White Shirt Day
For 55 years, UAW men and women have celebrated workplace empowerment and the Flint sit-down strikers with a clean white shirt on Feb. 11.
Bert Christensen, a member of the Local 598 education committee, first suggested White Shirt Day in 1948. He wanted workers to wear the white shirts traditionally worn by managers to show the company they were equally important people. The shirts represent equal respect and treatment for blue-collar workers and the unity and strength of UAW members. Local 598 began this tradition, though men and women throughout the UAW now celebrate it.
Workers try to keep their shirts as clean as the bosses and, as usual, to observe all safety rules, especially in keeping a clean work area.
