Child of the Sit-Downs_ The Revolutionary Life of Genora Dollinger - Carlton Jackson [32]
Defying all law and order (there was to be another injunction announced against the strikers) the congregated women—about 700 of them104—marched through a tense Flint with their children and carrying placards that read, “Our Daddies Fight for Us Little Tykes.”105 Genora formed a child picket line even before the Battle of Bull’s Run, after convincing their mothers that the striking men would protect them. She wanted press coverage other than from the Flint Journal, which she deemed unfriendly to the sit-downers. The strategy worked. It was not long until Detroit papers and even some foreign ones began to note the activities in Flint.106 Four abreast, they came through the Flint business district to show the world that these “were simple hardworking American wives and mothers.” They sang,
We’re the Wives,
We’re the Mothers
Of our fighting union brothers.
We’ll fight for our kith and kin
And when we fight we fight to win!107
Flint city manager, John Barringer, whose metal casting factory was a chief supplier to Buick, was frustrated. The state police and national guard had decided to “lie low” during Women’s Day, and he did not want those who favored the strike to gain any momentum. Barringer deputized 500 special deputies to force the sit-downers out of the factories.108 With the Women’s March, however, and the continued occupation of GM factories not only in Flint but in many other industrial towns across the country, a sense that public opinion was turning in favor of the strikers caused the deputies, or “vigilantes,” as they were commonly called, to have virtually no influence.
After the march, a mass meeting was held. “By six that evening the hall was full of women—even men—standing in a solid ring around the [Pengelly] hall.” Many there believed that they were seeing history in the making, “a movement in its moment of creation.”109 The “taking” of Plant Four and Women’s Day in Flint were clear indicators that the sit-downs were in their final days and that GM was not going to be the winner. Many of the assembly lines depended on the products (engines, mostly, but also crank shafts) coming out of Plant Four for continued operations. In this respect, time was on the side of the strikers.
The day after Women’s Day, at the time the court injunction against further union demonstrations was to take place, a dance started in front of Fisher Plant One. A ten-piece orchestra had been allowed—as a gesture of goodwill—by the authorities to go inside the plant; they used amplifiers to pipe their music to the outside. Some 10,000 union members, men and women, danced on the hard, cold ground in front of the building, where a light snow was falling. It was not a grand ballroom, but the exuberance and excitement of the moment could hardly be duplicated elsewhere. As the dancing continued the crowd built a huge fire, coffee and sandwiches were served on the lawn, “and the dancing continued way into the night.”110 The union definitely sensed victory.
All during the strike, federal mediators brought company and union together, or at least tried to. They faced tremendous pressure from FDR’s White House and Governor Murphy’s state house in Lansing to bring these difficulties to an end. Not the least of the factors considered was the economic damage done to capitalism and labor. The two sides, it was widely held, were destroying each other. Finally, however, GM offered a settlement.
The GM contract—written on a single page—recognized the UAW on February 11, 1937, as the official representative of the Flint workers. The strike was over. It had lasted forty-four days. About a month later, March 13, 1937, GM and the UAW signed a formal, albeit inconclusive, contract with one another. It did not, for example, provide for a steward system, but it did allow union committeemen, according to the size of the plant. Chevy was large enough to warrant seven committeemen.111 This was the first labor