This article is copied from the Detroit Journal NEWS,
the newspaper of the striking Detroit newspaper workers

THE FLINT SIT-DOWN STRIKE
60th ANNIVERSARY

Seizing the GM plants
won UAW recognition and a contract

Sunday, Dec. 29, 1996
By Kate DeSmet
Detroit Journal Staff Writer

Shortly after Christmas 1936, an electrifying sit-down strike hit the General Motors Corp. complex in Flint. The action would rival a hollywood script for drama, emotion and happy endings.

And the stars? Autoworkers in overalls, caps and coats who seized some of the most expensive corporate real estate in the world - and won.

The Flint sit-down strike, marking its 60th anniversary Monday, lasted 44 days and sparked sit-down strikes involving tens of thousands of workers across the country. In Detroit alone, some 35,000 workers sat down on the job in just one month to win union contracts in everything from hotel restaurants to cigar factories.

"Somebody would call the office and say, 'Look, we are sitting down. Send us over some food,' " recalled Robert Kanter of UAW Local 174 on West Warren at Livernois on Detroit's west side, Walter Reuther's home local.

What Flint workers fought for in 1936-37 were union contracts with General Motors. They did so by waging a dangerous campaign that included spies, gunfire and fire hoses.

Historical accounts of the Flint sit-down strike trace its beginnings to Dec. 30, 1936 when activists sat down in a Fisher Body plant to protest the firings of three inspectors. Reuther, who later was to become president of the UAW, expanded the strike to include two Detroit GM plants, the Cadillac factory on Clark and the Fleetwood facility on West Fort.

In a few days, the strike was declared a national campaign.

The counterattack

In reaction, GM and its allies beefed up the Flint police force by adding GM security men; they sought court injunctions against the strikers, and formed an organization of company loyalists and businessmen that would be offered as a company "union" in place of the UAW.

Then, on Jan. 11, 1937, the situation exploded. GM shut off the heat in Fisher Plant No. 2 and Flint police fired tear gas canisters into the plant. Strikers standing on the roof fired back with metal car door hinges and sprayed police with high-pressure water hoses. Reuther, along with his brothers Roy and Victor, was in the thick of the battle. Victor rode in a UAW sound car for hours shouting encouragement to the strikers.

Twice police attacked the plant and the pickets surrounding it. Both times police were forced back.

By day's end, 13 workers had been wounded by gunfire. But the battle - known now as the Battle of the Running Bulls - heightened public support and striker morale.

There was talk of a deal, but GM refused to put it in writing and soon reneged on its promises.

What followed was a bleak period for the union as several activists faced criminal charges, and GM, armed with injunctions, was preparing to remove the sit-downers from the plants. As the days dragged on, more UAW activists were physically attacked as GM called back to work 40,000 idled workers.

However a band of activists continued to meet nightly to plan daring strategies.

One of their plans would eventually turn the tide for workers. They decided to take over Chevrolet Engine Plant No. 4, GM's most critical facility. It posed many problems and it drew opposition from Reuther.

Also, a spy was spilling details to GM and the police.

A quick, daring move

So the activists constructed an elaborate ruse. They invited the informant to a meeting detailing a plan to take over Plant No. 9. The diversion worked: When the day of takeover came, police were massed at Plant 9, the wrong target.

Meanwhile, at Plant 4 - the real target - a small band of workers made their way inside, turning off machines, convincing other workers to join them, and herding the foremen out. Reuther, despite his opposition, became an active participant, even crawling under boxcars to restore power and light for the 3,000 men inside.

Word spread that workers had taken over the key GM plant and suddenly the roads to Flint were crowded with union supporters.

Gov. Frank Murphy, threatening to use National Guard troops against the strikers, was rebuffed by CIO President John L. Lewis with the now-famous comment:

"Tomorrow morning, I shall personally enter General Motors Plant No. 4. I shall order the men to disregard your order, to stand fast. I shall then walk up to the largest window in the plant, open it, divest myself of my outer raiment, remove my shirt and bare my bosom. Then when you order your troops to fire, mine will be the first breast that those bullets will strike."

Union is recognized

Murphy reportedly fled from the room. GM, fearing strikers would destroy its machinery, agreed on Feb. 11 to recognize the UAW as the sole bargaining agent for GM workers. The sit-downers marched out of Fisher Body No. 1 as thousands of supporters cheered and sang "Solidarity Forever."

Roy Reuther, caught up in the excitement, looked around and said the celebration was like "a country experiencing independence."

America's sit-down wave for unionism surged ahead.