speaker 1: established itself as its own organization was the Congress of

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Speaker 1: Industrial Organizations. United Auto Workers was established in Detroit, Michigan

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Speaker 1: in ninety five, and at first it became part of

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Speaker 1: the a f L, and like the a f L,

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Speaker 1: its initial focus was mainly on the automotive industry skilled workers,

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Speaker 1: not the people who worked on assembly lines in factories.

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Speaker 1: But when the CIO split off from the a f L,

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Speaker 1: the United Auto Workers went to Soon the u a

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Speaker 1: W was trying to organize factory workers, especially at the

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Speaker 1: Big three automakers GM, Ford, and Chrysler. GM was the

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Speaker 1: largest auto manufacturer in the world at the time, with

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Speaker 1: sixty nine plants in thirty five cities, many in the Midwest. Initially,

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Speaker 1: the U a W focused more on GM and Chrysler.

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Speaker 1: Because Henry Ford was vehemently anti union, GM actively worked

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Speaker 1: against these unionization efforts. According to information unearthed and Senate

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Speaker 1: committee hearings, between nineteen thirty four and nine six, GM

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Speaker 1: spent more than eight hundred thirty nine thousand dollars on

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Speaker 1: labor detective services, more than half of it paid to

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Speaker 1: the Pinkerton's. This detective work involved everything from investigating union

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Speaker 1: organizers to planting spies within the union, to harassing and

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Speaker 1: threatening workers. This Congressional committee described GM's spy work as

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Speaker 1: quote a monument to the most colossal supersystem of spies

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Speaker 1: yet devised in any American corporation. There are also reports

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Speaker 1: that GM conscripted an organization known as the Black Legion

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Speaker 1: to intimidate and threaten its employees. The Black Legion was

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Speaker 1: compared to the KKK and was aggressively anti union, and

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Speaker 1: this went beyond targeting the union itself and the workers

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Speaker 1: at the factories. Part of GM's union busting effort involved

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Speaker 1: telling mail workers wives that their husband's union activities, we're

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Speaker 1: going to get them fired, as well as convincing women

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Speaker 1: that their husbands were up to no good, suggesting that

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Speaker 1: they were out late partying or soliciting sex workers, or

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Speaker 1: that they were lying about the union and that they

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Speaker 1: were really spending their after work time having extramarital affairs.

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Speaker 1: As u AW organizers tried to unionize GMS factories, they

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Speaker 1: were working against all of this, and they were finding

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Speaker 1: common themes among the workers grievances from plants a plant.

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Speaker 1: A lot of it was in line with what we

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Speaker 1: already discussed, like firings that seemed arbitrary or retaliatory. The

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Speaker 1: factories were also poorly ventilated, and during periods of hot weather,

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Speaker 1: workers passed out or even died from overheating, with their

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Speaker 1: coworkers expected to keep working until someone came to remove

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Speaker 1: the body. Many of the jobs were dangerous, including working

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Speaker 1: around dangerous substances with no ventilation or protective equipment. There

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Speaker 1: was also an immense focus on speed, to the point

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Speaker 1: that workers on the assembly line did not have time

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Speaker 1: to go to the bathroom. There was also nobody who

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Speaker 1: could cover for a person who became ill or injured

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Speaker 1: on the job. Workers talked about people who got sick

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Speaker 1: during the day and kept working on the assembly line

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Speaker 1: even though they were vomiting. There was also speed up

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Speaker 1: during peak production times, with workers expected to complete their

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Speaker 1: tasks on the assembly line at seemingly superhuman speeds. If

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Speaker 1: a factory was in danger of missing its daily quota,

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Speaker 1: speed up would start near the end of people's shifts,

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Speaker 1: when they were already exhausted. For many workers, take home

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Speaker 1: pay was not the biggest issue, but the way wages

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Speaker 1: were calculated was a problem. Many workers on the line

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Speaker 1: weren't paid an hourly or a daily rate. They were

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Speaker 1: paid by the piece, and the rate for each piece

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Speaker 1: didn't necessarily stay the same. It was often set at

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Speaker 1: a higher amount at the start of a pay period

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Speaker 1: to encourage the workers to go as quickly as possible,

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Speaker 1: but then it would drop as pay day approached. People

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Speaker 1: wound up making less than they expected. In this whole

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Speaker 1: shifting pay rate felt like a bait and switch. Women

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Speaker 1: working at the GM factories faced an additional layer of hostility.

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Speaker 1: Some reported being sexually harassed and even assaulted by their supervisors,

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Speaker 1: who would then use the assault as leverage to try

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Speaker 1: to guarantee the woman's compliance at work. All of these

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Speaker 1: factors fed into the sit down strike. Most of the

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Speaker 1: strikes that had taken place in the United States before

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Speaker 1: this point had involved workers leaving their job sites and

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Speaker 1: organizing things like picket lines, demonstrations, protests, pamphleteering, and speeches.

