People Have the Right to Be Mad: Wildcat Strikes and Labor Relations in the Post-World War II Auto Industry

Abstract

Writing on wildcat strikes, which were usually brief and under-reported, has been limited. This is especially the case in the auto industry, where postwar labor relations were supposedly stable and staid, marked by high rates of unionization and collective bargaining. Scholars have stressed the landmark national contracts that the United Auto Workers (UAW) won in the post-World War II era, particularly with the Big Three automakers. Despite these economic gains, rank-and-file workers had many unresolved grievances, especially over non-economic issues such as high workloads, poor safety, and abusive supervisors. This article examines wildcat strikes at two locations; the New Haven Foundry in Michigan (1962 and 1963) and Ford's Chicago Heights Stamping Plant (1963). It argues that these unauthorized walkouts were symptomatic of rank-and file disaffection over non-economic issues, including failure to get safety and workload grievances resolved. The industry suffered hundreds of wildcat strikes in the 1950s and 1960s, especially at Ford, where resistance to union influence continued. In 1951 alone, there were 56 wildcats at Ford alone, involving over 16,000 workers, with further wildcat surges in 1953 and 1958. The article uses worker testimony before the UAW's international executive board to provide unexpected insights into grievances of postwar autoworkers. These records show that despite the gains of the national contracts, many local issues persisted, complicating images of postwar labor relations in a key industry.