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The
Michigan Socialist | Labor
Monumental decay
A story about unions in America
By JOE DeNEEN
The
Michigan Socialist
NOT TOO LONG ago, a friend told me of a
monument dedicated to the Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37.
The monument stands a few yards east of Harrison Street at the
north bank of the Flint River in Riverbank Park.
Nearby are worn and waving American and UAW
flags above a block reading "UAW: A Walk in History," with
long busted lighting fixtures around it.
Numerous trees block the view of the monument,
leaving one to wonder what structure stands behind the
branches.
The monument consists of three cement replicas
of the automobile seats the strikers spent 44 days seated
on.
These seats mark the perimeter and surround
two walls that rise in the center.
The four sides of the walls are covered in
four separate murals made up of hand-painted tiles depicting
the strike, the shop floor, workers and numerous quotes from
strike participants and notables of the American labor
movement including Eugene V. Debs and Samuel
Gompers.
Along the base of the walls lie scattered
chunks of the murals that have long sense decayed and fallen
apart due to aging, weathering and vandalism, leaving the
remaining murals cracked and faded.
In 1987, the 50th anniversary of the strike,
the United Auto
Workers (UAW) and Flint City Council, among others,
constructed and dedicated the monument in celebration of the
women and men who took part in the historic strike.
The Flint Sit-Down Strike took place during
the Great Depression. The average autoworker took home $900 a
year, while the minimum income a family of four needed to
survive was $1,600.
With life in such dire poverty, the workers
looked to the UAW for assistance in halting abuses by General
Motors (GM), the largest corporation in the world, including
unionbusting by hired Pinkerton guards, routine firings, wage
cuts and work stoppages and speedups.
On December 30, 1936, GM began hauling its
machinery onto rail cars, prompting the UAW to call the
strike, and 3,000 workers barricaded the doors and closed
Fisher Body Plant 1. Soon after, 100 workers sat down at Plant
2.
The women workers were made to leave the
plants to avoid slanders of "immorality," resulting in the
formation of the Women's Emergency Brigade. The Brigade
supported the strike by supplying the strikers with food,
clothing and other necessities.
When the police, Pinkerton guards and National
Guard came knocking at the gates, it was the Women's Brigade
who stopped them, smashing the windows to protect from tear
gas and even carried their own clubs for defense.
(I highly recommend the documentary, "With
Babies and Banners," which is available at the Flint Public
Library.)
The strikers demands included: a national
conference between the UAW and GM; abolition of all piecework
systems of pay; a six-hour day and 30-hour week, with time and
one-half for work above these; a minimum wage; reinstatement
of all employees "unjustly discharged;" straight seniority;
speed of production to be mutually determined by each plant
management and shop committee; and, recognition of the UAW as
the sole bargaining agent for GM employees.
Victory finally came soon after Chevrolet 4
went on strike after the strikers used Chevrolet 9 as a decoy
pulling the plant guards away. With the closure of Chevrolet
4, the strikers shut down GM's most important plant that
produced 1 million engines a year.
On February 11, 1937, the strike was won when
GM agreed to acknowledge the UAW and enter negotiations
bringing out thousands of strikers and their supports in
deafening screams of "Solidarity Forever!"
Unfortunately, that great event for American
workers has fallen in the waste bin of history, decayed and
forgotten like its monument.
Ironically, GM ultimately "won" by pulling
almost completely out of Flint by 1999 with the closure of
Buick City, leaving behind a city with high unemployment, an
infrastructure in ruin and weakened unions.
But GM cannot be fully blamed. Capitalism has
created the conditions for Flint to decay and unions have
weakened due to a poor leadership that has long lost its
radical spark of the 1930s, and betrayed industrial unionism
and the rank-and-file.
The deindustrialization of American society,
representative of Flint, has also resulted in the rapid
decline of union membership nationwide and the struggle by
unions to survive in the 21st century. With it has come the
rise in non-union service-sector jobs with low wages and
little to no benefits.
Like the monument, the American labor movement
can re-emerge bigger and better.
On June 3, the UAW broke ground behind UAW
Region 1-C headquarters to begin construction of a new
monument, which is expected to be completed on September 1,
Labor Day.
The monument will consist of a granite base, a
surrounding walkway of bricks and six bronze figures
representing different workers and a Woman's Emergency Brigade
member surrounding an eternal flame.
All across the country new union locals are
popping up in every sector of industry. "Janitors for Justice"
has been a successful campaign in California unionizing
janitors.
Even the radical Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) has
witnessed gains in California in recent months with unionizing
of Stone Mountain and Daughter Fabrics in Berkeley, and East
Bay Depot for Creative Reuse in Oakland.
Recently in Ann Arbor, workers at Borders
bookstore unionized making it the first store in Michigan to
do so.
At the University of Michigan non-tenure-track
faculty won their struggle for unionization under Lecturers
Employee Organization (LEO).
Established unions are also fighting for their
survival as companies refuse to sign new contracts. In New
York City, thousands of public union workers rallied against
lay offs and wage cuts.
Union workers at Azteca Foods in Chicago have
been fighting for a new contract and called for a nationwide
boycott of Azteca products that has gone on for
months.
In Michigan, thousands of teachers and school
faculty have been working without contracts for months and
even years.
Let us not forget the old slogan, "an injury
to one is an injury to all." Unions need to revitalize their
role in American society with waves of aggressive campaigns
across the country unionizing every worker regardless of
industry, trade, ethnicity, sex or nationality.
To expropriate a line from Karl Marx, "The
workers have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a
world to win. Workers of all countries, unite!"
For more information on the
Flint Sit-Down Strike, visit the Socialist Party
of
Michigan's educational page at www.michigansocialist.net/flint/strike | 
