UAW

Serious commentators on the labor upheavals of the Depression years seem to agree that disturbances of all kinds, including the wave of sit-down strikes of 1936 and 1937, were caused by the 'speed-up' above all.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union launched the strike after "one-sided negotiations" failed to reach an agreement.

"It was going to be General Motors' way at the expense of the workers," Gettelfinger said. "The company walked right up to the deadline like they really didn't care."

Consider these two units of time: 36 seconds, the rest of your life. The job that takes 36 seconds to do that you're going to do for the rest of your life. I don't know a better definition of alienation than that...

After the workers' contracts expired on Saturday, staff at the Rowan County plant went on the offensive and walked out on the evening of Monday 5 March demanding safer conditions and higher pay.

Employer Freightliner LLC announced in December it was to slash 1,200 of 4,000 jobs.

An open letter by the IMPACT group in Ohio, USA, to rank-and-file workers. The letter cointains short accounts of sell-outs and closed-door deals done by union leaders, as well as suggestions for grassroots activity.

A Review of Walter Reuther, Social Unionist by Martin Glaberman

Nelson Lichtenstein, The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor (New York: and Chicago: Basic Books, 1995), 575 pp., $35.00, cloth.

Martin Glaberman
Revolutionary Optimist
An interview with Martin Glaberman
(15 January 2000)

Black Cats,White Cats,Wildcats: Auto Workers in Detroit
Martin Glaberman