GM sit-downer Richard Wiecorek, seated, with his nephew, Tom Piper, a UAW Local 659 retiree. Photo: DEBI KIRCHNER / UAW LOCAL 598

Richard Wiecorek went to work for General Motors’ Fisher 1 plant in Flint, Mich., in 1935 when he was 18. A year later he found himself making history as a GM sit-downer, sleeping on car seat cushions, eating bean soup and waiting for the company to blink as he and fellow workers stood strong and fought for a union. Sit-down strikes spread to GM plants throughout the United States and Canada, as children and families picketed in support outside. Wiecorek, who retired in 1986 after 51 years on the job, turned 92 on Dec. 11. Still living in Flint, he has a daughter, two grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and a great-great grandson.

What do you remember about those days?

“I can remember what happened all those years ago clear as a bell. … I quit school in seventh grade and grew up on a farm, so I was no stranger to hard work. We didn’t get an allowance back then so I hired in at GM as a ‘trucker’ handling car bodies.”

What was it like during the sit-down strike?

“I was just a young guy then, taking in what was happening. Unlike GM’s nearby Chevrolet plant, we didn’t have much violence. We ate pretty well – bowls of bean soup that they kept in big milk cans. It was during the Great Depression, you know, and that bean soup tasted very good. We slept on car seat cushions, but I got to go home for a few days when I got real sick with a cold.”

Did you ever get bored during those 44 days?

“We sang songs like ‘Turkey in the Straw’ to pass the time. That’s just the way it was.”

How was life different for you after you got a contract?

“Before the union came in there were no seniority rights, no rights at all really. We gained a lot with that first contract, including higher wages and vacations.”

Anything else?

“One more thing: My strike buddy ended up becoming my brother-in-law on June 28, 1939, when I married his sister, Anna, who was my wife of 50 years.”

Jennifer John

Wear a white shirt on Feb. 11

Get out your winter white – a clean white shirt, that is – to honor the General Motors’ sit-down strikers in Flint, Mich., who gained UAW recognition in a 44-day fight during the winter of 1936-1937.

For more than 70 years UAW men and women have marked Feb. 11 as the historic day in 1937 when 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.

It started 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 as management.

Men and women throughout the UAW continue to celebrate it.