THIS MONTH IN LABOR HISTORY

Union Brothers and Sisters; With the recent additions and improvements to our local’s web-sight I thought it was high time I started contributing to the effort with a monthly Labor History article. On the 7th of March in 1932 a horrible struggle broke out which was to cost five strikers their lives. This happened during the famous Ford Hunger March also known as the Battle at the Rouge River.

1932 was during the height of the great depression. This conflict took place at the Ford Motor Company’s Plant at Rouge River in Detroit Michigan. 75% of the workforce at this facility had been laid off and with no public relief people were dying from cold and hunger. The famous Henry Ford who owned the company claimed that unemployment was not a problem and that workers could find work if they tried to. He was the richest man in the world at this time and did nothing to take care of his laid off employees.

The Auto Workers were not the only ones in trouble of course but it was already the largest industry in Detroit. Many of the unemployed Auto Workers were going hungry and being evicted from their homes in the dead of winter. To try to help each other they began forming Unemployment Councils. These were neighborhood organizations committed to helping the unemployed and the homeless. They staged countless gatherings to protest people being thrown out of their homes and stopped some evictions just by showing up in large numbers.

Some of these councils were led by Communists because they were the most organized and radical political group at that time. Of course the business owners and Civic Leaders immediately labeled all Unemployment Council Members as Communists which of course was not true. The great majority of the members were ordinary people just trying to survive the depression and the resulting misery it brought to so many in this country.

Owner Henry Ford was an extremist when it came to anti-unionism. The company’s service Department was actually a group of thugs and gangsters hire to scare and intimidate workers who dared to try to Organize. The company furnished this hired police force with weapons and ammunition. They were joined by local police and were on hand to meet any strike with lethal firepower. They also engaged in a systematic program of spying on and disrupting any attempts to organize the workforce.

The night of the Rouge River battle several Unemployment Councils organized a march to protest the plant lay-offs. They marched down several city blocks and were met at the bridge by Detroit Police and the Ford Service Department. The peaceful protestors were met by tear-gas canisters and sprayed with high pressure ice cold water. A few desperate and angry marchers through rocks at the police to fight back and suddenly the gates were opened up and the Police and the Ford Service Department armed with sub-machine guns began firing hundreds of rounds into the crown. In the ensuing panic five men were killed by the gunfire and 60 more wounded.

As with so many other labor struggles Ford Motor Company was never held accountable in any way but the local police raided Union Headquarters and the homes of several union officials. However, the workers were not silenced. Five days later 60,000 citizens took part in a giant funeral march to protest the killings. The authorities were condemned world wide for this slaughter which helped the UAW to eventually succeed in organizing the largest industry in the Country..

Sadly enough, to this day, people protesting unfair treatment, or misguided policy, are the ones who receive punishment. Of course the political and business leaders, most responsible for the events which drive ordinary citizens to acts of dissent are never held accountable.

Copyright (c) 2005 MPLS Area Local MN. All Rights Reserved.