Labor Day 2011 Flint Sit Down Strike Remembered

On December 30th, 1936 the workers of Flint, Michigan forever changed the way Americans worked.  Using the power of the people, Flint stood up to the police, the National Guard, and GM and Flint won.  It's easy to take what we have for granted, but take the time to be grateful and appreciative of those that came before us.

The early 1930's were a tough time to be in Flint.  Nearly half of the cities residents worked for GM, and that wasn't necessarily a good thing.  The assembly lines weren't the high tech safety first environments they are now.  People were regularly maimed and worked 12+ hour days for years at a time.  Many employees were forced to rent their homes from GM, homes with tar paper roofs and no indoor plumbing.   According to sociologists of the time, many in Flint were experiencing “occupational psychosis” due to the long hours and repetitive work.  I read a great article on the sit-down strike by Martha Gevatt at Workers.org

If you don't want to read all that, I get it.  Here's a video from Flintstoner, Micheal Moore.  I am not a huge fan of his stuff in general, but I understand what he's trying to do and respect that.  I feel like his message gets lost in his delivery, but that's another issue I guess.  Here is a scene from his movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story" regarding the Flint Sit-Down Strike.