WEBVTT - The Flint Sit-down Strike 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.680 of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:18.400 I'm Tracy new Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. Anniversary of 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:21.400 the Flint sit down strike is this month. That's marked 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:26.600 as starting on December six, But that name and they 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:32.400 don't quite capture the whole of the strike. Flint, Michigan 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:37.040 was absolutely at the heart of auto manufacturing for General Motors, 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:41.120 and the strike was largely centered around Flint, but this 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:44.559 strike also involved workers at GM factories all over the 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.879 United States. And while the major strike activity in Flint 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:53.480 started on December, it also followed earlier strikes in other 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.840 parts of Michigan and in other states. So this name 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.640 and date, as they're commonly known, it's really a little 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:03.280 bit broader than that. We have talked about several strikes 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:07.280 on the show before, including strikes in the United States, Canada, England, 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:10.840 and Ireland, but this one in particular has been cited 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:14.600 as one of the most significant and influential strikes in 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.520 United States labor history, and this strike took place while 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:21.160 the world was still trying to recover from the Great Depression. 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:25.679 This economic catastrophe had of course been devastating to people 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.360 all over the globe. General Motors in particular, had cut 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:33.080 nearly half of its staff while also increasing requirements for 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:38.440 workers productivity and implementing seasonal layoffs. Although the company would 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.240 loan money to laid off workers, they had to pay 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:43.360 it back out of their wages once they were back 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:47.320 on the job. But even people who had steady work 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.240 at GM during the Great Depression didn't really have a 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:54.040 sense of job security. There were so many people who 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:57.120 were out of work and just desperate for jobs that 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:00.480 the company knew it could fire anyone for essentially any 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:05.120 reason and have a replacement waiting immediately. This was especially 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.760 true in places like Flint, where GM was by far 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.720 the biggest employer. The US government took various steps to 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:16.720 try to bolster the nation's economy during the depression. One 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.960 was the National Industrial Recovery Act of ninety three. This 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.079 was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, and 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.560 he signed it into law during his first one hundred 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:30.359 days in office. This was an act quote to encourage 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:35.240 national industrial recovery, to foster fair competition, to provide for 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:39.000 the construction of certain useful public works, and for other purposes. 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.440 The National Industrial Recovery Acts suspended a lot of the 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:47.480 antitrust legislation that we talked about recently in our episodes 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:52.120 on Ida Tarbell. Instead, this Act encouraged businesses to form 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:57.679 alliances and to establish codes of fair competition. These codes 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.520 were meant to apply across whole end streets, setting standards 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:06.239 for things like consumer protections, fair wages, and prices for goods. 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.639 The idea was that these codes would reduce unfair business 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.040 practices that we're making it harder for struggling businesses to 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:18.920 stay afloat during the crisis, so things like undercutting competitors 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:21.880 prices to the point that they just could not go 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.480 that low. Section seven A of the Act read quote, 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:29.880 Every code of fair competition, agreement, and license, approved, prescribed, 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:33.880 or issued under this Title shall contain the following conditions. 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.520 One that employees shall have the right to organize and 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:41.360 bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and shall 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.920 be free from the interference, restraint, or coercion of employers 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.720 of labor or their agents in the designation of such representatives, 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:52.480 or in self organization or in other concerted activities for 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:57.280 the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection. Too, 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:00.480 That no employee, and no one seeking employe meant, shall 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.880 be required, as a condition of employment, to join any 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:08.160 company union, or to refrain from joining, organizing, or assisting 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:12.360 a labor organization of his own choosing. And three that 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:16.520 employers shall comply with the maximum hours of labor, minimum 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.240 rates of pay, and other conditions of employment approved or 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:25.400 prescribed