On this day in labor history, the year was 1937.
That was the day the Flint Women’s Emergency Brigades was founded.
Genora Johnson, a socialist, was a main leader of the Women’s Auxiliary Number 10 throughout the strike.
A different kind of auxiliary, it built the leadership skills of women through classes in labor history and public speaking.
It also set up a first-aid station and child-care center, raised strike funds and walked picket lines.
According to Janice Hassett, “the women moved beyond supporting the strike to participating in it.”
Fifty women signed up the next day.
By the end of the strike, over 300 women would join.
The women adopted an official uniform of red berets and red armbands.
They were armed with clubs to smash factory windows when police gassed sit-downers.
Their participation in the strike was heroic and their work continued after victory.
They sought to represent the interests of women autoworkers, who often found coworkers less than welcoming and experienced sexual harassment and occupational discrimination at the hands of supervision.
Many women autoworkers formed the core leadership of several chapters.
Historian Nancy Gabin notes that this was not always the appropriate arena for advocacy saying; “By encouraging women workers to participate in the auxiliaries, the UAW abdicated its responsibility to these workers.”
However, Johnson emphasized, “It was a radical change.... To give women a right to participate in discussions with their husbands, with other union members, with other women, to express their views... that was a radical change for those women at that time.”
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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
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