page_title: 1950 in Michigan
section_title: May
hierarchical_section_title: 1950 in Michigan / Chronology of events / May
caption_attribution_description: Walter P. Reuther
context_page_description: Events from the year 1950 in Michigan.
  In a poll taken by the Associated Press of newspaper and radio editors, the following stories were selected as the most important Michigan news stories of 1950:
  The gubernatorial election in which Republican former Governor Harry Kelly was declared the winner on election night, but the incumbent Democrat Governor G. Mennen Williams was declared the winner on December 13 after a statewide recount;
  A five-year contract signed May 23 between the United Auto Workers and General Motors, setting a national precedent for long-term contracts and wage increases, and which later became known as Reuther's Treaty of Detroit;
  A 100-day strike by the UAW against Chrysler, lasting from January to May and idling more than 100,000 workers in the Detroit area;
  The crash on June 23 of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 into Lake Michigan with the loss of 58 lives, making it the deadliest commercial airliner accident in U.S. history to that time;
  The destruction by fire of the University of Michigan's Haven Hall on June 6 and the subsequent arson conviction of teaching fellow Robert H. Stacy on December 16;
context_section_description: May 3 - The University of Michigan announced the creation of a School of Natural Resources, the first of its type to focus on conservation of natural resources with Samuel T. Dana as dean.
  May 5 - General Motors chairman Alfred P. Sloan and CEO C. E. Wilson announced record profits of $212.4 million on sales of $1.28 billion for the first three months of 1950.
  May 6 - A new collective bargaining agreement, including $100-a-month pensions, between the UAW and Chrysler was approved in a vote of workers at 27 locals, ending a 100-day strike that cost an estimated billion dollars. The locals approved the contract by votes of 94 to 98 percent. Chrysler plants resumed operations on May 8, and 4,000 cars and trucks were assembled on the first day as the company sought to recapture its market.
  May 8 - The United States Supreme Court unanimously held Michigan's Bonine-Tripp Act unconstitutional as an invasion of a field occupied by the federal government with the Taft–Hartley Act. The Michigan law, which was challenged by the UAW, required a state mediation board to conduct a strike vote upon the request of either the union or the employer, forbade strikes until such votes were conducted, and provided criminal penalties for union leaders who called strikes before such a vote.
  May 16 - University of Detroit president Rev. Celestin Steiner announced a $20 million expansion plan with $10 million earmarked for the construction of six new buildings, including a 9,000-seat field house, by the time of the school's 75th anniversary in 1952. University of Detroit Memorial Field House opened in 1952.
  May 20 - The Michigan Legislature approved a plan proposed by Detroit Mayor Cobo to expedite construction of expressways in Detroit, including completion of the Ford (I-94) and Lodge expressways (M-10). The plan called for the issuance of $100 million in bonds jointly backed by the city, county, and state and to be repaid out of gas and weight taxes.
  May 22 - After a two-week trial, Eugene Braunsdorf, a 52-year-old former Detroit Symphony Orchestra musician, was found innocent by reason of temporary insanity in a trial for killing his daughter. One year earlier, while sitting in his car at Eight Mile Road and Evergreen, he had shot his 29-year-old daughter, "a spastic paralytic," four times and then shot himself; she died and he survived. The shooting was described as a "mercy killing". Following the verdict, Braunsdorf was committed by the judge to the Ionia State Hospital for the Criminally Insane for the rest of his life. However, two weeks after the verdict, psychiatrists testified at a hearing that Braundsorf had fully recovered his sanity, and the judge granted his unconditional freedom.
  May 23 - GM and the UAW reached a five-year contract that became known as Reuther's Treaty of Detroit. The UAW reached similar five-year deals with Ford and Chrysler, protecting the companies from annual negotiations and strikes and giving workers improved health, vacation, and pension benefits and cost-of-living adjustments to wages. The contract shaped labor-management relations in the auto industry for decades.
  May 23 - Livonia was incorporated into a city by vote of the citizens of the township. The proposal was approved by a vote of 2,953 to 1,487. Jesse Ziegler was selected as the city's first mayor. Livonia's population grew to 66,702 in 1960 and 104,814 in 1970.
caption: Walter Reuther
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