The Flint Sit-down Strike
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Battle of Bulls Run
“The city was divided, and some of the big companies did everything
they could to hurt us,” said sit-downer Charles White.
A Pinkerton spy from Plant 2 reported there were only 100 men inside that building. Plant guards there created an incident so police could be called in.
Strikers repulsed the first police attack with fire hoses and throwing car door hinges. The second attack, with tear gas grenades and bullets, was also unsuccessful, although 14 picketers were wounded. As police retreated, strike supporters followed and overturned police cars in their path.
Workers named the attacks the Battle of Bulls Run because workers had made the bulls (police) run. And in Flint, public opinion began to favor the union.
The Battle of Bulls Run had another major effect: Michigan Gov. Frank Murphy sent the National Guard to stand between the strikers and the police, allowing strikers to occupy the plants with little threat of forced eviction. Murphy’s courageous decision could have been political suicide, but he eventually became a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Unable to evict strikers, a few days later, GM agreed to negotiate with the UAW if the workers came out of the plants. But a GM plot to postpone negotiations killed that deal.
As the strike dragged into the depths of winter, resources were in short supply for the union. Feeding three meals a day to thousands of people had its cost. And many sit-downers, especially in Plant 2 where GM had intermittently cut off power and heat, were sick with colds and flu. Legal battles raged behind the scenes and there was always tension outside the plants.
“The police treated us like convicts; they were rough,” said White, who was arrested while on the picket line.
A tricky tactic
While the two sides battled in court, union strategists knew they had to do
something big to push the company to negotiate. GM production had been wounded
but not critically. The union set sights across town at Chevrolet Number 4,
where production of 1 million engines each year made it the most important
plant in GM’s system. And the company’s continuing harassment
of union supporters maintained workers’ ire.
Taking Chevy 4 was more complicated. The union first planted information with known spies that it was going after Chevy 9. A faked sit-down was staged there to draw plant guards, while a group from Chevy 6 went to Chevy 4 to help shore up unionists there. About 2,000 workers took the plant.
With Chevy 4 taken, GM was crippled and finally headed to the bargaining table. Negotiations started on Feb. 3 and the biggest sticking point was which union represented the workers and for how long it would have that right. In the end, after agreeing to recognize the UAW exclusively for six months, an agreement was reached that could be brought to the sit-downers.
There were many points to be negotiated later, but the bottom line was the UAW would be doing that negotiating.
On Feb. 11, the sit-downers came out of Plant 1. A long parade of workers and their supporters made its way to Chevy 4 and Plant 2, merging with the people at those places and finally to downtown Flint where thousands of people celebrated and refrains of “Solidarity Forever” rang through the air.
“The union was created because of greed,” said White, now 86. “We were forced into it.”
