1913 Studebaker strike

Labor strike in Detroit, US September 2021 September 2021 June 2023 Detroit, Michigan, United States 1913 Studebaker strike Industrial Workers of the World Studebaker Change in Studebaker's pay schedule from weekly to biweekly Picketing Strike action Walkout * Return to previous pay schedule Institution of the eight-hour day Improved working conditions Strike ends in failure for the strikers, company later makes change to their pay schedule to placate workers June 17–23, 1913(06 17 1913 06 23 1913) The 1913 Studebaker strike was a labor strike involving workers for the American car manufacturer Studebaker in Detroit. The six-day June 1913 strike, organized by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), is considered the first major labor strike in the automotive industry. Early in the year, the IWW, a radical anti-capitalist labor union, began to actively organize Detroit autoworkers, who had become a center of the automotive industry. IWW organizers, including Matilda Robbins and James H. Walsh, initially attempted to organize at the Ford Motor Company, but following fierce opposition, they shifted their focus to Studebaker. The company had recently shifted its pay schedule from weekly to once every two weeks, which was very unpopular with the workers. Tensions escalated even more when a vocal critic of the two-week pay schedule was fired, and about 3,500 workers went on strike on June 17. In the following days, this number grew to about 6,000 Studebaker employees, and their demands included a weekly pay schedule, improved working conditions, and an eight-hour day. By June 19, workers attempted to spread the strike to other car manufacturers, which led to a violent confrontation with police outside of the Packard manufacturing plant and a subsequent city ban on large marches and parades. While the strikers continued to make their demands public and attempted to generate support, Studebaker began hiring strikebreakers. Facing this, the strikers voted to end the strike on June 23. During the strike, Studebaker instituted a policy where employees could receive up to 70 percent of their pay halfway through the two-week period, which placated many of the employees. The IWW maintained a presence in the city and planned to target Ford the following year. This, among other reasons, contributed to Ford announcing a $5 daily pay for its workers at a time when the industry average pay was about half of that. The strike was one of several that ended in failure for the IWW in 1913, and the union continued to face both internal and external issues through the following years. In Detroit, organized labor would not gain a stable and sizeable foothold until the 1930s. Background The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was founded in 1905 as an anti-capitalist labor union.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 32Barnard 2004 32 Compared to the American Federation of Labor, the IWW was more radical and militant in its actions, and during the early 1900s was involved in several large labor strikes, such as the 1912 Lawrence textile strike and the 1913 Paterson silk strike.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 32 In 1909 and 1910, the IWW had led organizing campaigns in the city of Detroit, but the results of these drives were short-lived.Foner 1965 384 Around this same time, the city was developing a reputation as a major center in the automotive industry; in 1911, in response to several requests, IWW organizer William E. Trautmann began a concerted effort to organize autoworkers in the city, forming the Auto Workers' Industrial Union Local 16, a local union of the IWW.Foner 1965 384 Through 1912, the local faced problems with attracting members.Foner 1965 384 Discussing Detroit around this time, one historian would later say the city was one of "the most aggressively anti-union open-shop metropolis in the country",Esch 2018 37 while another stated it was "the least unionized city in the country".Vargas 1999 62 The Employers' Association of Detroit (EAD), which had been formed by manufacturers and employers in the early 1900s to oppose craft unionism,Barnard 2004 30 played an important role in preventing a strong union presence in the city, as they published a blacklist of labor organizers and workers sympathetic to organized labor and provided strikebreakers to companies facing industrial action.Barnard 2004 30Foner 1965 384 Additionally, the Detroit Police Department was generally hostile towards organized labor.Foner 1965 384 alt=A black and white photograph of a brick building, with a sign on the front saying "Ford Motor Co.', in front of which is two people in a car|thumb|275x275px|Studebaker had been operating their plant on Piquette Avenue (pictured c. 1906) since 1911.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 243 Starting in 1913, the IWW began to focus its efforts on the automotive industry in the American Midwest.Greenberg Watts 2009 72 That year, they organized a large strike targeting rubber manufacturers in Akron, Ohio.Greenberg Watts 2009 72–73Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 32 The strike, despite involving several thousand workers, ended in failure for the IWW,Greenberg Watts 2009 73 and starting around March 1913,Esch 2018 37Peterson 1987 109 Organizers began focusing their efforts on car manufacturers in Detroit.Greenberg Watts 2009 73Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 To effectively organize in the city, the IWW sent in several labor organizers,Barnard 2004 32 including Matilda Robbins and James H. Walsh,Foner 1965 385 who initially pushed for an eight-hour day at the Ford Motor Company.Barnard 2004 32note At the time, Ford was using a ten-hour workday.Peterson 1987 109Foner 1965 385 Ford's Highland Park Plant was targeted primarily due to complaints from workers following company changes to increase productivity.May 1992 383 Within a month, the IWW was claiming 200 automotive worker members in the city,Barnard 2004 32Foner 1965 386 and Robbins was regularly attracting roughly 3,000 Ford workers to hear her give speeches during their lunch breaks.