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Speaker 1: While the strike at GM and nine six and thirty

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Speaker 1: seven still involved things like picket lines and other activities

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Speaker 1: outside the building, those were primarily the work of the

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Speaker 1: striking workers supporters, because in a sit down strike, employees

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Speaker 1: stayed inside the factory, physically occupying it. This strategy had

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Speaker 1: some advantages for the striking workers. A typical strike could

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Speaker 1: only be effective if the vast majority of the workers participated.

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Speaker 1: If only a few people walked out, the company could

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Speaker 1: just redistribute their work among their coworkers or higher replacements

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Speaker 1: without too much trouble. But a sit down strike allowed

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Speaker 1: a smaller number of people to take control of the

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Speaker 1: whole workplace. Employers also couldn't simply hire replacement workers to

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Speaker 1: take over, since the striking workers had control of the building.

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Speaker 1: Remaining inside the workplace also gave the workers more protection

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Speaker 1: from violence. Employers were reluctant to remove workers by force

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Speaker 1: due to the risk of damaging expensive machinery and equipment,

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Speaker 1: but there were also some downsides. Striking workers had to

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Speaker 1: be separated from their families than their friends who didn't

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Speaker 1: work with them, depending on where the strike was taking place.

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Speaker 1: Striking workers didn't have access to things like bathing facilities

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Speaker 1: or adequate sleeping spaces, although some of the GM strikers

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Speaker 1: were able to make reasonably comfortable beds with the padding

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Speaker 1: that was used to make car seats. Sit down strikes

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Speaker 1: were also questionably legal at best, since strikers were essentially trespassing.

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Speaker 1: The idea that a few workers could decide to go

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Speaker 1: on strike and take over the whole building also ran

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Speaker 1: against the spirit of the National Labor Relations Act, which

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Speaker 1: was really focused on the idea of a majority of

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Speaker 1: employees forming a union and bargaining, not on a smaller

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Speaker 1: number of employees forcing the issue by occupying the building.

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Speaker 1: In the US, the first sit down strike is generally

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Speaker 1: noted as having happened in nineteen o six, when members

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Speaker 1: of the Industrial Workers of the World stopped working but

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Speaker 1: stayed at their stations at a General Electric factory and

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Speaker 1: Schenecta in New York. Workers in Europe started occupying their

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Speaker 1: workplaces after World War One, including roughly half of the

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Speaker 1: metal workers in Paris in the spring of nineteen thirty six,

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Speaker 1: and that led to sweeping labor reforms in France. In

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Speaker 1: the US, workers at a rubber plant in Akron, Ohio

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Speaker 1: sat down in early ninety six as well. Fisher Body

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Speaker 1: was a division of GM, and Fisher Body workers in

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Speaker 1: Atlanta sat down at two different points in October and

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Speaker 1: November of ninety six, with the November strikes spreading to

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Speaker 1: other plants in the Atlanta area as well. Workers at

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Speaker 1: Bendix Products in South Bend, Indiana sat down in mid

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Speaker 1: November and mid December, workers sat down at two GM

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Speaker 1: plants in Kansas City, Missouri, and then at a body

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Speaker 1: stamping plant in Cleveland, Ohio, as well as the Kelsey

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Speaker 1: Hayes wheel plant in Detroit, Michigan. All of these were

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Speaker 1: either divisions of our suppliers of GM. On December sixty six,

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Speaker 1: the u A W ast for a meeting with GM

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Speaker 1: upper management, but GM refused, maintaining that any collective bargaining

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Speaker 1: would have to happen at the local level, from plant

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Speaker 1: to plant. But the u A W argued that the

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Speaker 1: issues that it wanted to discuss, things like recognizing the

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Speaker 1: union for collective bargaining a seniority system for workers and

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Speaker 1: the tremendous speeds expected of workers on the line, where

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Speaker 1: things that applied for every GM factory in the nation.

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Speaker 1: Late December also wasn't ideal for the u a W

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Speaker 1: to be planning a huge strike. Most of GM's workers

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00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:26,639
Speaker 1: celebrated Christmas, so this was just not a great time

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Speaker 1: for people to lose their wages or to be separated

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Speaker 1: from their families. Since many of GM's factories were clustered

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Speaker 1: together in the Midwest, the weather at the end of

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00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:39,000
Speaker 1: the year would probably not be all that conducive to

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00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:41,480
Speaker 1: things like the pickets and the protests that were needed

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00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:46,080
Speaker 1: to support the strike. And Michigan had elected a new governor,

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Speaker 1: Frank Murphy, who was expected to be far more sympathetic

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Speaker 1: to organize labor than his predecessor had been, but he

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00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:57,160
Speaker 1: was not going to take office until January one. However,

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00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:00,440
Speaker 1: workers themselves took this decision out of the u a

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Speaker 1: w's hands, and we're gonna get to that after we

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00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:14,760
Speaker 1: pause for a sponsor break. As the u a W

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Speaker 1: tried to organize GM workers in Flint, Michigan, GM tried

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Speaker 1: to reduce its risk in the event of a strike.

