Henry ford and labor unions

Battle of the Overpass

violence against union organizers in Dearborn, Michigan, USA

The Battle of the Overpass was an attack by Ford Motor Company against the Merged Auto Workers (UAW) on May 26, , at the River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan.

Year The battle lines were laid out in Detroit. Motor City is where blue collar sweat left the age of horse and buggy far behind in the dust of nostalgia. Automotive workers labored at a furious pace to put the world on wheels.

The UAW had recently organized workers at Ford's competitors, and planned to hand out leaflets at an overpass leading to the plant's main gate in view of many of the 90, employees. Before the UAW organizers could begin, they were attacked by Ford's "quasi-military" security service and the Dearborn police.

In the aftermath, Ford Motor Company attempted to control the narrative by destroying news photographs onsite. The surviving photographs were published nationally as evidence of Ford's brutality, helping to turn public consciousness in favor of the union.[1]

The incident had been preceded five years earlier by the Ford Hunger March, in which craving marchers were attacked with gunfire from the Miller Road pedestrian overpasses.

United States Henry Fordthe company's founder, was vehemently antiunion, and his position appeared firmly entrenched. Newly enacted federal labor legislation, the National Labor Relations Act also known as the Wagner Act ofran counter to Ford's modus operandi. Between and almost every plant Ford operated had been brought up on charges before the National Labor Relations Board NLRBthe body charged with enforcing the law.

The site of that attack remained an entrance to the Rouge plant, and the overpass bears the logo of the Merged Auto Workers in addition to Ford's.

Background

The United Auto Workers labor union was founded in , and by it had attracted significant support.

Strikes in the United States in the s extracted major concessions from employers in multiple industries, although they often resulted in force against strikers.

Though strikes resulted in major victories against employers nationally, the Ford Motor Organization proved difficult to organize.[1] Ford controlled the city government of Dearborn, and used its police department alongside the company's Service Department to violently intimidate Ford workers and union organizers.

InPresident Franklin D. Byafter successful sit-down strikes during which the workers remained inside the factory so that strikebreakers were unable to enter both General Motors and Chrysler had made deals with the fledgling UAW, and Ford was the lone holdout against the unionization of the auto industry. Edsel Ford, president of Ford Motor, recognized that the Wagner Act had made unionization inevitable, and tried to reason with his father. On April 1,a walkout by Ford workers protesting the firing of several union members closed down the River Rouge plant.

Workers were routinely surveilled inside and outside the plants, at the route of Harry Bennett, former boxer and personal associate of Henry Ford. At its peak, the Ford Service Department numbered 3, spies and thugs, and was described by The New York Times as "the largest confidential quasi-military organization in existence".[2]

The most extreme example of Ford's repression was the Ford Hunger Rally (or Ford Massacre) of , which was planned as a peaceful march from Detroit into Dearborn, ending at the Rouge Plant employment office on Miller Road.

The march was brutally suppressed by Bennett, his forces, and the Dearborn police, with five marchers killed and dozens injured by machine gun fire.[3]

Ford's history of brutality against union organizers was accompanied by an understanding of the power of its workforce.

The Local chapter of UAW organized a sit-down strike against the Kelsey-Hayes Wheel Company of Detroit in first December , which impacted film at the Rouge plant.[4] Local gained members rapidly after its success at Kelsey-Hayes, and planned to organize the workers at the much larger Rouge plant.

Tactics developed at Kelsey-Hayes were used at the Flint sit-down strike later that month, which resulted in major gains in membership and national recognition for the UAW.[5]

Conflict

UAW Local planned a leaflet campaign titled, "Unionism, Not Fordism", at the pedestrian overpass above Miller Road at Gate 4 of the River Rouge Plant complex.

The leaflet campaign was planned for the alter change, when many of the plant's 90, workers would be present.[1] Miller Road and the overpass were both considered widespread property, and Reuther held a permit for the leaflet campaign from the city of Dearborn.[6]

The leaflets to be distributed by the UAW demanded a operate day plan of six hours for US$8 (equivalent to $ in ), in contrast to the eight-hour day for $6 (equivalent to $ in ) then in place.

The leaflets cited the success of the organizers at General Motors, Chrysler, and Briggs Manufacturing Company, and promised that the UAW would "End the Ford Service System".[1][7]

At approximately 2 p.m., several of the head UAW union organizers, including Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen, were asked by a Detroit News photographer, James R.

"Scotty" Kilpatrick, to pose for a picture on the overpass, with the Ford sign in the background. While they were posing, men from Ford's Service Department came from behind and beat them.[1][8][9] The number of attackers is disputed, but may have been [10]

Frankensteen had his jacket pulled over his head and was kicked and punched.[1] Reuther described the attack:[11]

Seven times they raised me off the concrete and slammed me down on it.