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 However, Ford effectively blocked the organizers' efforts by changing the employee's lunch policies and having Robbins arrested.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 Additionally, they promoted several known IWW members to foremen, which made them ineligible to be members of the union per IWW policies.Peterson 1987 109 The IWW shifted its efforts from Ford to Studebaker, another car manufacturer in the city,Barnard 2004 32Peterson 1987 109 where several IWW members were employed.Barnard 2004 32Peterson 1987 109 At the time, a recent change in the company's pay schedule from once a week to once every two weeks had not been well received by many of the employees,Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33Peterson 1987 109 with some organizing groups to push for a return to the old pay schedule.Peterson 1987 109 Additional complaints concerned the low pay, long hours, and a policy change where, if a payday fell on a Sunday or a holiday, workers would be paid the following day and not the previous day.Foner 1965 386 Organizing efforts at the company centered primarily on the company's #3 plant, located at the intersection of Clark Street and West Jefferson Avenue.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 In mid-June, Dale Schlosser, a vocal advocate for the return to the weekly pay schedule, was fired from his position as Studebaker.note Sources agree that Schlosser was an advocate for the weekly pay scheduleFoner 1965 386Martelle 2012 74Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 but differ on when and why Schlosser was fired. Several sources state that Schlosser was fired on June 17 due to an unexcused absence.Martelle 2012 74Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 Historian Philip S. Foner states that Schlosser was fired for circulating a petition calling for weekly pay. Additionally, while he does not give an exact date for his firing, he states that the workers held a meeting on June 14 to discuss how they would respond to the firing.Foner 1965 386 Many workers at the plant protested Schlosser's firing and called on management to reinstate himFoner 1965 386 but their request was rejected.Foner 1965 386 On June 17, approximately 3,500 workers at the plant performed a walkout.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 This marked the first major labor dispute in the history of the automotive industry.note Multiple sources state that this strike was the first major labor strike in automotive history.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33Brooke 2008 14Goldstein 2001 90Hermann 2014 63Lewchuk 1987 38Martelle 2012 74Smith 2001 160Foner 1965 386 However, the industry had seen some smaller strikes before, with historian Philip S. Foner citing a 1906 strike at the Pope Manufacturing Company's car plant in Toledo, Ohio as probably the industry's first.Foner 1965 386 Course of the strike Following the walkout, protesting commenced outside the factory, and the strikers were joined by some workers from the nearby Timken Axle manufacturing plant.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 Many of the workers gathered in a nearby vacant lot where they listened to a speech given by IWW members.Foner 1965 386 Around noon, about 600 workers, led by a worker waving an American flag, began to march across the city to Studebaker's #1 plant (located in the former Ford Piquette Avenue Plant) at Piquette Avenue and Beaubien Street, roughly 7 mile km away.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 By the time they reached the other factory, the police were already there and blocked the strikers from the building.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 Despite the police presence, the strikers managed to recruit several hundred workers from the #1 plant and continued their march to Studebaker's #5 plant, located near Franklin Street and St. Aubin Street.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33note Sources differ on how many workers joined the strike, with Foner stating that 2,000 workers from Plant #1 joined the strike, while Babson et al. states that the workers continued their march after 200 to 300 workers from Plant #1 joined them. Additionally, Foner and Babson et al. disagree on the impact of the strike at Plant #5, with Foner stating that about 2,000 workers (nearly all of the plant's workforce) joined the strike and Babson et al. stating that efforts to attract strikers were less successful than at the other plants, and while some workers joined, the plant continued operations.Foner 1965 386Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 While some skilled workers, such as metal polishers and iron molders, expressed sympathy for the strike, tool makers organized under the American Federation of Labor (AFL), a craft union-oriented labor federation that was generally at odds with the IWW,Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 32 refused to strike.Foner 1965 386 While the main cause of the strike concerned the pay schedule, achieving the eight-hour day soon became another goal.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 By the end of the day, the strikers held a rally and elected strike leaders.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 Reflecting the immigrant composition of the workers, speeches at the rally were given in English, German, Polish, Russian, Slavic, and Yiddish.