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Speaker 1: On December six, the company transferred union members out of

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Speaker 1: its Chevrolet body stamping plant in Flint that was known

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Speaker 1: as Fisher Body number two. Then on December, the company

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Speaker 1: started removing the dies that were used to stamp out

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Speaker 1: body parts from another Flint plant, which was Fisher Body

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Speaker 1: number one. This was one of only two sets of

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Speaker 1: dies that GM was using to stamp out auto bodies,

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Speaker 1: and their removal from the plant represented not only a

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Speaker 1: loss of jobs because the people who did that work

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Speaker 1: would not have work to do anymore, but also a

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Speaker 1: loss of leverage. If the workers took over the plant

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Speaker 1: with the dies still in it, that would stop production

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Speaker 1: on multiple models of GM cars. So when the workers

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Speaker 1: at Fisher one realized what was happening with the dies,

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Speaker 1: they immediately started a strike, taking over the building, and

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Speaker 1: workers at Fisher two started striking on the same day.

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Speaker 1: There are also oral history testimony suggesting that another factor

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Speaker 1: might have been at work here as well. Flat glass

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Speaker 1: workers had also gone on strike, and that was leading

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Speaker 1: to a potential glass shortage for car manufacturing. If the

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Speaker 1: factories in Flint ran out of glass, production would shut

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Speaker 1: down anyway, so workers decided to strike before that could happen.

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Speaker 1: The strikes. Organizers decided that only men could occupy the

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Speaker 1: plants during the strike, so while there were women working

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Speaker 1: at GM, they could not be part of the sit down.

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Speaker 1: But women's participation in other aspects of the strike was

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Speaker 1: absolutely critic goal. The Women's Auxiliary, which was organized by

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Speaker 1: twenty three year old Genera Johnson, who was later Genera

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Speaker 1: Johnson Dollinger, set up a strike kitchen to feed the

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Speaker 1: striking workers and their families. They delivered food directly to

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Speaker 1: the factories. The Women's Auxiliary also did the striker's laundry,

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Speaker 1: and about three weeks into the strike, they started a

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Speaker 1: daycare for the striking workers children. They also brought children

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Speaker 1: to the factories to visit their family members, and they

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Speaker 1: picketed and did other work in support of the strike.

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Speaker 1: It took some time for some of these efforts to

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00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:35,360
Speaker 1: get off the ground, in part because the company had

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Speaker 1: put so much effort into swing distrust of the union

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Speaker 1: among the workers wives who support the Women's Auxiliary needed.

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Speaker 1: In oral histories recorded in the nineteen eighties and nineties,

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Speaker 1: women described going to the factories after the strike started

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Speaker 1: expecting to drag their husbands out of some kind of

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Speaker 1: debauchery or a radical communist frenzy, but then staying to

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Speaker 1: help make food once they realized what was a ttually

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Speaker 1: going on. Whether they worked at GM or not, the

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00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:07,800
Speaker 1: women involved in the auxiliary faced hostility from company supporters

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Speaker 1: and the strikes critics, including people questioning their morality and

359
00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:16,160
Speaker 1: implying that they were sex workers. We should note that

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00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:22,359
Speaker 1: while there was not like a stereotypical screaming radical uh

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Speaker 1: conspiracy of communism happening in the strike, there were definitely

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00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:31,120
Speaker 1: communists and socialists among the strikers and within the labor

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00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:35,600
Speaker 1: movement in general. Both communism and socialism had and have

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00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:38,159
Speaker 1: a focus on fair treatment of workers, so this is

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00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:41,960
Speaker 1: not really that surprising. Genera Johnson Dollinger, for example, had

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Speaker 1: become a socialist at the age of sixteen. She was

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Speaker 1: one of the more radical people involved with the strike,

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00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:51,399
Speaker 1: though many others had a general interest and communist or

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00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:56,359
Speaker 1: socialist ideals while not formally being a member of either party.

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Speaker 1: And we should also take a moment to note that,

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Speaker 1: at least as far as we know, all the women

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00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:05,000
Speaker 1: in the auxiliary in Flint were white. Although GM did

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00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:08,320
Speaker 1: employ black people in its factories, they were only hired

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Speaker 1: in janitorial rules or to work in the foundry. Only

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00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:15,719
Speaker 1: one black employee, Roscoe van Zant, is known to have

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Speaker 1: sat down in flint, during this strike. During the sit

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Speaker 1: down strike, workers inside the plants established rules for behavior,

378
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:29,120
Speaker 1: including maintaining order, keeping things clean and organized, and mediating disputes.

379
00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:32,480
Speaker 1: As people were cooped up together for weeks, workers held

380
00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:35,960
Speaker 1: lectures and classes for one another. They read and played games,

381
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,480
Speaker 1: and sang songs in order to keep their spirits up.

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00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:42,840
Speaker 1: Songs included a union anthem called Solidarity Forever that was

383
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Speaker 1: sung to the theme of the Battle Hymn of the Republic,

384
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:49,920
Speaker 1: and at first GM's response was mostly not to engage.

385
00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:53,879
Speaker 1: GM president Alfred P. Sloan stated quote, we will not

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Speaker 1: negotiate with a union while it's agents forcibly hold possession

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00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 1: of our property. An executive vice president, William S. Knudsen,

388
00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:05,080
Speaker 1: called the striking workers trespassers and violators of the law

389
00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:09,240
Speaker 1: of the land. GM also argued that the union's bargaining

390
00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:12,440
Speaker 1: efforts were not legal under the National Labor Relations Act

391
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:15,719
Speaker 1: since fewer than half of the employees had joined the union.