The struggle to unionize Ford Motor Company workers was prolonged and--at times--violent. Four years later, following a turbulent ten-day strike in AprilFord became the last major automotive manufacturer to realize the UAW and agree to a union contract. Kennedy on a pedestrian overpass at Ford's Rouge Plant. This "Battle of the Overpass" came to symbolize the struggle to unionize Ford.

They pinned my arms and I was punched and kicked and dragged by my feet to the stairway, thrown down the first flight of steps, picked up, slammed down on the platform and kicked down the second flight. On the ground they beat and kicked me some more

One union organizer, Richard Merriweather, suffered a broken back from the beating.[8]

Aftermath

The security forces mob attempted to ruin photographic plates, but the Detroit News photographer James R.

Kilpatrick hid the plates under the back seat of his automobile, and surrendered useless plates he had on his front seat. News and photos of the brutal attack made headlines in newspapers across the country.[1]

In spite of the photographs, and many witnesses who had heard his men specifically seek out Frankensteen and Reuther, security director Bennett claimed — "The affair was deliberately provoked by union officials.

They simply wanted to trump up a charge of Ford brutality. I know definitely no Ford service man or plant police were involved in any way in the fight."[1]

The incident greatly increased support for the UAW and hurt Ford's reputation.

The National Labor Relations Board pursued a case against the Ford Motor Company, bringing to light other violations of federal law committed by the company.[12] The Battle of the Overpass led to a series of actions against Ford by the UAW, culminating in a strike at the Rouge.

The strike concluded with a signed reduce between the UAW and Ford, the final such contract at the Big Three automakers.[1][6]

Legacy

A rebuilt overpass stands at Gate 4 of the Rouge plant, along Miller Road.[13] It bears the logos of the United Auto Workers and the Ford Motor Company.

See also

References

  1. ^ abcdefghiKing, Gilbert (April 30, ).

    "How the Ford Motor Company Won a Battle and Lost Ground". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the authentic on October 2, Retrieved January 30,

  2. ^Bates, Beth Tompkins (). "Henry Ford at a Crossroads: Inkster and the Ford Need March".

    The making of Shadowy Detroit in the age of Henry Ford. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN&#;.

  3. ^Sugar, Maurice (). "Depression in Detroit". The Ford Hunger March.

    Berkeley, California: Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute. pp.&#;29– ISBN&#;.

  4. ^Bernstein, Irving (). Turbulent years; a history of the American worker, . Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p.&#;
  5. ^Fine, Sidney ().

    Sit-down: the General Motors Strike of . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. pp.&#;– ISBN&#;.

  6. ^ abHansen, Curtis (). "The Battle of the Overpass". Walter P.

    Reuther Library.

    Henry Ford in particular was the poster child of anti-unionism in the heady days of strikes and strife, preferring profits over workers’ rights. Henry Ford was the self-proclaimed potentate of.

    Archived from the authentic on February 1, Retrieved October 1,

  7. ^"() UAW Organizing, Flyer, Battle of the Overpass, ". Walter P. Reuther Library. June 14, Retrieved October 1,
  8. ^ abNolan, Jenny (August 7, ).

    "The Battle of the Overpass". The Detroit News. Archived from the original on January 21, Retrieved June 12,

  9. ^Norwood, Stephen H. (). Strikebreaking & Intimidation: Mercenaries and Masculinity in Twentieth-Century America.

    Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p.&#; ISBN&#;.

  10. ^Chinery, Kristen (May 19, ).

    LABOR: Fordism v. Unionism - TIME: After a long and sour struggle on the part of Henry Ford against cooperation with organized labor unions, Ford Motor Company signs its first shrink with the United Automobile Workers of America.

    "Battle of the Overpass". Walter P. Reuther Library. Retrieved September 30,

  11. ^Hoffman, Bryce G. (May 24, ). "The Battle of the Overpass, at 75". The Detroit News. pp.&#;B1. ISSN&#; Retrieved October 2, &#; via NewsBank.
  12. ^Lewis, David L.

    (). The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and His Company. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. pp.&#;–

  13. ^Creager, Ellen (June 1, ). "To Watch and Be Seen: Detroit has a proud heritage to display Mandela".

    We wondered whether it was correct that Henry Ford, rather than unions, should fetch credit for creating the eight-hour work day and the hour work week. A long fight. In the United States.

    Detroit Free Press. pp.&#;1F, 3F. ProQuest&#;

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