On this day in labor history, the year was 1972.
That was the day autoworkers at GM’s Chevy Vega plant in Lordstown, Ohio walked out on strike.
The strike lasted for 18 days.
The issues that fueled it were reminiscent of the sit-downs and wildcats that built the UAW in the 30s and 40s.
Workers at Lordstown wanted greater control over the production process.
The young, integrated workforce of the 1960s social protest era was fed-up with long days, forced overtime, increased automation and dangerous speedup on the assembly line.
Long-standing grievances numbered in the thousands and disciplinary firings were common. Absenteeism was rampant.
Morale was so low that cars left the assembly line incomplete or vandalized.
By the time the strike ended, many felt it was called to simply allow workers to blow off steam.
There was no real change to the production process.
But jobs eliminated in the 1970 contract were restored and some 1400 disciplinary layoffs were dropped.
The worker malaise suffered there came to be known as the “Lordstown Syndrome.”
In his book Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class, Jefferson Cowie notes that the strike compelled the Senate to hold hearings on alienation at work.
Its’ committee produced the report Work in America.
This report confirmed, “many workers at all occupational levels feel locked in, their mobility blocked, the opportunity to grow lacking in their jobs, challenge missing from their tasks.”
Cowie concludes that the strike and report “initiated the quality of work life movement that sought to redesign work, introduce automation differently and invest in ‘human relations’ strategies, most of which continued to empower management, not workers—albeit with a gentler hand.”
December 28 - Heroes in Space
December 27 - Musicians Fight Back
December 26 - Garment Workers Rise Up
December 25 - Debs Released; Real Gift is His Message
December 24 - A Christmas Eve Beating for Striking Workers
December 23 - The High Cost of Low Wages
December 21 - Red Scare Deportations Begin
December 20 - THE UNION IS DISSOLVED!!!
December 19 - Solidarity Gets the Goods!
December 18 - No More Beer
December 17 - Unraveling Anti-Japanese Hysteria
December 16 - No Justice, No Bagels!
December 15 - Troops Put Down the Mother’s March
December 14 - Another Hard Fought Victory
December 13 - The Beginning of the End of Apartheid
December 12 - We Disaffiliate!
December 11 - Right to Work is a Lie!
December 10 - August Spies is Born
December 9 - The Cordiner Doctrine
December 8 - The American Federation of Labor is Founded
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