392
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:20,119
Speaker 1: The U a W countered that GM had illegally interfered

393
00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 1: with its effort to get workers to join, preventing it

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00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:27,400
Speaker 1: from getting a larger membership. On January second, GM got

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00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,520
Speaker 1: a court order to have the striking workers removed from

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00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:34,159
Speaker 1: the factories, but the workers refused to go. Then it

397
00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:38,240
Speaker 1: became public knowledge that the judge who issued this injunction,

398
00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:41,080
Speaker 1: which was Edward D. Black, owned a whole bunch of

399
00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:44,520
Speaker 1: stock in GM. This was a clear conflict of interest.

400
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:47,680
Speaker 1: People pretty much dropped the subject of trying to get

401
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:51,840
Speaker 1: this um injunction enforced. On January fourth, the u a

402
00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:55,240
Speaker 1: W submitted a list of demands, including that the u

403
00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:58,840
Speaker 1: a W be given exclusive recognition as the bargaining agency

404
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: for workers at GM, abolishing the piece work system, a

405
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:05,840
Speaker 1: thirty hour work week with time and a half for overtime,

406
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 1: minimum pay rates, the reinstatement of people who had been

407
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:13,880
Speaker 1: fired unfairly, a seniority system, and a speed of production

408
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:17,320
Speaker 1: that was mutually agreed upon by managers and a committee

409
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:21,680
Speaker 1: from the union. But GM continued to refuse to negotiate.

410
00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:26,440
Speaker 1: On January eleven, ninety seven, GM turned off the heat

411
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:30,159
Speaker 1: and electricity at Fisher two, even though the temperature that

412
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 1: day was only sixteen degrees fahrenheit or almost negative nine celsius.

413
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,639
Speaker 1: They also locked the factory gate to stop the women's

414
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:42,159
Speaker 1: auxiliary from delivering food. Workers and their supporters broke the

415
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:45,800
Speaker 1: gate open, and that escalated into a fight between law

416
00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:50,080
Speaker 1: enforcement and the workers and their supporters. The police used

417
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:53,720
Speaker 1: tear gas and they fired upon the workers. The workers

418
00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:58,160
Speaker 1: defended themselves with things like fire hoses and thrown door hinges.

419
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:01,439
Speaker 1: Women who were outside the plan were also part of

420
00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:04,520
Speaker 1: this fighting. They were armed with things like homemade blackjacks

421
00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:07,159
Speaker 1: and bars of soaps stuffed down in the toes of socks.

422
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:12,000
Speaker 1: At least sixteen workers and eleven police were injured, with

423
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:16,159
Speaker 1: most of the worker injuries coming from gunshot wounds. In

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00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 1: a later oral history interview, Genora Johnson Dollinger said of

425
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:22,280
Speaker 1: this moment, quote, I was frightened, and you first lose

426
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:25,080
Speaker 1: all your power of thinking for just a matter of moments,

427
00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:29,359
Speaker 1: and then you become terribly, terribly angry that armed policemen

428
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:33,159
Speaker 1: are shooting into unarmed men. She used the U. A

429
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:36,000
Speaker 1: W's loudspeaker car to call for women to come to

430
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:38,800
Speaker 1: the factory and stand with the men, banking on the

431
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:41,159
Speaker 1: idea that police would be reluctant to shoot at a

432
00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:46,080
Speaker 1: group of unarmed women. The striking workers nicknamed this incident

433
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:49,199
Speaker 1: the Battle of the Running Bulls or the Battle of

434
00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:52,560
Speaker 1: Bulls run with bulls being a slang term for police

435
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:56,199
Speaker 1: and some of the more radical women in the Women's Auxiliary,

436
00:27:56,400 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: including Genera Johnson Dollinger, decided to form a new organization afterward,

437
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:05,240
Speaker 1: that being the Emergency Brigade. Their job was to handle

438
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:09,919
Speaker 1: any emergency that arose during the strike. This included using

439
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 1: their own bodies to shield the striking workers from the police,

440
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:16,840
Speaker 1: as they had done on January eleventh, but it included

441
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:19,760
Speaker 1: other things too for the remainder of the strike, including

442
00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:22,720
Speaker 1: at one point helping a striking worker's wife give birth

443
00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:26,359
Speaker 1: to a baby. The Emergency Brigade were red berets and

444
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:30,040
Speaker 1: arm bands with the letters EB, and some members kept

445
00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:33,520
Speaker 1: working with the Women's Auxiliary while also working with the

446
00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:37,240
Speaker 1: Emergency Brigade. After the violence on January eleven, the U

447
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:41,440
Speaker 1: a W and GM reached a tentative agreement the striking

448
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:44,520
Speaker 1: workers would leave the plants and GM would start good

449
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:49,000
Speaker 1: faith negotiations with the union, not restarting production until those

450
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:53,479
Speaker 1: negotiations were complete. Workers who had been striking in other cities,