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 alt=A black and white photograph of a brick building with an old car in the foreground|thumb|275x275px|The Packard plant on East Grand Boulevard, c. 1905 Following the initial walkout, the strikers continued to rally and recruit more members from the Studebaker plants,Foner 1965 386–387 with several sources stating that about 6,000 workers were involved in the strike.Foner 1965 386 Peterson 1987 109 Vargas 1999 62 Goldstein 2001 90 Barnard 2004 32 Hillstrom 2006 104 Greenberg Watts 2009 73 The police maintained a presence at these rallies and at speeches given during the workers' lunch hours, the police ordered some speakers to cease when their speeches became more extreme.Foner 1965 387 In addition to Studebaker employees, there were plans to spread the strike to other companies, such as Cadillac and Packard.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 On June 19,note Foner listed several strike events as occurring in July. In the same source, he states that the strike ended on June 23.Foner 1965 386–388 Additionally, some sources list events described by Foner as occurring in July as occurring in June.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 strikers met at Plant #1 and proceeded to march to the Packard plant in an attempt to recruit their workers.Foner 1965 387 The march to the Packard plant on East Grand Boulevard involved about 2,000 strikers and was initially peaceful.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33Foner 1965 387 The strikers marched around the plant once before police officers, including mounted police, skirmished with the strikers, clubbing many and arresting some of the strikers and IWW members.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33Foner 1965 387 Walsh, who had been severely beaten, later led a group to protest the arrests and talked to the chief of police, who agreed to allow the strikers to continue picketing but barred them from holding large marches or parades.Foner 1965 387 On June 20, strikers held a meeting, presided over by Robbins, where they came up with a list of demands for Studebaker. Among these were a weekly pay schedule, an eight-hour day with the same pay as for a ten-hour day, improved working conditions, and no retribution to strikers following the end of the strike.Foner 1965 387–388 These demands were printed on leaflets and distributed throughout the city to generate support for the strike.Foner 1965 388 By this time, the strikers were facing a difficult situation. Several days after the strike had begun,Foner 1965 388 Studebaker announced a policy whereby employees could receive 70 percent of their pay halfway through the two-week pay period.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 This slight concession placated several workers who had initially opposed the change in pay schedule.Foner 1965 388 Additionally, May through September was traditionally considered the off-season for automotive manufacturing; as a result, many unemployed people were ready to take the strikers' jobs.Foner 1965 388 Around this time, the EAD had also begun providing Studebaker with strikebreakers.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 Due to this, on June 23, the strikers voted to end the strike.Foner 1965 388 Aftermath Despite the strike, which caused a short-term disruption to Studebaker's production level,Barnard 2004 32 the company managed to produce at near-maximum production capacity for the year and sold over 35,000 cars.Bonsall 2000 98 The failure of the strike severely impacted the IWW's efforts in Detroit,Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 causing their local membership to decrease drastically;Barnard 2004 32 however, the union still maintained a presence in the city,Esch 2018 38 where they operated educational and work relief programs.Barnard 2004 32note While multiple sources state that the IWW maintained a presence in Detroit after the strike, one source mentions the IWW had "left Detroit" following the strike.Brooke 2008 15 Additionally, the union planned to continue organizing efforts at Ford,Brooke 2008 15Hermann 2014 63 with labor historian Philip S. Foner stating that it was widely acknowledged at the time that the IWW was planning to conduct strike action against Ford sometime in early 1914.Esch 2018 38 This fear of activity from the IWW, among other reasons, contributed to Ford announcing a $5 daily wage for workers at their Highland Park Plant in January 1914.Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 Before this, Ford workers' average daily pay was $2.34.Brooke 2008 14Bonsall 2000 130–131 Despite this, IWW members were active in Detroit as late as 1933, when they became involved in some of the first strikes of the Great Depression.Barnard 2004 32Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 62 In 1932, they counted about 80 members in Detroit.Peterson 1987 111 Discussing the difficulties with the strike, Robbins stated, "There were some 50,000 or 60,000 auto workers in Detroit at the time. The IWW local did not have the ability, nor even the comprehension, of the magnitude of the job. And the speakers were not organizers with plans and discipline to help tackle the job. The strike dissipated itself. Many years would elapse before the auto workers would move as a mass toward industrial unionism."Peterson 1987 110 Historian Robert Justin Goldstein also notes that the police's attack on the strike and its ban on parades contributed to the strike's failure.Goldstein 2001 90 The Studebaker strike, like several other strikes led by the IWW in 1913, ended in failure for the union and generated concerns over both the IWW's strategy and future.Dubofsky 1969 285–287 In particular, members noted that, while the strikes were