Socialist Action /February 2000
River Rouge: 1941
By JAN BIRCH
In 1941, tens of thousands of auto workers at the Ford River Rouge complex
in Dearborn, Mich., overcame many obstacles to build a union from the bottom
up and to win a strike that had a strong potential to turn into a "race
riot."
This is a history filled with drama, heroism, and excitement-a political
milestone for U.S. workers, in which class consciousness overcame racism
sufficiently to save the day.
Henry Ford was a boss who knew how to alternate the carrot and the stick.
He introduced a $5 a day minimum wage in 1914, before others in auto and
put out countless publications filled with paternalistic advice.
On the other hand, starting in 1919, he set up the Ford Service, the
largest private police force in the world-around 3000 gangsters, ex-convicts,
prize fighters, wrestlers, and others. They didn't wear uniforms or I.D.s
and some worked in the plants. They engaged in spying, intimidation, and
violence against Ford workers interested in unionization or radical ideas.
Between 1937 and 1941, some 4000 workers were fired from Ford plants.
Dearborn, where the River Rouge complex was located, was a company town-a
feudal estate belonging to Henry Ford. It took until 1940 for the United
Automobile Workers Union to even win the legal right to have direct access
to Ford workers. Finally, Ford used the policy of divide and conquer to
try to split the workforce by nationality, and beyond that Ford used the
race card.
Black workers at Ford
In World War I there was a big influx of Black people into Detroit. Yet
before 1935, less than 4 percent of the labor force in Detroit was Black.
The first Black employee was hired at Ford in 1914 and Ford employed
over half the Black workers in auto prior to unionization. In 1940, on the
eve of the strike, about 11 percent of the workforce at Ford was Black.
The majority worked in the foundry and in janitorial jobs-the dirtiest,
lowest paid, and most dangerous jobs in the plant. But some Black workers
were hired in skilled jobs as well.
Ford had a special division to hire Black workers, headed by Don Marshall
and by a former University of Michigan athlete, Willis Ward, who had a big
influence in the Black section of Detroit, called Paradise Valley, where
many Black auto workers lived.
Ford set up direct links with Black churches for recruitment, with both
benefits and strings attached. Ford gave monetary contributions to the churches
on the condition that they not use their churches for union activities.
If they complied, their parishioners could get hired for $5 a day-a very
good wage for Black workers at the time. Ministers who refused could lose
their congregations to another church that had Ford connections.
When national Black labor leader A. Philip Randolph came and spoke at
a Detroit church in 1938, church members who worked at Ford were threatened
with lay-offs and some were fired. By the end of the union drive only three
Black ministers stood with the union.
Ford also gave gifts to Black organizations, and sent Marshall and Ward
to give educational lectures in the Black community. Ford took over Inkster,
a rundown area where 500 Black workers and their families lived near the
Rouge complex. Ford completely renovated the town; put in plumbing, electricity,
and a sewage system; and painted and remodeled the homes.
Ford as a consequence was praised as a great humanitarian. There was
only one catch-the Inkster workers received only 12 cents an hour out of
their normal wages and the rest went to repay Ford for his "good works"
The Ford Service also traded jobs for votes. Prior to 1939, Ford's Republican
network in the Detroit Black community was said to control one-eighth of
the votes cast in a normal Detroit city election.
Plant conditions and the union response
But despite all of Ford's efforts, working conditions compelled workers
towards the union. Ford workers earned 10 cents an hour less than workers
at Chrysler and GM, 5 cents an hour under the average in the auto industry.
They had no lunch rooms and only a 10-15 minute lunch break.
They worked rotating shifts with no premium pay. They had no overtime
or special pay for Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. There was widespread
favoritism, and foremen especially tried to play off Black workers and white
workers against each other. Ford's goon squad used fear and intimidation
to keep people in line.
In March 1932, unemployed Ford workers marched on the plant and were
fired on by Ford security. Four workers were killed. In 1937, union organizers
who went to Gate 4 to distribute union literature were beaten up.
Meanwhile, internal problems in the United Auto Workers (UAW), which
was affiliated with the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO), were also hampering the Ford union drive. Homer Martin, the president
of the UAW, was secretly meeting with Ford management. He ended up on the
Ford payroll and this really hurt the union's credibility.
But the biggest challenge to the union remained winning Black workers
to the union cause. This was no easy task. In 1937, the UAW accepted the
idea of separate seniority lists by race.
In 1939, Black workers tried to cross a picket line at Chrysler and there
was a fight between white workers and Black workers. Problems like this,
added to Ford's policies, made Black workers skeptical of unionization.
But the UAW did try actively to combat racism. When Black workers faced
discrimination at the UAW convention in St. Louis in 1939, the union voted
not to hold its convention there again. The UAW collaborated with the NAACP
in the 1930s on issues like anti-lynching laws. The union hired Black organizers
and utilized its own Black members to try to organize in other plants.
