July 5, 1998

Decoy Provides Winning Edge for a UAW Contract

LAST OF TWO PARTS

Newly elected Michigan Gov. Frank Murphy, alarmed at the violence of the Battle of "Bulls" Run, reluctantly called out 1,500 National Guard troops to keep order around the General Motors plants at the intersection of Chevrolet Ave. and Kearsley St.

The tide had turned for the strikers. On the morning following the battle, non-union GM workers lined up two abreast at the UAW office to sign membership cards and pay dues. An estimated 10,000 people showed up at the battle site to cheer and repeatedly sing "Solidarity Forever."

The public nationwide now focused on the UAW's momentous strike. It obviously was an historic struggle that would affect labor-management relations forevermore. Representatives from newspapers, radio networks, magazines, and movie newsreel studios flocked to Flint. Gale Townsend, a senior at Central High School and editor of the Arrow Head, proposed that he and I hone our neophyte journalism skills on the real thing.

First we went to the National Guard headquarters and obtained a press pass to go through military lines. Then we went to the UAW strike office and obtained a union pass. Union credentials were issued sparingly because the mainstream press was considered biased. My pass bore the name of Bob Travis, the strike leader, and was numbered 52. I learned later that mine was the last given by the UAW.

Gale and I took turns visiting the two Fisher Body plants. After rapping on a designated window, a strike captain would examine our passes and put down a ladder by which we climbed inside. Arrangements at both plants were highly organized.

In addition to a "mayor," there was a "police captain and deputies" to keep order and protect machinery from vandalism. A "sanitary engineer" made sure the men kept their sleeping area clean and themselves shaved. A "strike committee" decided tactics and conferred with the few journalists allowed inside -- mostly from Union papers. An "entertainment committee" offered amusements to keep the men from becoming bored. There was music produced by instruments smuggled into the plants, card tournaments, singing and (in Fisher 2) roller skating and a home made roulette wheel.

Newspapers and magazines were delivered every day. Radios, quite large in those days, also were brought in.

At first, cold food was passed in through the windows by family and friends. As the strike went on, however, the union was allowed to deliver food which was prepared hot in the company cafeterias. I usually started my reporting stint by eating with the strikers. I was always hungry back then, and sharing a meal with the strikers was a quick

way to get their stories. The men worried a lot about the welfare of their families and their own safety.

Once I attended a "kangaroo court" which adjudicated a fight between two men.

Vandalism was strictly forbidden. The men wanted the machinery to be in good operating condition when they went back to work Beds were car seats covered with burlap so pristine seats eventually could go into new cars.

Finally I visited the strike committee to get what news they wanted to publicize. Usually it was that "morale is high" -- followed by detailed explanations of their demands.

Upon leaving the plants, by way of the designated windows. I and/or Gale would be surrounded by members of the mainstream press circulating outside. "What's going on inside? What did they say?" Such

attention from big-name journalists was thrilling. I day-dreamed that I would be offered a job by a metropolitan daily or radio network. Alas, when the strike was over, so were my dreams. No one wanted to hire a high school journalist not yet graduated.

Gale and I collaborated on our first story in great expectation. However, the Arrow Head faculty advisor would not let us publish it. He deemed it not school-related and too controversial. Our contribution to journalism for remainder of the strike was only that of verbal reports to working journalists. Nonetheless, when Gale was graduated, and staff underlings got a chance to move up, I was named news editor of the Arrow Head. The experience also was decisive when Mauri Cossman hired me to be a sports writer for the Flint Daily Journal -- the first paper to pay me money.

Undaunted by defeat of the effort to dislodge strikers, General Motors on Jan. 28 obtained an injunction from Flint Judge Paul V. Gadola which prohibited picketing and ordered the strikers out of the plants under threat of a $15 million fine.

The UAW responded by calling unions from other cities with GM plants to demonstrate defiance of the injunction. Next day a huge crowd gathered at the gates of Fishers 1 and 2 to shout approval of a message to Gov. Murphy.

It stated: "Governor, we have decided to stay in the plant. We have no illusions about the sacrifices which this decision will entail. We fully expect that if a violent effort is made to eject us, many of us will be killed. We take this means of making it known to our wives, our children, the people of the state of Michigan and the country that if this happens, you are the one who must be held responsible for our deaths."

No one tried to enforce Judge Gadola's injunction.

The UAW broke the stalemate by feigning a plan to take over Chevrolet 9, three blocks east on Kearsley St., which made valves. GM guards rushed to defend the decoy. When a handful of strikers entered the plant, a fierce battle ensued.

Police used tear gas which members of the Women's Emergency Brigade helped dissipate by breaking windows. The Brigade was comprised of wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of strikers. They wore red berets and arm bands for identification.

Meanwhile, UAW stalwarts marched unhindered into Chevrolet 4 which was the sole source of Chevrolet engines -- GM's most profitable car. Half the 4,000 workers in the plant joined the sit-down. The other half left the plant.

General Motors gave up on Feb. 13. It had cut stock dividends in half and was losing ground to competitors. GM President Alfred P. Sloan agreed to negotiate. The 44-day strike was over. The union was recognized as the sole bargaining agent. Wages were doubled, and union stewards were given a voice in controlling assembly line speed.

Seemingly the whole city turned out at the various, struck plants

to cheer "evacuation" by the victorious strikers. National Guardsmen went home. A formal celebration was held a few days later at Atwood Stadium with CIO President John L. Lewis the star speaker.

Gale Townsend and I were there too -- with our press cards stuck in our hat bands, as was the custom then.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 1939 ruled that sitdown strikes are illegal.

For Lindsey's comments on the 1998 GM strike, see the Editorial "The UAW Strike Against General Motors Is Showdown"

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Author: Lindsey Williams