often largescale and significantly impactful in the short-term, they failed to generate long-term success, with the editor of Solidarity (the IWW'S official newspaper) suggesting that the union focus on smaller-scale industrial action.Dubofsky 1969 287 Additional criticism noted the poor organization of the strikes,Goldstein 2001 90 with one writer for Solidarity opining that, "A spontaneous strike is a spontaneous tragedy unless there is a strong local organization on the spot or unless a strong force of outside experienced men are thrown into town immediately."Dubofsky 1969 287 The IWW would continue to face both internal and external turmoil in the years following the strike,Dubofsky 1969 287–290 and IWW members would later be targeted by the U.S. Federal Government during the First Red Scare in the 1910s.Bonsall 2000 98Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 39 Following the strike, organized labor in Detroit remained fairly militant compared to elsewhere,Campbell Newman Safransky Stallmann 2020 30 with later largescale labor disputes events including the Ford Hunger March (1932), the Flint sit-down strike (1936), and the Battle of the Overpass (1937).Campbell Newman Safransky Stallmann 2020 30–32 In the years shortly after the strike, the Carriage, Wagon and Automobile Workers Union (CWAWU, which had been formed in 1891 as an affiliate of the American Federation of LaborBarnard 2004 32 and had participated to some extent in the Studebaker strike)Greenberg Watts 2009 73 began to more actively organize workers in the city, but their membership declined rapidly by the 1920s.Vargas 1999 62 It would not be until the 1930s that labor unions gained a strong foothold with the city's autoworkers.Woodford 2001 143 Speaking of organized labor in the city prior to the 1930s, an article published in the Michigan Historical Review states, "autoworker unions gained few members when industrial jobs were plentiful, wages were good, and the industry's employers controlled the labor market."Smith 2001 160–161 According to a 1986 book on the labor history of Detroit, the strike, while not successful, showed that "it was possible to unite skilled and unskilled autoworkers of diverse nationalities around militant trade unionism".Babson Alpern Elsila Revitte 1986 33 Foner states that IWW organizer Frank Bohn may have referenced the strike's impact during a speech with the strikers where he said, "the strike was not for a few days or weeks, but maybe twenty or thirty years".Foner 1965 390 Notes note References Sources 30em yes Babson Steve https://books.google.com/books?id=_2J3YzdEgOAC Working Detroit: The Making of a Union Town Alpern Ron Elsila Dave Revitte John Wayne State University Press 1986 978-0-8143-1819-5 Detroit en Barnard John https://books.google.com/books?id=Y97uNsn4scQC American Vanguard: The United Auto Workers During the Reuther Years, 1935-1970 Wayne State University Press 2004 978-0-8143-3297-9 Detroit en Bonsall Thomas E. https://books.google.com/books?id=w67Uhn6bpnsC More Than They Promised: The Studebaker Story Stanford University Press 2000 978-0-8047-3586-5 Stanford, California en Brooke Lindsay https://books.google.com/books?id=KYBCDwAAQBAJ Ford Model T: The Car That Put the World on Wheels Motorbooks 2008 978-0-7603-2728-9 Minneapolis en Campbell Linda https://books.google.com/books?id=EgeHDwAAQBAJ A People's Atlas of Detroit Newman Andrew Safransky Sara Stallmann Tim Wayne State University Press 2020 978-0-8143-4298-5 Campbell Linda Detroit 30–34 en Labor Struggles Newman Andrew Safransky Sara Stallmann Tim Dubofsky Melvyn http://archive.org/details/weshallbeallhist00dubo We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World Quadrangle Books 1969 978-0-812-96232-1 Chicago Melvyn Dubofsky Esch Elizabeth D. https://books.google.com/books?id=eKhSDwAAQBAJ The Color Line and the Assembly Line: Managing Race in the Ford Empire University of California Press 2018 978-0-520-96088-6 Berkeley, California en Foner Philip S. http://archive.org/details/history-of-the-labor-movement-in-the-united-states-volume-4 History of the Labor Movement in the United States International Publishers 1965 978-0-717-80396-5 IV: The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905–1917 New York City Philip S. 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Cott 5: The Intersection of Work and Family Life New York City 371–396 en The Historical Problem of the Family Wage: The Ford Motor Company and the Five Dollar Day Peterson Joyce Shaw https://books.google.com/books?id=uLmtiSWD9-wC American Automobile Workers, 1900–1933 State University of New York Press 1987 978-0-88706-573-6 Albany, New York en Smith Mike Fall 2001 "Let's Make Detroit a Union Town": The History of Labor and the Working Class in the Motor City Michigan Historical Review Central Michigan University 27 2 157–173 10.2307/20173931 0890-1686 20173931 Vargas Zaragosa https://books.google.com/books?id=87cwDwAAQBAJ Proletarians of the North: A History of Mexican Industrial Workers in Detroit and the Midwest, 1917-1933 University of California Press 1999 978-0-520-21962-5 Berkeley, California en Woodford Arthur M. https://books.google.com/books?id=cVP055AfqNEC This is Detroit, 1701-2001: An Illustrated History Wayne State University Press 2001 978-0-8143-2914-6 Detroit en Category:1910s strikes in the United States Category:1913 in Detroit Category:1913 labor disputes and strikes Category:Automotive industry in the United States Category:Economy of Detroit Category:Ford Motor Company labor relations Category:Industrial Workers of the World in the United States Category:June 1913 in the United States Category:Labor disputes in Michigan 1913 Category:Labor relations by company Category:Manufacturing industry labor disputes in the United States Category:Studebaker