Evening star., 1937-02-11

cussions the Governor called news men
into his hotel suite and announced to
the tense group:
An agreement has been reached -
Although the strike did not attract
national interest until il became spec
tacular through the occupation of the
two Flint Fisher plants by the sit
downers." the union actually began its
campaign to win recognition and other
concessions from General Motors when
It called a strike November 10 in the
Fisher plant at Atlanta. Ga.
1t was a sit-down," bu the strikers
held the factory only few days
Gradually the strikes spread to other
plants Of the corporation, finally ex-
tending from New Jersey to Cali
fornia and from Georgia to the Great
Lakes. At the peak at least 1875 900
General Motors employees we're out Of
work.
Flint Strike capital.
Flint. with one-fourth of its 165 900
population employed by General Mo-
tors, became the strike capital" :"
Two serious disorders and several
other minor ones occurred there In
the flrst-January 1l-27 persons we're
injured and Gov. Murphy dispatched
Michigan National Guardsmen to the
scene
The second disturbance. in which a
dozen were hurt. February /. led to
the establishment OF a militarized zone
around more than a dozen General
Motors buildings. In the area were
Fisher body plant No. 2. where the
January 81 riot occurred, and Chevro-
let No. 4, both occupied by strikers.
Additional troops were sent to Flint.
Although the total reached $500, only
! 200 were on patrol duty. The others
were held in reserve.
Twice General Motors went into
Circuit Court at Flint to obtain in
functions against the occupation of its
property by strikers, but in neither
case was action to remove them car
ried out.
The case was transferred to another
circuit Judge, Paul v. Gadola, when
union officials disclosed-and Judge
Black confirmed-that Black was a
General Motors stockholder The cor
poration never pressed for action un-
der this Injunction.
Form Board Of Strategy.
January 3, the day after the first
injunction was issued. the union
formed q board of strategy at a rally
in Flint and empowered it to call a
general strike against General Motors
If it deemed this necessary to obtain
consideration of its eight demands, the
chief of which was recognition as the
sole bargaining agency of the corpo-
ration's employees.
In office less than q week, Gov.
Murphy became concerned as plant
closings and curtailments spread
through Michigan and q dozen other
State He offered his services to
conciliate. Then came the January
II street riot outside Fisher No. 2 at
Flint, and the mobilization of National
Guardsmen.
The next night the Governor sum-
moned heads Of both sides to meet
with him without condition or preju-
dice" Their meeting resulted in the
Lansing truce" which never was
consummated when each side accused
the other Of bad faith"
That agreement provided that the
strikers should leave the five plants
then held by 9 am, January ID; that
General Motors would not remove
equipment or operate strike-closed
plants during negotiations, and that
the eight demands would be negotiated
in a conference to begin after the
plants had been vacated.
Three Plants Evacuated.
Three Of the flve plants were evacu-
ated-the guide lamp division at An
derson, Ind, and Cadillac and Fleet
wood at Detroit. When the union
learned that General Motors had con-
sented to meet with the Flint Alliance.
an organization opposed to the strike,
as representing non union employees at
Flint, 1t refused to evacuate the Flint
strikers.
The U. A. w. A. contended that
General Motors double crossed" it by
agreeing to negotiate with any other
group before scting upon the unions
recognition demand. General Motors
said the union violated the truce by
its refusal to surrender the plants.
At the appointed hour ON January