Above is a collection of labor strikes in Detroit’s automotive manufacturing industries, involving 10,000 employees or more. What I have found so far from the raw data, is that earlier strikes generally are concerned with unionization and establishing a system of bargaining, while later strikes are more concerned with issues concerning wages, hours or conditions–the issues of the later strikes are generally resolved through the unions, who then call their members back to work. In addition, many of the strikes which occurred during World War II saw the intervention of the War Labor Board (WLB). The WLB was established to arbitrate in labor disputes during the second world war so that production would not be interrupted; as a result, many strikes were “cut short” when the WLB ordered workers to resume manufacturing while the Board sorted out all grievances on the workers’ behalf.
All that being said, I have organized the data in its current form in order to categorize the date, length, and reason for the strike, as well as how many employees were involved in the dispute. This way, I have a more legible reference for when and why disputes occurred in Detroit’s automotive manufacturing– the timing, especially, of these disputes can be very informative, not every time is the correct time to strike.
