page_title: 1955 in Michigan
section_title: June
hierarchical_section_title: 1955 in Michigan / Chronology of events / June
caption_attribution_description: English: Title: Detroit-Leland Hotel, Detroit, Michigan Subjects: Hotels Places: Michigan &gt; Wayne (county) &gt; Detroit Notes: Title from item. Extent: 1 print (postcard)&#160;: linen texture, color&#160;; 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. Accession #: 06_10_014733
context_page_description: Events from the year 1955 in Michigan
context_section_description: June 1 - The mutilated body of eight-year-old Jeannie Singleton, missing since May 23, was found in a wooded area north of Kalamazoo. An autopsy showed that she had been raped, beaten, and strangled.
  June 6 - After a final, 30-hour marathon negotiating session at the Detroit-Leland Hotel, Ford Motor reached a three-year agreement with the UAW that included a modified version of the guaranteed annual wage (GAW) provision sought by the UAW. The agreement, described as "revolutionary", guaranteed a laid-off worker "a reasonable living" for six months. The Detroit Free Press reported at the time that the accord touched off a debate as to whether it would "drive the country to socialism or provide a new built-in security that will stabilize employment and assure prosperity."
  June 7 - Residents of Southfield and Troy, previously organized as townships, voted to incorporate as cities. Both cities experienced rapid growth after incorporating. Southfield grew by 119.8% from 31,531 in 1960 to 69,298 in 1970. Troy grew by nearly 400% from 19,402 in 1960 to 80,959 in 2010.
  June 10 - With the Ford contract behind, the UAW set a June 12 strike deadline with General Motors. On June 12, after 37 hours of continuous negotiations, the UAW and General Motors agreed to a three-year pact giving a modified guaranteed wage to 350,000 GM workers. Walter Reuther said the concessions were worth $600 million over three years and represented more than 20 cents an hour in benefits. The GM pact followed the Ford model in requiring the company to supplement unemployment benefits, allowing workers to draw 60 to 65% of take-home pay for 26 weeks in the event of a layoff. With approval of a modified GAW by both Ford and GM, it was suggested that "big labor" had emerged in the United States as a force that "could grow more powerful . . . than big business ever was." Labor expert Edwin A. Lahey opined that big labor strikes were dead and noted that the largest corporation in the world had made concessions "that were and will remain highly repugnant to the industrial traditionalists." GM reportedly "abhorred and feared" the GAW and would have preferred a long strike to the GAW if it had been the first to negotiate, suggesting Reuther's wisdom in choosing Ford as the UAW's first target on the GAW.
  June 15 - A civil defense exercise simulated an atomic bomb being dropped at Livernois and Fort Streets in Detroit at 2:39. Due to mass evacuation ordered at 11:03 a.m., the projected death toll dropped from 94,800 to 57,600.
  June 22 - General Motors announced a $500 million expansion and modernization plan that the company hoped would create an additional 28,000 jobs annually.
  June 22 - President Eisenhower appointed former Michigan Gov. Wilber M. Brucker as Secretary of the Army. Brucker had become known as the "man who laughed at Senator McCarthy" after he became amused at questions posed by the Senator during the Army–McCarthy hearings. Brucker's his laugh "boomed through the hearing room" and was credited with dissipating an atmosphere of fear and hatred surrounding the hearings.
  June 26 - Eaton Manufacturing reached agreement with the UAW which included supplemental unemployment benefits consistent with the Ford and GM modified GAW, covering 4,100 workers at plants in Detroit, Cleveland, Battle Creek, and Marshall, Michigan. By late June, the modified GAW was reported to be "mushrooming throughout the subsidiary automobile industry," including smaller parts and tool companies. As Lincoln ended its 1955 model production at the end of June, the company announced that it did not anticipate model-changeover layoffs, a shift in past patterns which was attributed to the GAW provision. On August 13, the GAW model was adopted and expanded by the United Steel Workers who negotiated a contract providing a full year of supplementary unemployment benefits for 20,000 steelworkers employed by American Can Co. and 15,000 more employed by Continental Can Co.
caption: Detroit-Leland Hotel where Ford and the UAW negotiated the modified GAW
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