United States 1937

Synopsis

The sit-down strike came to prominence in America in 1937, and no industry was affected by this ingenious new tactic as much as the automobile industry. The Flint, Michigan, sit-down strike, which lasted from 30 December 1936 to 11 February 1937, was the most important strike of the year. Aimed at the heart of General Motors, the largest industrial corporation in the world, the strike set the company on the path to recognizing a single industrial union as the representative for all its hourly line workers.

The 44-day strike in Flint followed on the heels of a few smaller sit-down strikes, such as the one that occurred in the middle of December at the Kelsey-Hayes wheel-producing plant on the west side of Detroit. But the Flint strike galvanized the country and the world because of its boldness, its potential for...