Strikes; General Motors; Flint; Miscellaneous. -Dancing in Front of Plant 1

View Item Record

Description:

Women dance together outside General Motors plant 1, during the Flint sit-down strike. "The Flint sit-down strike began the evening of Dec. 30, 1936, when the night shift stopped the loading of dies being shipped by the company to places where unionism was weaker, the union had noticed that the sit-down method of protest, which had started in Europe, seemed to work successfully, so the workers sat down and locked themselves in, trying to protect their jobs from being removed ... the union called for supporters to gather at Cadillac Square in Detroit as a show of strength, the overflowing crowd of 150,000 supporters surprised even the union sympathizers and gave the union the self-confidence they needed to show its power and solidarity over its management "oppressors," other union workers joined in sympathy strikes, closing plants in other states ... the dramatic military style battles depict the times and the desperation of those involved, the outcome much later in time proved that both the union and the company could coexist and indeed prosper beyond anyone's expectations, those who made the cars could finally afford to buy them, pouring profits back to the stockholders, spreading the wealth caused more to be created, the pension and wages won by the workers raised the standard of living for the whole country," from The historic 1936-37 Flint auto plant strikes, by Vivian M. Baulch and Patricia Zacharias / The Detroit News.

Notes:

Collection located at the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. To schedule an appointment to view the original image, order high resolution copies, or seek permission to use an image, contact the Walter P. Reuther Library Audiovisual Department at reutherreference@wayne.edu., Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, and This metadata was created by Wayne State University Library system based on original description by the Walter P. Reuther Library

Date Issued:

1937-02-01T00:00:00Z

Data Provider:

Wayne State University. Libraries and Walter P. Reuther Library

Collection:

Virtual Motor City

Place:

Michigan, Flint, Michigan, Flint, Michigan, and Flint

Subject Topic:

Women, Dance, Strikes and lockouts, Automobile industry, and Sit-down strikes

Format:

photographs

Rights:

Copyright Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University

URL:

http://digital.library.wayne.edu/item/wayne:vmc28856_2