by the President. This Act contained lots of provisions 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:29.440 that we haven't gotten into here, including authorizing the presidents 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:34.000 to establish a federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. But 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:37.360 in terms of the Flint sit down strike, Section seven 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:42.160 A was key. It protected employees right to organize and 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.960 bargain collectively, and this was a huge deal. Although the 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.440 term collective bargaining had been coined by British social reformer 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:54.080 Beatrice web In, workers have been trying to work together 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:58.040 to secure better pay and working conditions for centuries, and 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:01.800 in the US trade unions, other efforts to collectively bargain 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:06.440 had been illegal. They were treated as criminal conspiracies. The 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:10.960 National Industrial Recovery Act was the first federal law legalizing 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:16.320 union membership and collective bargaining, but in general, employers were 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:20.560 reluctant to comply with various provisions of the Act. There 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.640 were also questions about whether the Supreme Court would find 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:28.320 it to be unconstitutional. Some employers used this uncertainty to 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:32.200 justify their non compliance with the law, and they kept 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:37.159 working directly against their employees legal right to unionize. As 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:41.600 a result, labor disputes, including strikes, surged as workers and 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.560 their unions fought for the kinds of rights and protections 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:48.040 they were legally entitled to, and some of these disputes 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:52.040 led to violence. In August of nineteen thirty three, Roosevelt 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.359 established the National Labor Board, chaired by Senator Robert F. 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:58.400 Wagner of New York, to try to mediate between the 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:02.599 growing labor movement and industry leaders. In addition to Wagner, 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:07.560 the board had six members, three each representing labor and industry. 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:12.400 But the board really didn't have much enforcement power. Companies 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:14.840 that were operating under one of the codes that had 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:18.159 been established under the new law were allowed to display 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:21.760 an emblem of a blue eagle, and all that the 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.200 NLB could really do when companies stopped following the rules 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.200 was to make them take their eagle down. In May 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.200 of ninety five, the Supreme Court issued its decision in 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:35.280 Scheckter Poultry Corps versus United States, which did indeed find 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:39.839 the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional. At the 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:43.320 same time, though the act's industrial provisions were supposed to 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.920 expire after two years or sooner if the President or 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:51.160 Congress decided they were no longer needed, this decision came 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:55.240 just a few weeks before that expiration date. A big 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:59.240 reason behind that decision was that this Act delegated a 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.080 lot of legis aative power to the president without really 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:06.920 setting guidelines on how the president could use that power. Uh. 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:09.440 It was not the whole decision, obviously, but that's sort 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:13.960 of the crux. People were divided as to whether or 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.960 to what extent this Act had been effective at what 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.920 it set out to do. It was supposed to quote, 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:24.400 remove obstructions to the free flow of interstate and foreign commerce. 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:27.960 It was supposed to do that by reducing labor disputes, 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:32.280 reducing unfair competitive practices, and making sure industries were working 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:36.800 at full capacity. It had generally improved workers pay and 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:39.360 working conditions, and it had cut down on some of 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:43.320 the competitive practices that were undermining the economic recovery, but 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:46.160 it was also blamed for things like making various goods 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:50.520 more expensive and slowing the pace of production. The government 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:53.680 still had a vested interest in this idea of removing 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:59.080 obstructions to interstate commerce, including obstructions that stemmed from labor disputes, 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:02.640 and of her activists were advocating for the protections that 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.560 had been part of the National Industrial Recovery Act to 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:09.560 be restored. This led to the National Labor Relations Act, 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.080 introduced by Senator Wagner and also called the Wagner Act, 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:17.920 which was signed into law on July six. This was 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:20.920 an act to quote diminish the causes of labor disputes 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:25.080 burdening or obstructing interstate and foreign commerce, to create a 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:29.800 National Labor Relations Board, and for other purposes. The Act 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.520 applied to