Child of the Sit-Downs_ The Revolutionary Life of Genora Dollinger - Carlton Jackson [49]
Detroit was the industrial heart of the nation during World War II and led the way in producing war materiel and provided a breeding ground for conflicts between management and labor. Any union activity against the company was labeled by stockholders and government as “traitorous” to the cause. If the companies had behaved, unionists claimed, and had not monetarily enriched themselves by the war, things might have turned out differently. Genora censured capitalism for its profit-gouging ways and led many like-minded people to ask who the real traitors were: unionists or capitalists? She opposed the war from the beginning, believing that its inspiration came from imperialistic politicians, but that did not mean she acted disloyally toward the fighting men and women in the armed forces. By the same token, she took care that her nonmilitary unionist colleagues—the ones not in uniform but who nevertheless worked in factories during the war—received fair treatment.
The war over, the SWP sent Sol to Flint as a recruiter, for it reckoned Flint the most promising city in the country for gaining members. Sol lived with Genora’s parents, and her father at last came to have a begrudging respect for his “wayward” daughter. Genora stayed in Detroit, at Gladwin Street, still working for Briggs and increasing her union activities on a daily basis. Detroit was “such a fertile field of contacts—what a golden opportunity for the party!” Both the UAW and the SWP were pioneering in the postwar period because there were no “emergencies” that had to be handled. “We are breaking new territory” in relations between management and labor, Genora said, “and other generations” will benefit from our experiences. “This is a new period for us all; we are becoming recognized as a force by our friends and our enemies.”44
She threw herself—or tried to—into the labor union activities of Detroit, especially as they applied to Local 212. An aisle caucus meeting with 800 people present came up with the following concerns at the Briggs plant: the matter of seniority throughout the departments and the entire plant; settlement of all grievances, no matter how trivial; and immediate negotiations on a 30 percent pay raise for all workers. If no actions were taken on these matters, they promised a strike within a fortnight. None were taken—at least in Detroit. GM in Flint was struck for several weeks in 1945. The union felt that the day President Harry Truman said the war with Japan was over, the no-strike pledge ended. Genora kept working on a speech she planned for the Educational Committee of Local 212 titled “How the Workers Took Power in Russia,” dedicated to union members everywhere. Sol pressured her to join him in Flint. “For both of us to do our best for the party, we should be together. Do you agree?”45 No, she did not agree. She wrote, “Ernie [Mazey] wants me to stay here [in Detroit] as long as I can.” One person, it was adjudged by the Detroit SWP, was enough for Flint—and that was Sol. As time passed, it seemed as though Genora never again wanted to see the town where she grew up. In Detroit at the end of August 1945, there were 150,000 workers newly unemployed, 30,000 of whom were women. Genora joined other members of Local 212 protesting against “returning to work in the kitchen” and the wiping out whole Briggs departments, particularly those with a history of vigorous labor activity.46 Genora was one of those to go.
Historians Leila Rupp and Verta Taylor remark with some understatement that “women active on behalf of women’s rights in the post-1945 period perceived