On this day in labor history, the year was 1944.
That was the day seven employees at Detroit’s Dodge Truck plant stopped working to protest the firing of a union brother.
When five of the seven were fired for the stoppage, it sparked a wildcat strike.
Another 320 workers downed their tools and left the plant. It was World War II.
The Dodge Truck plant had been converted to wartime production.
Workers there built heavy trucks to ship to allies in China.
The unions had signed onto a no-strike pledge after Pearl Harbor was bombed.
President Roosevelt demanded labor peace to aid the war effort. Leaders of the AFL and CIO agreed to no strike, no lockout clauses.
The CIO went further and agreed to give up overtime pay.
Most union members were not consulted on the pledge and did not vote on it.
When they learned about the pledge after the fact, many workers, who had just come off victorious organizing drives, were in no mood to make concessions.
They witnessed surging wartime profits for their employers and no cap on executive salaries, while they had to deal with wage freezes and inflation.
Many were confronted with increasingly unsafe working conditions, violations of newly won contracts and arbitrary discipline and firings. Despite the no-strike pledge, wildcat strikes were common.
During the war, there were over 14,000 strikes involving more than 6 million workers. In 1944 alone, when workers walked out at Dodge Truck, there had been more strikes in auto plants than at any other time in the industry.
Workers found that short, spontaneous walkouts quickly resolved their grievances, regardless of the no-strike pledge
May 4 - UE Beats Back HUAC in Dayton
May 3 - First Workers Compensation Law is Passed
May 2 - Our Thing is DRUM!
May 1 - Mayday Marchers Attacked in Cleveland
April 30 - Refinery Workers Walk Off the Job
April 29 - Allis-Chalmers and the Road to Taft-Hartley
April 28 - OSHA Goes Into Effect
April 27 - Disaster in West Virginia
April 26 - National Guard Ousts Montgomery Ward CEO
April 25 - UAW Mobilizes Against Taft-Hartley
April 24 - The California Spinach Riot
April 23 - Sitting Down for Dignity at Ford
April 22 - The Red Jacket Mine Explosion
April 21 - The Hated Taylor Law Takes Effect
April 20 - Deepwater Horizon Explosion Kills 11
April 19 -The Daughters of Mother Jones
April 18 - We Have Fed You All A thousand Years
April 17 - Fatal Explosion in West, Texas
April 16 - Jacob Coxey is Born
April 15 - Telephone Girls Cripple New England Bell
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Heal, Survive & Thrive!
Summarize | رادیو سامرایز
LifeBlood
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast