84 years ago today, Flint Sit-Down Strike forced GM to recognize UAW

[Siwsan]

Another reason I'm so proud to call Flint, Michigan the city of my birth.

FLINT, MI -- Eighty four years ago today, Flint auto workers ended a 44-day long sit-down strike after General Motors agreed to a one-page contract that recognized the United Auto Workers as their bargaining agent, giving birth to the union movement in the United States and around the world.

The settling of the strike on Feb. 11, 1937, did not give the UAW everything it demanded, but it did provide exclusive rights for six months to organize in other plants and gained an assurance from the company not to discriminate against the strikers who were returning to work.

“The young people don’t know what the older people went through to get this,” Irene Mitchell, a local resident, said in a 1980 interview with the U-M Flint Labor History Project. “They don’t realize how they got it. It sounds like a fairytale.”
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The Sit-Down Strike began on Dec. 30, 1936, when about 50 men at the old Fisher 2 plant in Flint sat down on the assembly line, protesting the transfer of three inspectors who refused to quit the union.

More at:
https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2021/02/84-years-ago-today-flint-sit-down-strike-forced-gm-to-recognize-uaw.html

[kcr]

1. Kick & rec

for this important day in history.

[gibraltar72]

2. I met Walter Reuther.

Most impressive person I've actually met.