Gradually a shift began to take place, as workers saw that Black organizers
were playing a real role in the Ford drive and the UAW opposed discrimination.
Since there was no legal access to the plant until 1940, a lot of house-to-house
canvassing had to be done to get the word out to Ford workers. And the workers
were great innovators! The dairy workers gave the UAW lists of Ford workers
on their routes. Friends and wives would take the tourist's tour of the
Ford plant and once inside put on UAW caps or hold up signs.
Workers on the assembly lines would set the car radios to the union station.
Workers put union leaflets in cars on the line and in the toilet paper in
the bathrooms. The union put on daily radio programs in several languages
and put out a newspaper for workers called Ford Facts.
Sometimes, the NAACP co-sponsored events with the union and the pro-union
ministers opened their churches for Black workers to attend. Black workers,
under Black UAW organizer Walter Hardin and fired Black workers from other
plants, were active in the UAW campaign.They met every Saturday morning
and advised the Ford UAW staff. The UAW presented an integrated team in
the Black community as a show of unity.
This union effort was countered by Don Marshall, who gave a banquet in
February with 300 Black leaders. Marshall gave a speech charging that the
CIO was run by the foreign born and denouncing the Black ministers who worked
with the union. He threw in anti-communism as well.
But despite what Ford tried to do, slowly the union was being built in
the plant. Bill McKie, a Communist Party organizer, suggested that each
organizer gather 10 workers together. If in three weeks none were fired,
they were to split up and organize 10 new members. This plan worked well.
The role of the Communist Party (which at that time, during the short
period of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, was in a pseudo-militant phase of activity)
was yet another ingredient in the Ford unionization mix. By 1938 the CP
had 2600 members in the Detroit area, of whom 750 were in auto. In 1941,
they had 150 to 250 members in clubs at the Rouge complex. The editor of
the UAW paper was associated with the CP and several leading Black members
of the organizing team were CP members.
Union growth skyrockets at Ford
The union grew department by department and then building by building.
There were over 1000 volunteer in-plant organizers. They held membership
meetings. In response, Ford fired hundreds of workers.
Going into World War II, Ford held defense contracts amounting to $55
million. The CIO threatened a campaign against the contracts, noting that
Henry Ford had received the Grand Cross from Germany and was known as both
pro-German and an anti-Semite. The government made a token gesture of withholding
one contract. But the gesture raised the workers' morale.
There was also government action in the courts and through the NLRB,
resulting in massive leafleting at the the Ford complex for the first time.
Workers began to wear union buttons in the plant, elected shop stewards,
and forced the company to bargain. There began to be a real but unofficial
union in the Ford Rouge.
In February and March 1941, union growth skyrocketed. In one week, 6000
workers were signed up. Tension was building. The UAW demanded an official
discussion with the company. It received no reply. The union filed an intent
to strike with the NLRB.
On March 13, 3000 workers sat down to protest the latest firings of union
members. On March 18, 6000 sat down until the company agreed to rehire 12
fired unionists. On March 19, another building struck, and the company gave
in.
Yet on April 1, Ford refused to meet with a union committee in the rolling
mill and fired several union workers. The rolling mill workers stopped production,
and the strike spread around the plant. Ford called the Dearborn police
and the UAW leadership and asked them to send the workers back to work.
The UAW proposed that Ford rehire the fired workers. The company refused.
Two hours later the union declared the strike official.
Ford's Security and 1000 workers stayed in the plant as strikebreakers.
They were paid $1 an hour, 24 hours a day. Most were Black-either longtime
workers loyal to Ford or new workers brought in for the purpose of breaking
the strike.
But the picket lines showed Black and white solidarity. Tens of thousands
of workers joined the picket lines at all the gates. There were daily strike
bulletins, hourly press statements and 12 radio broadcasts a day. Ten sound
trucks got the message out.
The workers parked their cars in huge barricades, blocking all entrances
to the plant. The UAW held a rally attended by 16,000-20,000. Promises of
support poured in from workers at Chrysler and GM, and from all over the
CIO.
A racial conflict?
On April 2 there was a battle at Gate 4. Some Black workers charged out
of the plant and attacked the primarily white picket line. There were smaller
skirmishes and dozens were injured. Huge pictures were printed in all the
Detroit papers giving the impression that race was the crucial issue in
the strike.
Ford said it was a racial conflict and tried to mobilize the Black community
against the UAW. He also used the AFL, the competitor with the UAW. The
AFL had announced in February that they had a majority of workers at Ford
and now they attacked the strike. Homer Martin, who posed as the AFL Ford
leader, charged that the UAW was communist controlled.
But the union pickets were also trying to encourage Black workers who
had stayed inside to come out. They shared their donuts and coffee immediately
with anyone who left the plant. Sometimes they signed them up for the union
on the spot.
On Sunday, April 6, there was minor fighting again. The union said that
153 workers had required hospitalization since the start of the strike and
that six were in serious condition.
