[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 86 (Wednesday, June 20, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1158]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST UAW CONTRACT WITH FORD MOTOR COMPANY

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                          HON. DAVID E. BONIOR

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 20, 2001

  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, we are fortunate to live in a country which 
protects our freedoms and liberties--the right to free speech, freedom 
of assembly, and free association.
  The right to safe working conditions, an 8 hour workday, a 40 hour 
workweek, the weekend . . . are things prior generations fought, bled 
and even died for--and we should never forget that.
  On the 60th Anniversary of the first United Auto Worker contract with 
Ford Motor Company, we need to recognize the difference the UAW has 
made in the lives of working families.
  Prior to their UAW contract, Ford workers had no health and safety 
protections, no sickness and accident benefits, no grievance 
procedures, and no respect.
  When Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen led UAW workers in the 
Battle of the Overpass in 1937, where they were beaten repeatedly, they 
began the process of bringing Ford Motor Company to the table to 
recognize the importance of quality union workforce.
  The years 1937 to 1940 were full of similar battles where workers 
fought, and some died, to bring dignity to their workplace and to build 
a better community.
  Back then, every Congress of Industrial Organizations member in the 
Detroit area was asked to sign up to the Ford worker ``who lives next 
door or goes to the same church or is married to your . . . second 
cousin.''
  On December 30, 1940, 1,000 men organized a strike in the Rouge River 
tool-and-die department over rest periods. Ford tried to discharge the 
UAW leaders, but the National Labor Relations Board ordered 22 of them 
reinstated. When the union members heard the news, they marched 
triumphantly back into the plant wearing their CIO buttons . . . 
something they would not have dared to do just a few weeks earlier.
  Then in April, 1941, the company refused to meet with any union 
committees and followed this up by firing eight committeemen. When word 
of these discharges passed through the River Rouge plant, one worker 
shouted ``strike!'' Another voice took up the cry, ``strike!'' And 
soon, louder and bolder, the cries rolled through the plants ``strike! 
strike!'' There had never been anything like it in Ford history. 
Workers left their lathes and benches. Assembly lines ground to a halt. 
Workers began walking out, first in trickles, then soon in columns, and 
they marched from the Rouge River plant to a union hall, half a mile 
away. By nightfall , the hall was filled. The Ford workers couldn't 
believe what they had done--Ford Motor Company was shut down.
  On April 10th, the strike came to an end, as quickly as it had 
started, it finished. Henry Ford, for the first time in his life, 
agreed to negotiate with a labor union. On June 20th, the first 24-page 
contract between the UAW and Ford was signed.
  In contract after contract, the UAW has been able to improve upon 
that original document--in terms of wages, benefits, job protections, 
pensions, etc.,--to the point where the UAW contract with Ford Motor 
Company ranks among the best in the world.
  Today, we should remember those who fought so hard for that first 
contract 60 years ago . . . and we should draw strength from their 
perseverance so that 60 years from now our children will look back and 
see the exponential progress made by current generations.

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