451
00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:57,760
Speaker 1: including Cleveland and Detroit, left their plans, but in Flint,

452
00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 1: the union heard that GM had also agreed to meet

453
00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 1: with another organization called the Flint Alliance, which the c

454
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,120
Speaker 1: i O and the U a W viewed as a

455
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:11,520
Speaker 1: company union. So workers in Flint refused to leave the factories,

456
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 1: and GM asked Governor Frank Murphy to call out the

457
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 1: National Guard. Yeah, there's also some suggestion that GM. It

458
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:21,120
Speaker 1: looks like GM wasn't going to abide by the promise

459
00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:24,840
Speaker 1: to not restart production until the negotiations were done, So

460
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:30,160
Speaker 1: after they contacted the governor, Murphy didn't did not act

461
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:33,280
Speaker 1: the way that many people would expect the governor to

462
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:37,480
Speaker 1: act during such an incident. He actually supported the workers

463
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,240
Speaker 1: legal right to unionize them to strike, and he was

464
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:44,040
Speaker 1: really afraid that using National Guard troops to physically remove

465
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,480
Speaker 1: them would just lead to people getting killed. So while

466
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:51,160
Speaker 1: Murphy did call out the National Guard, their task was

467
00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:55,200
Speaker 1: to keep a buffer between the workers on one side

468
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,520
Speaker 1: and GM GM security guards and police on the other.

469
00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 1: About twelve undred National guardsmen arrived in Flint on January twelve.

470
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:07,960
Speaker 1: On February one, U a W striker strategically took control

471
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:11,680
Speaker 1: of the Chevrolet Engine number four factory. To do this,

472
00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:15,200
Speaker 1: they staged a diversion, telling a company stool pigeon that

473
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 1: a strike was being planned at another factory, Chevy nine.

474
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:23,040
Speaker 1: Police and security guards from other plants, including Chevy four,

475
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 1: converged on Chevy nine after hearing this rumor. Police through

476
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:31,000
Speaker 1: tear gas grenades into the plant, and women outside broke

477
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 1: the windows to try to clear the air. Meanwhile, workers

478
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:38,040
Speaker 1: took over the real target of Chevy Flour, and another

479
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:41,520
Speaker 1: group from the Emergency Brigade locked arms across the gate

480
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:46,120
Speaker 1: and stood guard. The governor called in an additional National

481
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:49,680
Speaker 1: Guard troops, which surrounded Chevy four and nearby Chevy to

482
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:54,160
Speaker 1: once again establishing a barrier around the striking workers and

483
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 1: separating them from a force that now included police, private

484
00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:00,800
Speaker 1: security guards, sheriff's deputies, and some billions who had been

485
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:04,880
Speaker 1: deputized for this purpose. Chevy four built the engines for

486
00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:09,680
Speaker 1: all Chevrolet vehicles, so this effectively stopped Chevrolet production throughout

487
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:13,760
Speaker 1: the company. At this point, the strike was seriously affecting

488
00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:17,760
Speaker 1: GM's production. In December of nineteen thirty six, the company

489
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 1: had built about fifty thousand cars. In February of ninety seven,

490
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:26,560
Speaker 1: that number was only one d twenty five. The strike

491
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 1: grew to involving about one hundred thirty five thousand workers

492
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 1: in plants from thirty five cities in fourteen states. President

493
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 1: Franklin D. Roosevelt urged GM to start seriously negotiating. On

494
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:43,960
Speaker 1: February two, another judge, Paul Godola, who did not have

495
00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:47,160
Speaker 1: a bunch of stock in GM, issued another injunction, this

496
00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:50,719
Speaker 1: one to take effect in twenty four hours, again ordering

497
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:54,479
Speaker 1: the striking workers to leave the factories. He also find

498
00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:59,320
Speaker 1: the union fifteen million dollars. Thousands of supporters started gathering

499
00:31:59,360 --> 00:32:02,959
Speaker 1: outside the occupied factories out of fear that this injunction

500
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:06,840
Speaker 1: would inspire vigilantes or hired security to try to remove

501
00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:10,480
Speaker 1: the striking workers by force. There's a random side note.

502
00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 1: The governor actually did own stock in GM as all

503
00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:16,640
Speaker 1: this was happening, although that was not known at the time,

504
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:19,600
Speaker 1: and since he was generally on the strikers side, it

505
00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:23,640
Speaker 1: wouldn't have had the same connotations as Judge black stock ownership.

506
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: Even if it had been known. This new injunction put

507
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:31,440
Speaker 1: the governor in a pretty precarious position. He was required

508
00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:34,920
Speaker 1: by law to honor it, but he still really feared

509
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:37,760
Speaker 1: that doing so would lead to a loss of life.

