U.S. At War: Trouble in Detroit

• Share

Industrial Detroit seethed with bitter squabbles. "Work stoppages" constantly interrupted production of direly needed war goods:

¶Test drivers at the Chrysler tank arsenal threatened to strike because the proving grounds were dusty. When the company sprinkled them, the drivers threatened to strike because they were too wet.

¶At another plant, where a man was suspended three days for sleeping on the job, fellow workmen walked out, stayed away until the suspension expired. At still another, workers left the job because a telephone close to their machines was taken out, in the interest of better production. Workers at another plant stopped work for a meeting on grievances, found they had none to mention, went back to work again.

¶The vast C.I.O. automobile union and the vast automobile industry nagged and bickered constantly. Industry said that the U.A.W. was trying to usurp the functions of management. The union said that the industry was hoarding labor.

Last week all this ill feeling culminated in a grave work stoppage—a noisy, angry row which spread into thirteen Detroit war plants, sent over 35,000 Detroit workers into the streets.

The trouble started at the Chrysler Corp.'s huge Dodge main plant. When the company fired eight airplane gear cutters, 13,500 workers walked out. Production of tank transmissions, trucks, antiaircraft guns, engines for B-29 Superfortresses and rocket shells ground to a halt. A war of words ensued. The company charged the eight dismissed men with loafing and insubordination, said they would not produce 184 gears on machines capable of 225. The union charged that the rate had been raised from 108, lifted the cry of "speedup," said Chrysler was deliberately stirring up trouble in the hope of wrecking the union. Top officers of U.A.W.-C.LO. deplored the strike as "unauthorized." Nevertheless, it existed.

Union Ultimatum. The Dodge local's president, Mike Novak, issued an ultimatum to Chrysler: take back the eight discharged men. The union ignored pleas from the Army, refused to obey a War Labor Board order to go back to work and submit the grievance to mediation. A meeting at which International officers sought to intervene wound up in a rousing 30-minute fist fight.

Meanwhile, the Briggs Manufacturing Co. found the time ripe for firing seven union shop stewards and committeemen at their Mack Avenue plant. The men were accused of fomenting 57 strikes at the Briggs plant. Immediately, 5,800 Briggs employes walked out, started the company's 161st wartime strike. The company fired eight more union men. The union local voted to stay out until the dis charged men were rehired. As the U.A.W.'s harried International officers sought to smooth things over, they were picketed by Briggs strikers. The pickets gathered under an office occupied by George Addes, the acting International president, and sang:

"Addes is a horse thief—he should be removed,

Like the garbage in the alley—he should be removed."

At the Ford River Rouge plant, where airplane motors are produced, 1,100 employes caught the excitement, struck for five hours, then went back to work.