 Third-generation GM worker shows support for younger strikers Joe Krapohl, 64, of Otisville has spent more than 30 years working at GM as a toolmaker. He is a third-generation employee on the strike line outside the Flint Assembly Plant. After 40 days of 49,000 United Automobile Worker members went on strike over health care costs and temporary workers' rights at General Motors, a deal between the two parties was reached. The deal created and retain up to 9,000 jobs, increased wages, and see GM invest $7 billion into their U.S. facilities over four years. The strike was the sixth-longest in GM's history. Here are the other five: 44 days in 1936-37GM, like many auto companies during the early days of the industry, was opposed to unionization. A 1935 law gave workers the right to engage in collective bargaining and strike. From there, the UAW was born. Leaders traveled to Flint where 7,000 workers occupied a GM plant, the company's first major strike. Workers in Flint didn't picket the company. Instead, they sat down on the job, occupying the factory day and night by eating and sleeping inside. Police attempted to force employees out after the company said they were trespassing. The National Guard was called in to keep the peace outside as workers remained inside. The strike spread to more GM plants with a total of 136,000 workers taking part. Eventually, GM relented and raised wages by five cents an hour and the strike ended on February 11, 1937. The UAW also gained union recognition, and membership began to grow as a result. 54 days in 1998In the smallest of these five strikes, more than 9,000 workers at two Flint factories went on strike. It halted production at more than two dozen GM plants nationwide and led to a delay in the release of 1999 GM models. After GM lost a reported $2 billion in profits, the two sides reached an agreement on July 29, 1998. GM promised not to close several of the factories that went on strike and agreed to invest $180 million in new equipment. The UAW agreed to a 15% increase in daily output for certain skilled workers. 67 days in 1970At the time, GM was the biggest automaker in the world, and the UAW had as many as 400,000 members. The strike, which took place in the middle of an economic recession, saw more than 300,000 people walk out on the job in September, just seven months after the longest-ever local strike (see below). Not wanting the strike to continue into the next year, the two sides reached a deal before Thanksgiving. Workers won a 13% pay raise and the right to retire from the company after 30 years with an improved pension, according to NPR. 113 days in 1945-46The longest nationwide GM strike in history began following the end of World War II, a time in which auto companies had slowed production on consumer vehicles and raised prices. More than 320,000 workers went on strike. It lasted through the winter into March 1946. Then UAW vice president Walter Reuther initially pushed for a 30% wage increase for workers. The deal eventually gave workers a 17.5% increase. For Reuther's part, he became union president, going on to sign the "Treaty of Detroit" in 1950. It expanded vacation time and cost-of-living adjustments for employees while protecting automakers like GM from the threat of strikes for the next five years. 136 days in 1969-1970The longest GM strike took place in Flint. More than 2,000 workers went on strike over production standards at the Fisher Body 2 plant starting on September 29, 1969. A deal wasn't reached until February of the following year. A month after an agreement, every employee at the factory was laid off when GM announced the site would be turned over to Chevrolet. UAW Local 598 celebrates 50th anniversary of 1969 strike UAW Local 598 members sing during 50th anniversary of 1969 strike at Fisher Body Plant 2 in Flint while remembering he longest strike in GM history. Nate Chute is a producer with the USA Today Network. Follow him on Twitter at @nchute. Walkouts and sit-ins by the United Automobile Workers over the decades helped secure contracts that lifted members into the middle class. Image Sept. 26, 2019 After 11 days and no deal, United Automobile Workers members are still on strike at General Motors factories across the United States. The strike is the longest walkout at G.M. since 1970, when workers halted assembly lines for 67 days. For a century, labor unions have used halted production as a means of securing the rights and benefits that they believe their workers are entitled to. Early U.A.W.