Not Automatic
Women and the Left in the Forging of the Auto Workers' Union
Published on 1. May 2000
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-58367-018-7 (ISBN)
Description
This story of the birth and infancy of the United Auto Workers, told by two participants, shows how the gains workers made were neither easy nor inevitable-not automatic-but required strategic and tactical sophistication as well as concerted action. Sol Dollinger recounts how workers, especially activists on the political left, created an auto union and struggled with one another over what shape the union should take. In an oral history conducted by Susan Rosenthal, Genora Johnson Dollinger tells the gripping tale of her role in various struggles, both political and personal.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
black & white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
363 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-58367-018-7 (9781583670187)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Sol Dollinger served in the merchant marines before and during the Second World War and worked in the 1940s and 1950s at the Hudson Motor Car Company, Budd Wheel Motor Products, and Briggs Manufacturing Company in Detroit, as well as the Chevrolet assembly plant in Flint, Michigan.
Content
Part 1 Lost history - Sol Dollinger: Toledo Auto-Lite strike of 1934; 1935 Chevrolet transmission strike; Homer Martin elected president; factional warfare in the U.A.W.; U.A.W. Twenty-point program; U.A.W. targets Ford Motor; equality of sacrifice; anti-union forces ambush U.A.W. Local 212; mafia and Briggs linked by Senator Estis Kefauver hearings; Reuther slams door on union democracy, 1947-1948; good housekeeping seal of approval; who led the 1937 sitdown strikes in Flint? Part 2 Striking Flint - an oral history of Genora (Johnson) Dollinger by Susan Rosenthal: conditions before the strike; preparing for battle; sit down! women comer forward; the women's emergency brigade; breaking the stalemate; a blow against racism; the sweet fruit of victory; fighting racism; organizing the unemployed; personality speaking; class struggle during the war; the employers strike back; back to the future.