Sit-downer reflects on White Shirt Day

‘Before the union, there was no middle class’

Arthur Lowell, 91, a former sit-downer, worked at GM’s Chevrolet Plant 4, literally “down in the hole,” when he was 18. He lives in Clio, Mich., about 15 miles north of Flint. His wife of 69 years died two years ago. He has five children, 18 grandchildren, “30-some” great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.

His son, Alan Lowell, a UAW Local 651 retiree, will take his father to the region’s White Shirt Day celebration on Feb. 11.

Arthur talked recently to Solidarity magazine.

So what was it like in the plant in 1937?

“I was just a kid and hadn’t had much excitement in my life up till that time. Not married yet. Working conditions were just terrible. The boss could fire you if he didn’t like your looks. No bathroom breaks during an entire shift. … It was a slave house.”

What about the sit-down?

“It’s still all very vivid in my mind. The cold weather, darkness and no food for the first 24 hours until the women handed us food over the fence. Then they turned the lights back on.”

And when it ended?

“We were all happy to get out of there. … They sent police and goons to get us out of there, said we were destroying the plant and that we all had guns. That was all in their imagination. Michigan’s Gov. Murphy put the entire complex under National Guard protection to prevent bloodshed. It was a good thing. He said, ‘You guys don’t look like a bunch of hoodlums. You’re just trying to get a contract.’ He protected us, and if he hadn’t done that, I believe the company goons would’ve killed every one of us and gotten away with it.

“Before the union, there was no middle class. There were the rich and the working poor, and such low wages. As time went on, I was able to afford their products and could buy a new car. The company prospered.”

What White Shirt Day means:

“It symbolizes the worker is just as good as the foreman and on White Shirt Day the guys in the shop wear a white shirt, too. We’ll eat bean soup and apples. It’s what we ate during the strike.”

January / February 2009

Arthur Lowell

Wear white shirt,
show union pride

If you’re looking for some labor history to celebrate this Feb. 11, wear a clean white shirt and order a traditional lunch of bean soup, bread and apples.

You’ll honor White Shirt Day and the General Motors’ sit-down strikers in Flint, Mich., who gained UAW recognition in the historic struggle in 1936-1937.

For 60 years now, UAW men and women have marked that day in 1937 when after 44 days GM agreed to recognize the union and negotiate a contract. Working people in Flint – and throughout America – had triumphed.
White Shirt Day celebrates workplace empowerment. The shirts represent equal respect and treatment for blue-collar workers, and the unity and strength of UAW members.

The idea began in 1948 when Bert Christensen, a member of the UAW Local 598 education committee, suggested White Shirt Day to mark the end of the sit-down strike.

He wanted workers to wear the white-collar attire traditionally worn by managers to show the company they were just as important.

Even though Local 598 began this tradition, men and women throughout the UAW continue to celebrate it.

So get out that iron and wear a white shirt to show your union pride.