all employers involved in interstate commerce, with the 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:39.280 exception of airlines, railroads, agriculture, and the government. It framed 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:43.760 employers refusal to respect their employees right to unionize or 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:48.199 to accept collective burgaining as the cause of industrial strife 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:52.560 leading to strikes and other unrest. The Act also noted 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.160 that companies have a lot more of power than their 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:59.200 employees do especially when those employees aren't protected by a 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:03.520 fair contra act or allowed to collectively bargain. It once 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:09.120 again legalized employees right to organize an outlawed employers interference 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.280 with that right, and it also empowered the National Labor 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:16.160 Relations Board to oversee this whole process and mediate disputes. 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.280 But since the Supreme Court had overturned the National Industrial 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.520 Recovery Act, many employers expected the National Labor Relations Act 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.320 to be struck down as well. Even though the law 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:31.760 barred employers from interfering with employees right to unionize, many 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:37.000 employers kept doing exactly that, things like hiring detectives to investigate, 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:42.320 spy on and harass union organizers and members, establishing company 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:45.480 unions that really represented the interest of the business rather 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.280 than its employees, and firing or demoting people who were 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:53.439 suspected of organizing or joining a union. So this brings 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:57.840 us to the US automotive industry and specifically to Flint, Michigan, 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:08.679 which we will get to after a spot a break. 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:13.400 The American Federation of Labor was established in the late 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:17.200 nineteenth century to bring craft and trade unions together under 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:22.400 one umbrella. It's first member unions represented people like tailor's, 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.080 iron molders and carpenters, and in its early years, the 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:29.400 a f L did not work with industrial unions at all. 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:35.160 Craft unions representing people like carpenters were considered to represent 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:40.520 skilled workers, while industrial workers, so people who worked on 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:45.000 factory assembly lines were thought of as unskilled. But around 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.880 the time the Wagner Act was passed, the a f 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:53.960 L established a Committee for Industrial Organization. This committee soon 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:56.719 split off from the a f L and it re 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:01.080 established itself as its own organization was the Congress of 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:06.680 Industrial Organizations. United Auto Workers was established in Detroit, Michigan 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.800 in ninety five, and at first it became part of 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.320 the a f L, and like the a f L, 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:16.360 its initial focus was mainly on the automotive industry skilled workers, 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.920 not the people who worked on assembly lines in factories. 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.000 But when the CIO split off from the a f L, 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.959 the United Auto Workers went to Soon the u a 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:30.520 W was trying to organize factory workers, especially at the 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:35.680 Big three automakers GM, Ford, and Chrysler. GM was the 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.520 largest auto manufacturer in the world at the time, with 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:43.719 sixty nine plants in thirty five cities, many in the Midwest. Initially, 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:46.760 the U a W focused more on GM and Chrysler. 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:52.560 Because Henry Ford was vehemently anti union, GM actively worked 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:57.480 against these unionization efforts. According to information unearthed and Senate 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:01.679 committee hearings, between nineteen thirty four and nine six, GM 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:05.480 spent more than eight hundred thirty nine thousand dollars on 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.240 labor detective services, more than half of it paid to 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:14.959 the Pinkerton's. This detective work involved everything from investigating union 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:20.040 organizers to planting spies within the union, to harassing and 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:25.600 threatening workers. This Congressional committee described GM's spy work as 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:29.720 quote a monument to the most colossal supersystem of spies 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:35.000 yet devised in any American corporation. There are also reports 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:38.880 that GM conscripted an organization known as the Black Legion 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:43.280 to intimidate and threaten its employees. The Black Legion was 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:48.040 compared to the KKK and was aggressively anti union, and 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:51.800 this went beyond targeting the union itself and the workers 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:56.080 at the factories. Part of GM's union busting effort involved 0:12:56.080 --> 0:13:00.160 telling mail workers wives that their husband's union activities, we're 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.000 going to get them fired, as well as convincing women 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.360 that their husbands were up to no good, suggesting that 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:09.720 they were out late partying or soliciting sex workers, or 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.000 that they were lying about the union and that they 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:16.160 were really spending their after work time having extramarital affairs. 