Labor Unrest at the Ford Rouge Plant

The struggle to unionize Ford Motor Company workers was long and--at times--violent. This photograph shows United Auto Workers (UAW) labor organizers demonstrating outside Ford's Rouge Plant pedestrian overpass during 1937. Four years later, following a turbulent ten-day strike in April 1941, Ford became the last major automotive manufacturer to recognize the UAW and agree to a union contract.

The struggle to unionize Ford Motor Company workers was long and--at times--violent. This photograph shows United Auto Workers (UAW) labor organizers demonstrating outside Ford's Rouge Plant pedestrian overpass during 1937. Four years later, following a turbulent ten-day strike in April 1941, Ford became the last major automotive manufacturer to recognize the UAW and agree to a union contract.

The struggle to unionize Ford Motor Company workers was long and--at times--violent. This photograph shows labor organizers distributing United Auto Workers (UAW) newspapers outside Ford's Rouge Plant pedestrian overpass in November 1937. Four years later, following a turbulent ten-day strike in April 1941, Ford became the last major automotive manufacturer to recognize the UAW and agree to a union contract.

The struggle to unionize Ford Motor Company workers was long and--at times--violent. This photograph shows United Auto Workers (UAW) labor organizers demonstrating outside Ford's Rouge Plant pedestrian overpass during 1937. Four years later, following a turbulent ten-day strike in April 1941, Ford became the last major automotive manufacturer to recognize the UAW and agree to a union contract.

Ford Motor Company refused to recognize the United Auto Workers (UAW) labor union. On May 26, 1937, men from Ford's Service Department (left) attacked labor organizers (right) Robert Kanter, Walter Reuther, Richard Frankensteen, and J.J. Kennedy on a pedestrian overpass at Ford's Rouge Plant. This "Battle of the Overpass" came to symbolize the struggle to unionize Ford. The UAW ultimately succeeded in 1941.

The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of different labor unions. It had formed as an offshoot of the larger American Federation of Labor (AFL) but became independent in 1935. It attracted young left-wing activists, socialists and Communists. The United Automobile Workers (UAW) labor union, founded as part the CIO, was particularly influential during the late 1930s.

Daniel Corner proudly wore this cap to United Auto Workers labor union meetings, adding buttons to his cap every year between October 1937 and January 1942. During this time, he worked for Ford Motor Company and may have faced threats of violence from Ford security staff for his union activities. Ford officially unionized on June 20, 1941.

In 1937, the United Auto Workers (UAW) began efforts to unionize Ford Motor Company workers. The long and--at times--violent struggle culminated in a turbulent ten-day strike in April 1941. Here, demonstrators carry placards and wear caps with union buttons outside Ford's Rouge Plant gates. By June 1941 Ford became the last major automotive manufacturer to recognize the UAW and agree to a union contract.

The image shows continuing United Auto Workers activity outside the Ford Rouge plant less than three months following the "Battle of the Overpass," in which Ford Motor Company security men beat labor organizers Walter Reuther, Richard Frankensteen, Richard Merriweather, and Ralph Dunham. Men and women hand out special editions of the United Auto Worker UAW newspaper while boys sell Detroit Free Press newspapers.

This broadside refers to the 1935 Wagner Act, which guaranteed workers the right to organize unions, and to strike, boycott and picket their employers. The United Auto Workers (UAW) labor union, founded 1935, succeeded in unionizing General Motors and Chrysler within two years. The UAW's next target became Ford Motor Company, which had long resisted unionization. It ultimately succeeded in 1941.

Arthur Lehmann created this painting while employed by the Works Progress Administration in Detroit. Lehmann chanced upon unionizing efforts at the Ford Rouge Plant in 1937, creating a sketch of workers picketing outside the plant gates. Ultimately, the workers were successful and in 1941 Ford became a union shop. In a meticulously personal style, Lehmann depicts the unionizing process in the finished painting.

The struggle to unionize Ford Motor Company workers was long and--at times--violent. This photograph shows labor organizers distributing United Auto Workers (UAW) newspapers outside Ford's Rouge Plant pedestrian overpass in January 1938. Three years later, following a turbulent ten-day strike in April 1941, Ford became the last major automotive manufacturer to recognize the UAW and agree to a union contract.

The struggle to unionize Ford Motor Company workers was long and--at times--violent. This photograph shows United Auto Workers (UAW) labor organizers demonstrating outside Ford's Rouge Plant pedestrian overpass during 1937. Four years later, following a turbulent ten-day strike in April 1941, Ford became the last major automotive manufacturer to recognize the UAW and agree to a union contract.

The struggle to unionize Ford Motor Company workers was long and--at times--violent. This photograph shows United Auto Workers (UAW) labor organizers demonstrating outside Ford's Rouge Plant pedestrian overpass during 1937. Four years later, following a turbulent ten-day strike in April 1941, Ford became the last major automotive manufacturer to recognize the UAW and agree to a union contract.