This fall has brought a wave of strikes, with workers seeking raises and better working conditions. They’re following in a long tradition, and one of its key moments was the 1936-1937 sit-down strike by auto workers in Flint, Michigan. Testimonies from those strikers and their family members, collected by Catherine Smith and her colleagues at Mott Community College in Flint, are a reminder of how much those strikers had in common with their counterparts today.
Some of the workers reflected on the terrible conditions at the plant before the strike.
“You couldn’t get a drink of water,” Joseph Martinus said. “You couldn’t even go to the bathroom. What I mean is, you was [sic] tied down that closely.”