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:21.360 As u AW organizers tried to unionize GMS factories, they 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:25.000 were working against all of this, and they were finding 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:28.760 common themes among the workers grievances from plants a plant. 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:31.000 A lot of it was in line with what we 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:36.440 already discussed, like firings that seemed arbitrary or retaliatory. The 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:40.720 factories were also poorly ventilated, and during periods of hot weather, 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:45.000 workers passed out or even died from overheating, with their 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:49.040 coworkers expected to keep working until someone came to remove 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:52.680 the body. Many of the jobs were dangerous, including working 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:57.840 around dangerous substances with no ventilation or protective equipment. There 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.520 was also an immense focus on speed, to the point 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:04.040 that workers on the assembly line did not have time 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:06.920 to go to the bathroom. There was also nobody who 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.600 could cover for a person who became ill or injured 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:12.800 on the job. Workers talked about people who got sick 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:15.959 during the day and kept working on the assembly line 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:19.760 even though they were vomiting. There was also speed up 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.200 during peak production times, with workers expected to complete their 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:28.360 tasks on the assembly line at seemingly superhuman speeds. If 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.160 a factory was in danger of missing its daily quota, 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.160 speed up would start near the end of people's shifts, 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:38.240 when they were already exhausted. For many workers, take home 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:41.840 pay was not the biggest issue, but the way wages 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.560 were calculated was a problem. Many workers on the line 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.440 weren't paid an hourly or a daily rate. They were 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:51.480 paid by the piece, and the rate for each piece 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:55.000 didn't necessarily stay the same. It was often set at 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.400 a higher amount at the start of a pay period 0:14:57.440 --> 0:14:59.960 to encourage the workers to go as quickly as possible, 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:03.680 but then it would drop as pay day approached. People 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.800 wound up making less than they expected. In this whole 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:10.640 shifting pay rate felt like a bait and switch. Women 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.920 working at the GM factories faced an additional layer of hostility. 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:19.520 Some reported being sexually harassed and even assaulted by their supervisors, 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.800 who would then use the assault as leverage to try 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.880 to guarantee the woman's compliance at work. All of these 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.520 factors fed into the sit down strike. Most of the 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.360 strikes that had taken place in the United States before 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.600 this point had involved workers leaving their job sites and 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:42.520 organizing things like picket lines, demonstrations, protests, pamphleteering, and speeches. 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:46.000 While the strike at GM and nine six and thirty 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:49.880 seven still involved things like picket lines and other activities 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.160 outside the building, those were primarily the work of the 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:57.040 striking workers supporters, because in a sit down strike, employees 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:02.360 stayed inside the factory, physically occupying it. This strategy had 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:06.280 some advantages for the striking workers. A typical strike could 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.800 only be effective if the vast majority of the workers participated. 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:12.760 If only a few people walked out, the company could 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:17.080 just redistribute their work among their coworkers or higher replacements 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.400 without too much trouble. But a sit down strike allowed 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:22.840 a smaller number of people to take control of the 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:27.600 whole workplace. Employers also couldn't simply hire replacement workers to 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:31.240 take over, since the striking workers had control of the building. 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:35.480 Remaining inside the workplace also gave the workers more protection 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:39.760 from violence. Employers were reluctant to remove workers by force 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:43.440 due to the risk of damaging expensive machinery and equipment, 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:48.200 but there were also some downsides. Striking workers had to 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:50.960 be separated from their families than their friends who didn't 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.880 work with them, depending on where the strike was taking place. 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:58.720 Striking workers didn't have access to things like bathing facilities 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:03.360 or adequate sleeping spaces, although some of the GM strikers 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:06.360 were able to make reasonably comfortable beds with the padding 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:09.679 that was used to make car seats. Sit down strikes 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:14.760 were also questionably legal at best, since strikers were essentially trespassing. 