510
00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:43,160
Speaker 1: This was not an unreasonable fear, similarly to how businesses

511
00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:46,600
Speaker 1: had thought the Supreme Court might overturn the National Labor

512
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:49,520
Speaker 1: Relations Act. He also noted that the Court had not

513
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:53,200
Speaker 1: weighed in on the legality of sit down strikes, so

514
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:57,120
Speaker 1: he tried to delay. He made some public statements calling

515
00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:00,360
Speaker 1: the strike an unlawful seizure of property, but he still

516
00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:04,560
Speaker 1: didn't take steps to actually clear the factories. Insteady contacted

517
00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:08,240
Speaker 1: the President, again, encouraging Roosevelt to order GM to the

518
00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:13,440
Speaker 1: bargaining table. Alfred P. Sloan delegated GMS, negotiating to executive

519
00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:17,160
Speaker 1: vice president William Knudsen, along with representatives from the company's

520
00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:21,400
Speaker 1: finance and legal departments. On the workers side was CIO

521
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:25,760
Speaker 1: President John L. Lewis, previously of United Mine Workers, and

522
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:29,880
Speaker 1: U a W Vice President Windham Mortimer. The negotiations were

523
00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:33,000
Speaker 1: held in the office and jury room of Judge George Murphy,

524
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:37,040
Speaker 1: brother of Governor Murphy, and Governor Murphy acted as a mediator.

525
00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:41,800
Speaker 1: Murphy kept both President Roosevelt and Secretary of Labor Francis

526
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:46,440
Speaker 1: Perkins updated on their progress. Although Murphy tried to get

527
00:33:46,520 --> 00:33:50,040
Speaker 1: Judge Godola to delay the removal of the workers. On

528
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 1: February five, the judge issued a writ of attachment which

529
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:57,280
Speaker 1: ordered the sheriff to arrest all the workers that were

530
00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 1: occupying GM buildings and to bring them in to court

531
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:04,480
Speaker 1: to face charges of contempt. But like the governor, Sheriff

532
00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:08,359
Speaker 1: Thomas Walcott had some serious reservations about doing this and

533
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:10,600
Speaker 1: he would only agree to do it if he were

534
00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:14,800
Speaker 1: explicitly ordered to do so by the governor. He asked

535
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:18,080
Speaker 1: Murphy for National Guard support. Murphy, of course, was not

536
00:34:18,239 --> 00:34:20,439
Speaker 1: going to directly order him to do this. He thought

537
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 1: it was going to get people killed. So Murphy informed

538
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:27,160
Speaker 1: the judge that he thought they were really close to

539
00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:30,520
Speaker 1: an agreement. This was on a Friday, and the governor

540
00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:33,200
Speaker 1: tried to get everybody to just hold tight till after

541
00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:36,759
Speaker 1: the weekend, but by Monday, February eight, GM and the

542
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:40,480
Speaker 1: U a W still had not reached an agreement. Murphy

543
00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:43,440
Speaker 1: kept trying to reassure everyone that one was imminent, and

544
00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:46,040
Speaker 1: he was later quoted as saying, if I sent those

545
00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:48,600
Speaker 1: soldiers right in on the men, there'd be no telling

546
00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:51,520
Speaker 1: how many would be killed. It would be inconsistent with

547
00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:55,000
Speaker 1: everything I have ever stood for in my whole political life.

548
00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:59,360
Speaker 1: An agreement between GM and the U a W finally

549
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:03,279
Speaker 1: came on February eleventh, nineteen thirty seven, forty four days

550
00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:06,360
Speaker 1: after the start of the strike and after zero people

551
00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:09,600
Speaker 1: getting killed. Under the terms of this deal, the strike

552
00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 1: would end and the striking workers would stop occupying the plants.

553
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:18,120
Speaker 1: Those plants would resume operation. GM agreed not to discriminate

554
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:21,840
Speaker 1: or retaliate against the employees for joining a union or

555
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:25,640
Speaker 1: for having participated in the strike. GM also agreed to

556
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:30,799
Speaker 1: start collective bargaining on February, and that bargaining was meant

557
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:33,680
Speaker 1: to address the grievances that the union had presented to

558
00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:37,400
Speaker 1: the company back in January. The union agreed not to

559
00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:41,200
Speaker 1: implement any more strikes or work stoppages while that negotiation

560
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:44,600
Speaker 1: was taking place, although it was not officially part of

561
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:48,120
Speaker 1: the agreement. GM also announced a pay increase of five

562
00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:51,560
Speaker 1: cents an hour, and in a separate letter, Nudsen informed

563
00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:54,520
Speaker 1: Murphy that for a period of six months, GM would

564
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:57,839
Speaker 1: negotiate only with U a W, not with any other

565
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:01,600
Speaker 1: union strikers, and chev lay Plant number four voted to

566
00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:04,280
Speaker 1: have Roscoe van zandt lead them out of the building.

