Kansas City in the Jazz Age & Great Depression

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Ford Motor Company Strike

Ford Assembly Plant

Following the successful sit-down strike at Kansas City's Fisher Body plant and other factories owned by General Motors in 1936-1937, the United Auto Workers stage another strike at Ford Motor Company’s Kansas City plant, the first ever sit-down strike at a Ford facility. After the National Labor Relations Board orders Ford to rehire and repay workers a total of $2.5 million in back pay, Ford finally recognizes the UAW in 1941.

Date : 
April 2, 1937
Related Articles: 

United Automobile Workers of America Strike of 1936-37

Workers at automobile plant
Author: 
Jason Roe
Kansas City Public Library

On December 16, 1936, 1,000 employees of the Fisher Body plant located in the Leeds district of Kansas City sat down on the job to protest the recent firing of a worker and demand that General Motors recognize the unionization of autoworkers. What could have been merely a local dispute instead gave early momentum to one of the most significant labor-management confrontations of the twentieth century, the so-called General Motors Strike of 1936-37.

KANSAS CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY | DIGITAL HISTORY