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:18.320 The idea that a few workers could decide to go 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.320 on strike and take over the whole building also ran 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:24.520 against the spirit of the National Labor Relations Act, which 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.760 was really focused on the idea of a majority of 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.800 employees forming a union and bargaining, not on a smaller 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:35.240 number of employees forcing the issue by occupying the building. 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.080 In the US, the first sit down strike is generally 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:42.359 noted as having happened in nineteen o six, when members 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.320 of the Industrial Workers of the World stopped working but 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:48.240 stayed at their stations at a General Electric factory and 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:52.400 Schenecta in New York. Workers in Europe started occupying their 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.919 workplaces after World War One, including roughly half of the 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:59.000 metal workers in Paris in the spring of nineteen thirty six, 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:03.000 and that led to sweeping labor reforms in France. In 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.160 the US, workers at a rubber plant in Akron, Ohio 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:10.919 sat down in early ninety six as well. Fisher Body 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.320 was a division of GM, and Fisher Body workers in 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.639 Atlanta sat down at two different points in October and 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:21.600 November of ninety six, with the November strikes spreading to 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.240 other plants in the Atlanta area as well. Workers at 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:28.600 Bendix Products in South Bend, Indiana sat down in mid 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:32.680 November and mid December, workers sat down at two GM 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.719 plants in Kansas City, Missouri, and then at a body 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:39.280 stamping plant in Cleveland, Ohio, as well as the Kelsey 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:43.040 Hayes wheel plant in Detroit, Michigan. All of these were 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:49.080 either divisions of our suppliers of GM. On December sixty six, 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:51.359 the u A W ast for a meeting with GM 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:55.760 upper management, but GM refused, maintaining that any collective bargaining 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:58.600 would have to happen at the local level, from plant 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.240 to plant. But the u A W argued that the 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.480 issues that it wanted to discuss, things like recognizing the 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.439 union for collective bargaining a seniority system for workers and 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:12.040 the tremendous speeds expected of workers on the line, where 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:15.200 things that applied for every GM factory in the nation. 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:20.000 Late December also wasn't ideal for the u a W 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.720 to be planning a huge strike. Most of GM's workers 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.639 celebrated Christmas, so this was just not a great time 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.359 for people to lose their wages or to be separated 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:33.200 from their families. Since many of GM's factories were clustered 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.600 together in the Midwest, the weather at the end of 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:39.000 the year would probably not be all that conducive to 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:41.480 things like the pickets and the protests that were needed 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:46.080 to support the strike. And Michigan had elected a new governor, 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.800 Frank Murphy, who was expected to be far more sympathetic 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:53.159 to organize labor than his predecessor had been, but he 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:57.160 was not going to take office until January one. However, 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.440 workers themselves took this decision out of the u a 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:03.000 w's hands, and we're gonna get to that after we 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:14.760 pause for a sponsor break. As the u a W 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:19.120 tried to organize GM workers in Flint, Michigan, GM tried 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:21.679 to reduce its risk in the event of a strike. 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:27.159 On December six, the company transferred union members out of 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:30.680 its Chevrolet body stamping plant in Flint that was known 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:35.399 as Fisher Body number two. Then on December, the company 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:38.840 started removing the dies that were used to stamp out 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:42.200 body parts from another Flint plant, which was Fisher Body 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:46.040 number one. This was one of only two sets of 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.880 dies that GM was using to stamp out auto bodies, 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:52.800 and their removal from the plant represented not only a 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:55.320 loss of jobs because the people who did that work 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:57.720 would not have work to do anymore, but also a 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:02.119 loss of leverage. If the workers took over the plant 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:06.040 with the dies still in it, that would stop production 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:09.880 on multiple models of GM cars. So when the workers 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:13.240 at Fisher one realized what was happening with the dies, 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:17.520 they immediately started a strike, taking over the building, and 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:20.800 workers at Fisher two started striking on the same day. 