567
00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:06,920
Speaker 1: Trying to track down whether that five cents an hour

568
00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:10,040
Speaker 1: pay increase affected people who were being paid by the

569
00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:14,400
Speaker 1: piece and I don't know, but there were people that

570
00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:16,960
Speaker 1: were not paid by the piece UH a lot of

571
00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:19,200
Speaker 1: times and not working directly on the assembly line. So

572
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:22,840
Speaker 1: this first agreement between GM and the u a W

573
00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:25,920
Speaker 1: was not one that addressed all those demands that the

574
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:29,080
Speaker 1: u a W had submitted back in January. Some of

575
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:32,600
Speaker 1: those demands later became part of federal law, including the

576
00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:37,239
Speaker 1: Fair Labor Standards Act that was first passed. Others were

577
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:41,160
Speaker 1: demands that the UAW kept working towards at GM and

578
00:36:41,239 --> 00:36:44,520
Speaker 1: at other auto manufacturers for years. They weren't things that

579
00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:47,200
Speaker 1: were just quickly wrapped up in a round of collective

580
00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:51,719
Speaker 1: bargaining that started on February six after the strike was over. Instead,

581
00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:56,319
Speaker 1: disagreement's major accomplishment was GM's recognition of the union and

582
00:36:56,360 --> 00:37:00,400
Speaker 1: its promise to participate in collective bargaining, and in that

583
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,880
Speaker 1: it was enormously influential. It established the u a W

584
00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 1: as a legitimate union in the auto industry, and its

585
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:10,319
Speaker 1: membership grew from about ninety eight thousand to nearly four

586
00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:15,120
Speaker 1: hundred thousand in ninety seven alone. U a W started

587
00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:21,120
Speaker 1: bargaining for workers for many other US auto manufacturers, including Studebaker, Hudson, Packard,

588
00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:25,120
Speaker 1: and Chrysler, and four years after the Flint strike at Ford.

589
00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:29,480
Speaker 1: The success in Flint also sparked an enormous increase in

590
00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:32,800
Speaker 1: union membership overall and a wave of sit down strikes

591
00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:35,719
Speaker 1: as people tried to get better pay and working conditions.

592
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:39,040
Speaker 1: There were a hundred and fifty sit down strikes in

593
00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:42,759
Speaker 1: the United States in nineteen thirty seven alone, about a

594
00:37:42,840 --> 00:37:46,800
Speaker 1: hundred of them in the area around Detroit, Michigan. About

595
00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:50,120
Speaker 1: half a million workers across the country went on strike

596
00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:53,319
Speaker 1: and about two million joined a union between nineteen thirty

597
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 1: seven and ninety eight. These were not confined to the

598
00:37:56,680 --> 00:38:02,480
Speaker 1: auto industry or two industrial jobs. On February seven, clerks

599
00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:05,800
Speaker 1: at Woolworth stopped working and took over stores for a week,

600
00:38:06,200 --> 00:38:10,960
Speaker 1: winning a twenty pay increase and union involvement in hiring decisions.

601
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:14,600
Speaker 1: In March, workers at four locations of the H. L.

602
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:18,480
Speaker 1: Green department store chain in New York City implemented sit

603
00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:23,279
Speaker 1: down strikes. Incarcerated people in Illinois and Pennsylvania went on

604
00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:26,959
Speaker 1: strike as well, although these strikers demands were not met.

605
00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:31,840
Speaker 1: In April of ninety seven, the Supreme Court issued a

606
00:38:31,960 --> 00:38:36,240
Speaker 1: ruling in National Labor Relations Board versus Jones and Lachlan

607
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:41,120
Speaker 1: Steel Corporation, which upheld the National Labor Relations Act. But

608
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:44,520
Speaker 1: over the course of the year, public sentiment really turned

609
00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:47,520
Speaker 1: against the proliferation of sit down strikes. I mean, the

610
00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 1: public had not overwhelmingly supported down strikes in the first place,

611
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:54,200
Speaker 1: but became a lot more critical. And the words of

612
00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:58,239
Speaker 1: the Detroit News quote, sitting down has replaced baseball as

613
00:38:58,280 --> 00:39:02,600
Speaker 1: a national pastime and centered downers clutter the landscape in

614
00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:06,600
Speaker 1: every direction. In late nineteen thirty seven, a Gallop poll

615
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:11,520
Speaker 1: found that about sevent of Americans disapproved of sit down strikes.

616
00:39:12,239 --> 00:39:15,080
Speaker 1: Then in nineteen thirty nine, the U. S. Supreme Court

617
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:17,919
Speaker 1: issued a ruling in N L r B. Versus Fan

618
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:21,680
Speaker 1: Steel Metallurgical Corp. Which found that Fan Steel had violated

619
00:39:21,719 --> 00:39:24,360
Speaker 1: the Wagner Act, but also that the practice of the

620
00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:27,840
Speaker 1: sit down strike was quote a high handed proceeding without

621
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:32,439
Speaker 1: shadow of a legal right. So labor organizers largely moved

622
00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:34,840
Speaker 1: away from sit down strikes, but they have been cited

623
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:39,920
Speaker 1: as an inspiration for sit ins during movements for equal rights. Yeah,

624
00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:42,600
Speaker 1: when we did that episode, that sort of rounded up

625
00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:45,640
Speaker 1: like the sipp In movement and the fishing movement and

626
00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:47,120
Speaker 1: all of those things. The first one that we talked

627
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:50,520
Speaker 1: about was the Alexandria Public Library sit in, which was

628
00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:53,680
Speaker 1: originally called to sit down strike. Also, we are not

629
00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:56,120
Speaker 1: going to try to recap the the next eighty five

630
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:59,919
Speaker 1: years of labor history. Well, there are lots of story

631
00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:03,279
Speaker 1: eas within it that we can tell it later times. Um,

632
00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:05,920
Speaker 1: and I mean stuff that's been in the headlines within

633
00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 1: the last year about everything from workers rights to organize

634
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:14,320
Speaker 1: to like a big corruption scandal at the U A

635
00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:16,400
Speaker 1: w all of that is out of the scope of

636
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:19,560
Speaker 1: this podcast. Do you have a listener mail for us?

