On Friday, April 2, 1937, Kansas City autoworkers at the Ford Motor Company’s Winchester Avenue plant made history. Fed up with union-busting tactics, unfair layoffs, and brutal working conditions, members of what would become UAW Local 249 launched the first-ever sit-down strike at a Ford plant — a bold act of defiance that echoed across…
Month:
Work Him Until He Quits
In February 1937, Walter Williams, a leader of the UAW organizing drive at the Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant, was pulled from his job on the No. 1 metal line and escorted to the office of plant superintendent Joseph Bush. Waiting for him were several supervisors, their presence a clear warning. “Keep your damn mouth…