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:25.440 There are also oral history testimony suggesting that another factor 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.000 might have been at work here as well. Flat glass 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:31.919 workers had also gone on strike, and that was leading 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:35.919 to a potential glass shortage for car manufacturing. If the 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:39.280 factories in Flint ran out of glass, production would shut 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:43.320 down anyway, so workers decided to strike before that could happen. 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:48.399 The strikes. Organizers decided that only men could occupy the 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:52.479 plants during the strike, so while there were women working 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:55.119 at GM, they could not be part of the sit down. 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:59.000 But women's participation in other aspects of the strike was 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:03.480 absolutely critic goal. The Women's Auxiliary, which was organized by 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:06.800 twenty three year old Genera Johnson, who was later Genera 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:10.199 Johnson Dollinger, set up a strike kitchen to feed the 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:13.960 striking workers and their families. They delivered food directly to 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:17.760 the factories. The Women's Auxiliary also did the striker's laundry, 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:20.080 and about three weeks into the strike, they started a 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:24.200 daycare for the striking workers children. They also brought children 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:27.160 to the factories to visit their family members, and they 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:29.919 picketed and did other work in support of the strike. 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:32.679 It took some time for some of these efforts to 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:35.360 get off the ground, in part because the company had 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:39.320 put so much effort into swing distrust of the union 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:43.480 among the workers wives who support the Women's Auxiliary needed. 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:47.480 In oral histories recorded in the nineteen eighties and nineties, 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:51.160 women described going to the factories after the strike started 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:53.800 expecting to drag their husbands out of some kind of 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:57.800 debauchery or a radical communist frenzy, but then staying to 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:00.320 help make food once they realized what was a ttually 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:03.720 going on. Whether they worked at GM or not, the 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:07.800 women involved in the auxiliary faced hostility from company supporters 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:12.159 and the strikes critics, including people questioning their morality and 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:16.160 implying that they were sex workers. We should note that 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:22.359 while there was not like a stereotypical screaming radical uh 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:27.760 conspiracy of communism happening in the strike, there were definitely 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:31.120 communists and socialists among the strikers and within the labor 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:35.600 movement in general. Both communism and socialism had and have 0:23:35.880 --> 0:23:38.159 a focus on fair treatment of workers, so this is 0:23:38.200 --> 0:23:41.960 not really that surprising. Genera Johnson Dollinger, for example, had 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:44.760 become a socialist at the age of sixteen. She was 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:47.320 one of the more radical people involved with the strike, 0:23:47.359 --> 0:23:51.399 though many others had a general interest and communist or 0:23:51.400 --> 0:23:56.359 socialist ideals while not formally being a member of either party. 0:23:56.520 --> 0:23:58.320 And we should also take a moment to note that, 0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:01.119 at least as far as we know, all the women 0:24:01.200 --> 0:24:05.000 in the auxiliary in Flint were white. Although GM did 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:08.320 employ black people in its factories, they were only hired 0:24:08.359 --> 0:24:12.119 in janitorial rules or to work in the foundry. Only 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:15.719 one black employee, Roscoe van Zant, is known to have 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:19.200 sat down in flint, during this strike. During the sit 0:24:19.280 --> 0:24:23.400 down strike, workers inside the plants established rules for behavior, 0:24:23.640 --> 0:24:29.120 including maintaining order, keeping things clean and organized, and mediating disputes. 0:24:29.200 --> 0:24:32.480 As people were cooped up together for weeks, workers held 0:24:32.520 --> 0:24:35.960 lectures and classes for one another. They read and played games, 0:24:36.000 --> 0:24:38.480 and sang songs in order to keep their spirits up. 0:24:39.000 --> 0:24:42.840 Songs included a union anthem called Solidarity Forever that was 0:24:42.880 --> 0:24:45.160 sung to the theme of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, 0:24:45.760 --> 0:24:49.920 and at first GM's response was mostly not to engage. 0:24:50.400 --> 0:24:53.879 GM president Alfred P. Sloan stated quote, we will not 0:24:54.040 --> 0:24:57.600 negotiate with a union while it's agents forcibly hold possession 0:24:57.640 --> 0:25:01.480 of our property. An executive vice president, William S. Knudsen, 0:25:01.640 --> 0:25:05.080 called the striking workers trespassers and violators of the law 0:25:05.119 --> 0:25:09.240 of the land. GM also argued that the union's bargaining 0:25:09.240 --> 0:25:12.440 efforts were not legal under the National Labor Relations Act 0:25:12.800 --> 0:25:15.719 since fewer than half of the employees had joined the union. 0:25:16.520 --> 0:25:20.119 The U a W countered that GM had illegally interfered 0:25:20.119 --> 0:25:23.080 with its effort to get workers to join, preventing it 0:25:23.119 --> 0:25:27.400 from getting a larger membership. On January second, GM got 0:25:27.440 --> 0:25:30.520 a court order to have the striking workers removed from 0:25:30.560 --> 0:25:34.159 the factories, but the workers refused to go. Then it 0:25:34.240 --> 0:25:38.240 became public knowledge that the judge who issued this injunction, 0:25:38.359 --> 0:25:41.080 which was Edward D. Black, owned a whole bunch of 0:25:41.080 --> 0:25:44.520 stock in GM. This was a clear conflict of interest. 0:25:44.960 --> 0:25:47.680 People pretty much dropped the subject of trying to get 0:25:47.680 --> 0:25:51.840