-backed walkouts led to the unionization of workers at G.M. in 1937 and Ford in 1941, shaping the way factory floors operated and working conditions were established. With organized labor’s decline in recent decades, auto walkouts have become less frequent. More work is being sent abroad, and foreign-owned car plants in the South have turned back unionization efforts. But the current strike coincides with a rise in assertiveness by unionized and nonunionized workers, from teachers to hotel workers to ride-share drivers. In 1936, General Motors was the world's largest automaker and the U.A.W. was a newly organized force. After trying to organize plants piecemeal, the union decided on a campaign that would force G.M. to bargain with it. Workers began an occupation of the factory in Flint, Mich., involving 2,000 workers. The 44-day struggle led to the unionization of the company. The union push was not without its backlash. More than 9,000 employees staged an anti-strike demonstration in January 1937 at the Chevrolet gear and axle plant in Detroit.Credit...Associated Press Workers catching up on sleep at an occupied G.M. plant. The company argued that the sit-in was trespassing and illegal. Michigan National Guard members on duty in Flint in 1937. Gov. Frank Murphy sent in National Guardsmen but would not order them to evict the strikers.Credit...The New York Times Strikers at the Fisher Body plant greeting friends outside after defying a court injunction ordering the factory vacated.Credit...The New York Times Among the Big Three Detroit automakers, Ford was the last holdout in resisting the union. Workers’ demonstrations there had been violently suppressed in the 1930s. In the spring of 1941, when eight workers were fired for joining the union, the work force at the giant River Rouge plant in Dearborn, Mich., walked out in a wildcat action. After 10 days, Henry Ford, the company founder, agreed to recognize the U.A.W. A meeting of U.A.W. Local 600 members during the strike at Ford’s River Rouge plant in 1941. Credit...Bettmann Archive The 1941 strike included confrontations between pro- and anti-union workers, and some crossed picket lines. A state trooper swung a club at a worker who attacked a picket captain outside the Rouge plant. Credit...The New York Times Voting in May 1941 in Detroit on whether workers wanted a union to represent them. The U.A.W. prevailed.Credit...Times Wide World Workers lining up to return to the Rouge plant after the strike was settled. A contract was signed in June.Credit...The New York Times During World War II, unions put off their demands in the interest of national unity. As civilian production resumed, pent-up labor pressures produced a wave of labor unrest, including a 113-day nationwide strike by G.M. workers. The settlement — including improvements in wages, health benefits and pensions — was considered a landmark achievement. Walter Reuther, vice president of the U.A.W., speaking to strikers at a Chevrolet factory in Detroit in 1945. The union demanded a 30 percent wage increase. A plant protection officer along an idled Pontiac assembly line.Credit...Associated Press Mr. Reuther, center, with George F. Addes, left, the U.A.W. secretary-treasurer, and James F. Dewey, a federal mediator, before a meeting with G.M. representatives.Credit...Associated Press Striking G.M. workers celebrating the end of the strike.Credit...Associated Press By 1970, autoworkers were being lifted into the middle class as U.A.W. membership and clout reached their zenith. More than 300,000 union members walked out at General Motors in a strike that lasted 67 days and shook the nation’s economy. In addition to better wages and inflation protection, workers won improved pensions and the right to retire after 30 years. Pontiacs awaiting engines on an idled assembly line in September 1970 after the U.A.W. began a walkout. Credit...United Press International A picket line outside a Cadillac plant in Detroit in November 1970. The union demands included the right for workers to retire with benefits after 30 years of service. Credit...Tony Spina A mobile home dealership in Flint offered terms that required no payment until after the strike. Credit...Gary Settle/The New York Times Striking G.M. workers jammed offices in Detroit and elsewhere to collect food stamps, sometimes waiting for hours. Payments from the union strike fund only partly made up for the regular income that workers went without.Credit...Dick Tripp for The New York Times After decades in which the industry was buffeted by oil crises and a boom in sales of foreign brands, the U.A.W. faced a different landscape and diminished ranks. G.M. was recording big losses in 2007 when 73,000 workers walked out for more than two days. The ultimate contract allowed G.M. and the other automakers to get health care liabilities off their books and create a tiered wage scale in which newer hires could be paid substantially less than veterans. G.M. workers picketed outside the Flint Metal plant after walking off the job. Credit...Rebecca Cook/Reuters As negotiations went into the night, workers and retirees gathered at the union hall of U.A.W. Local 22 in Detroit.Credit...Fabrizio Costantini for the New York Times Ron Gettelfinger, the U.A.W. president, at a news conference at union headquarters in Detroit after the strike ended. He held a union newsletter reporting on the tentative contract settlement with G.M. Credit...Carlos Osorio/Associated Press |
What was the result of the United Auto Workers UAW strike at General Motors during the great strike wave of 1945 46?
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