637
00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:23,000
Speaker 1: I do I have listener mail friend Tony. Tony says Hi,

638
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:25,799
Speaker 1: Holly and Tracy, longtime listener, first time writing in. I

639
00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:28,520
Speaker 1: was so excited today during part one of the Tarbell

640
00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:32,080
Speaker 1: versus Rockefeller when you started talking about the discovery of

641
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:34,680
Speaker 1: oil drilling and Titus Bill that I pause the episode

642
00:40:34,719 --> 00:40:36,840
Speaker 1: to call my mom and tell her about it. My

643
00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:39,839
Speaker 1: entire family is from that area in Oil City, very

644
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,439
Speaker 1: near Titus Bill. My mom took me to Drake's well

645
00:40:42,520 --> 00:40:44,440
Speaker 1: when I was little and pointed out that the picture

646
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:46,960
Speaker 1: of Drake standing in front of the well in eighteen

647
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:50,440
Speaker 1: sixty six is also a picture of my ancestor, my

648
00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:54,640
Speaker 1: great great uncle Peter. I've attached to the picture below

649
00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:57,279
Speaker 1: and standing on the right and the top hat is

650
00:40:57,360 --> 00:40:59,319
Speaker 1: Drake and the man on the left next to him

651
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:03,400
Speaker 1: is Peter Wilson. According to our genealogy findings, Peter Wilson

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00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:06,520
Speaker 1: owned a successful apothecary in the area and helped bank

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00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:10,240
Speaker 1: roll Drakes drilling. There's very little mention of Peter Wilson

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00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:12,879
Speaker 1: outside of the picture at the well, so we don't

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00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:14,880
Speaker 1: know a lot about his life aside from that, but

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00:41:15,040 --> 00:41:17,360
Speaker 1: I'm hoping one day I can go dig through city

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00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:20,600
Speaker 1: records and find more. There are still oil wells all

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00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:23,320
Speaker 1: over the area, and unfortunately still a lot of issues

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00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:26,360
Speaker 1: connected to them. Cancer rates in the area are higher

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00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:28,799
Speaker 1: than in other areas of the state, and several of

661
00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:31,360
Speaker 1: my family members and friends have suffered from issues with

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00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:34,719
Speaker 1: water quality on their land. It was really cool to

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00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:37,200
Speaker 1: hear a lot about the history of the area my

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00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:40,800
Speaker 1: family is from, especially since many of my ancestors, including

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00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:44,280
Speaker 1: my grandfather, worked for Standard Oil and other oil companies

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00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:48,359
Speaker 1: in the area. Western Pennsylvania is very beautiful and some

667
00:41:48,440 --> 00:41:50,880
Speaker 1: of the oil money mansions still exist in Oil City,

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00:41:51,120 --> 00:41:53,040
Speaker 1: and I wish there was a bit more visibility for

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00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:57,440
Speaker 1: the area in its history. Uh. Tony then apologizes for

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00:41:57,480 --> 00:41:59,319
Speaker 1: the email running a bit long, but I don't find

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00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:03,000
Speaker 1: this to be long at all, and Tony says, I'm

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00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:05,560
Speaker 1: in the process of applying for graduate schools, and I

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00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:07,000
Speaker 1: have to say a big part of that decision was

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00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:09,759
Speaker 1: realizing how much I loved history from listening to this podcast.

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00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:11,920
Speaker 1: Thank you for all you do. My husband and I

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00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:14,319
Speaker 1: look forward to new episodes and listen every week. Have

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00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:17,000
Speaker 1: a great day, Tony. Thank you so much, Tony for

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00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:20,520
Speaker 1: this email. I had seen that picture of the well

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00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:22,560
Speaker 1: when I was doing my research, and it's so cool

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00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:25,560
Speaker 1: for somebody to right in and be like, that's my

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00:42:25,719 --> 00:42:30,719
Speaker 1: ancestor in that picture. That has become like a historical touchstone.

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00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:33,799
Speaker 1: I love it. If you would like to write to

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00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:36,840
Speaker 1: us about this or any other podcast, were history podcast

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00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:39,439
Speaker 1: that I heart radio dot com and we're all over

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00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:41,920
Speaker 1: social media at miss in History, which is what you'll

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00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:45,520
Speaker 1: find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, and you can

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00:42:45,640 --> 00:42:48,399
Speaker 1: subscribe to our show on the I heart Radio app

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00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:56,840
Speaker 1: and really anywhere else you'd like to get podcasts. Stuff

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00:42:56,840 --> 00:42:58,840
Speaker 1: you Missed in History Class is a production of I

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00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:02,359
Speaker 1: heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit

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00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:05,680
Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:07,640
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows. H