The Black ministers who supported the union went to the plant to make
an appeal to the Black workers inside and to rally support for the strike.The
NAACP youth rallied to the cause-distributing literature in churches, stores,
and households and at the plant. The head of the NAACP joined them. In all,
10,000 leaflets were distributed.
Walter White, head of the national NAACP, came to town and proposed that
the UAW place newspaper ads pledging equal treatment for Black workers.
The UAW also put out a special edition of its newspaper, Ford Facts, stating
its commitment to Black workers. White went with the NAACP sound truck and
appealed to Black workers to come out of the plant. One did emerge. Soon
other Black community groups joined in.
The government gave Ford a temporary restraining order on April 2 to
prevent strikers from keeping workers out of the plant. But it failed because
the workers had been clever enough to set up their car barricades already.
The government mobilized mediators to intervene at the local, state, and
federal levels, including the governor of Michigan,Van Wagoner.
After one week of the strike, the NLRB ruled that there must be a collective
bargaining election within 45 days, a departure from the usual 60 days.
But the question remained about reinstating the eight workers whose firings
had kicked off the strike. The governor and Murray, head of the CIO, proposed
to reinstate five of them and arbitrate the cases of the other three later.
Ford agreed that there would be no reprisals against strikers.
Victory for the UAW
There was a mass meeting of 20,000 to vote on a settlement. Some opposition
arose from those who felt the contract should be won before settling. But
the UAW agreed to postpone other complaints until after the union election.
The strike was ended and workers went back to work on April 14.
The rival AFL continued to foment racial antagonisms. One week after
the settlement there was some new fighting in the plant. UAW sound trucks
circled the plant asking workers not to be provoked and calling for class
solidarity.
There were rumors circulating that the CIO was going to get rid of the
Black workers in the foundry who had stayed in the plant, and they came
to work armed to fight. State troopers were assigned to the plant.
The UAW had a mass meeting to rally support. Sixty thousand workers and
their families crowded into Cadillac Square in Detroit. On May 21, the election
was held on union representation. The UAW won overwhelmingly while the AFL
got 28 percent of the vote.
On June 20, the contract was signed. It provided for the first dues check-off,
seniority, and a grievance procedure. It raised wages to correspond to the
rest of the auto industry. There was also a clause prohibiting discrimination.
For the first time, the UAW won a union shop. This also represented the
kind of maneuver that Ford was capable of. He had done all he could to keep
the union out, but now that it was in, he wanted all the workers under the
control of the union apparatus!
A ratification meeting was held at the state fairgrounds. Twelve thousand
workers voted five to one to accept the contract, though one grouping in
the union opposed the contract because the ratio of stewards to workers
was only one to 550. This was a serious blow to the in-plant organization
used by the workers to build up the union.
The local Ford union set up a committee charged with dealing with race.
They put out educational literature and took a clear stand opposing racism.
In Ford Facts, they showed Black workers that the UAW had Black committeemen
and stewards, and members of the negotiating committee. They had integrated
baseball teams (long before the major leagues!)
Ford stopped hiring Black workers as soon as the union was in. Obviously
his race card no longer served him. Out of 22,000 workers hired in 1942,
less than 100 were Black. Unfortunately, the UAW did little to challenge
Ford's policy.
A new conflict arose over the The Sojourner Truth housing project. This
federally funded project had been planned for low-income Black people but
at the last minute was switched to whites. There were big protests and finally
the federal government was forced to go back to its original plans.
When Black people tried to move in, they were greeted with white pickets.
There was a small riot and the police brutally attacked the Black people.
The UAW and the NAACP both opposed what was going on. Finally on April 29,
the Black tenants succeeded in moving in.
In 1943, there were riots in Detroit in which many Blacks were victimized
by white mobs. But there was less friction in the plants organized by the
UAW than elsewhere. Black workers and white workers defended each other
against racial attacks.
By the mid-1940s, the UAW had gone through major changes. Radicals had
been forced out of the leadership. The UAW also pulled back from its commitment
to its Black membership and most Black officers and staff had disappeared
from the payrolls. But the changes that had been made in the relationships
in the plant remained.
The struggles at Ford River Rouge in 1941 showed the power of the workers
to overcome the many obstacles in their path. They were helped in their
struggles by militants of the left, members of the NAACP, and other Black
community leaders and youth. The way the Ford workers built their union
in the plant from the ground up shows the possibilities of ordinary workers
to create their own organizations to defend their interests.
The struggles at Ford show that workers can challenge the system of oppression
they face on the job every day. The fact that workers at Ford could have
integrated picnics and baseball games as well as stand shoulder to shoulder
in the plant and in their neighborhoods shows the power of class solidarity
to overcome the worst attempts at racial division.
Today workers face similar obstacles and divisions. And the same possibilities
exist for the workers to triumph. It remains for the U.S. working class
to understand this and use its power.
Socialist Action /February 2000 |