![]() Radicals of various persuasions as well as liberal activists filled the ranks of UAW organizers. The United Auto Workers (UAW) was part of the CIO movement, as were workers and organizers in the steel, electrical, coal, and textile industries, among others. Breaking with the practice of organizing only skilled workers based on their particular crafts, the CIO sought instead to organize all workers in an industry, skilled and unskilled, into the same union. Lewis, the Committee (later the “Congress”) of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was created in 1935, with the goal of organizing workers in the nation’s mass-production industries. Under the leadership of United Mine Workers president John L. A 1935 strike at Motor Products’ Mack Avenue plant ended in failure, due in part to the inability of competing unions to forge common ground. ![]() ![]() The 1934 strikes by San Francisco waterfront longshoremen, Minneapolis truck drivers, Toledo autoworkers, and textile workers in New England and the South had no counterparts in anti-union, “Open Shop” Detroit. Memories of Ford’s heavy hand in the Hunger March of 1932 and the failure of a 1933 strike at a Briggs Manufacturing plant on Detroit’s east side underscored how difficult it was for workers to successfully challenge management. As the country struggled in the early 1930s to emerge from the depths of the Great Depression, few would have predicted that there would be successful unionization campaigns in the auto industry in late 1936 and early 1937. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |