The Flint Sit-Down Strike: 44 Days That Built the UAW

Did you know one of the most important strikes in American history happened in Flint? On December 30, 1936, a small group of autoworkers sat down on the line at General Motors’ Fisher Body Plant No. 2 — and refused to leave. The idea was simple but radical: instead of walking out, where they could be replaced, they occupied the factory so GM couldn’t run it without them.

The sit-down held for 44 days. Workers slept inside the plants, organized food passed in through the windows, and kept the place orderly. When police tried to storm Fisher Body 2 with tear gas on January 11, 1937, the strikers fought them off in what they gleefully nicknamed the “Battle of the Running Bulls.” On February 11, 1937, GM gave in and recognized the United Auto Workers as the bargaining representative for its union workers.

It became known as “the strike heard round the world.” The win turned the UAW from a fledgling union into a national force and helped spread industrial unionism across American manufacturing — all of it starting on the factory floors of Vehicle City.