Flint Industry / GM Sit-Down Strike

From 1910 through the 1980s, automobile and parts manufacturing dominated Flint industry, centered west of downtown in the Flint River valley, where industry had begun in 1865 with the Begole and Fox Lumber Company on the south side of the river. Lumber mills became wagon and carriage companies, which in turn evolved into automobile manufacturers, and in 1913 the Chevrolet Motor Company took over the Begole and Fox site in the valley. Known as "Chevrolet in the hole" because of its location, by 1934 the 80-acre complex employed 14,000 workers at 31 factories on both sides of the river. Facing a downturn in production, General Motors began removing unused buildings in 1995, and the last one, Plant 4, was razed in 2004. In 1936, the fledgling United Automobile Workers union was organizing workers in Flint, the heart of the General Motors labor force. On December 30, 1936, workers at Chevrolet's Fisher Body Plant 2 sat down and stopped production, demanding union recognition and an end to sending work to nonunion plants. On January 11, 1937, violence erupted at Fisher 2 in what workers call the Battle of the Running Bulls, as Flint police crossed the Chevrolet Avenue Bridge armed with tear gas and guns while workers used fire hoses, car door hinges, bottles, and other projectiles as weapons. Twenty-seven people were injured. The 44-day strike ended on February 11, 1937, when GM recognized the UAW as the bargaining agent for GM factory workers.

Flint, Michigan · United States