This doesn’t change the current discussion about what the country should do about G.M., Chrysler or Ford, but it is perhaps useful to have some background on how autoworkers came to have a decent wage.
“Men with queazy stomachs had no place one afternoon last week on the overpass at the No. 4 gate of Henry Ford’s great River Rouge plant.” So began TIME’s account of the Battle of the Overpass, the confrontation that made May 26, 1937, a red-letter day in labor history and brought to national attention a young United Auto Workers official named Walter P. Reuther.
That morning Reuther and his colleagues suspected the day’s events could escalate into something historic as they prepared to hand out organizing leaflets (slogan: “Unionism, Not Fordism”) to the plant’s 9,000 workers. Reuther had put on his Sunday suit, complete with vest, gold watch and chain. He had invited newspapermen, priests and local officials to be witnesses. When Reuther and three other officials arrived at the gate, Ford company police charged at them and delivered a brutal, prolonged beating. Pictures of the battered victims were published across the U.S., a huge P.R. victory that would slowly but surely lead, several years later, to U.A.W. organization at the plant.
From The Henry Ford Museum:
Frankensteen’s coat was pulled over his arms. He was then kicked in the head, kidneys, and groin. Witnesses also testified that as he lay on the ground, the attackers ground their heels in his stomach. Reuther was picked up and thrown down repeatedly and was kicked in the face and body. He was then thrown down the steps of the overpass. Merriweather’s back was broken, and Dunham was also severely injured. The women too were attacked.
My teachers lied to me in junior high or high school.
I was taught that Henry Ford decided to give the workers a better salary because he realized that if he gave them a decent wage workers would be able to afford the cars they produced increasing the market.
None of this labor messiness.
And I was taught this nonsense in the hometown of Eugene V. Debs who I do not recall being mentioned in school.
Actually the history of the labor movements in the US were extremely messy, not only involving the companies, but armies of hired goons, Pinkerton (and other firms), the various branches of National Guard units, and the Army.
Once the Feds got involved we got the Army, deportations, bomb plots, executions, anarchist bomb throwers, AND Eugene V. Debs.
And NONE of this was mentioned in my High School.
One of the first books I bought my kids was “Lies my teacher told me”? or something like that. didn’t BEGIN to cover it all, fortunately I am a history buff (not fortunate for my kids) and helped fill in the blanks.
heh