Sol Dollinger Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page
From The Militant, Vol. 12 No. 22, 31 May 1948, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
FLINT, Mich., May 23 – At its regular membership meeting May 10, Chevrolet Local 659 of the CIO auto union voted to request the union’s international executive board to call a national conference of all CIO locals for the purpose of presenting unified, wage and contract demands on the industrialists. The local also demanded that they strike the whole auto industry if it was found, necessary to call the GM workers out on strike.
The resolution calling for a strike vote was presented by the local executive board. The amendments for a national CIO conference and industry-wide strike action were added after a militant speech by Sol Dollinger, Chevrolet assembly plant worker.
The overflow meeting of 700 responded to denunciations of red-baiting as a bosses’ weapon made by Tex Owens, former president of the local and Dollinger. The membership also approved the critical remarks made of Murray and his no-strike negotiations by Kermit Johnson.
A strike committee of 18 were elected. Among them are Goburn Walker, president of the local, Jack Palmer, Kermit Johnson, Tex Owens, Sol Dollinger, Wilbur Hill.
In strike balloting a record 6,500 workers turned out to vote. 5,820 voted in favor of strike action; 584 against. Immediately the local capitalist paper attempted to smear the vote by claiming the padding of the ballots. This slander was roundly denounced by the strike committee which sent a delegation to the Flint Journal to inform them that the Chevrolet local was not going to let them get away with these smear tactics.
FLINT, Mich., May 23 – 7,000 Buick workers crowded into the IMA auditorium to vote against strike action by a 2 to 1 vote. This action represents a blow to the UAW leadership. The main speech requesting a yes vote was presented by Emil Mazey, international financial secretary of the UAW, and Don Chapman, regional director in Flint.
The opposition to the strike came from Roger Townsend and Alfred Federico, who used stock arguments of Walter Reuther to swing the vote against strike. Federico claimed that GM workers should keep on working as the best means of supporting the Chrysler workers. However Townsend went so far as to speak against a strike assessment to aid the Chrysler workers financially on the false assumption that the GM workers did not receive any aid in 1945–46.
The meeting was preceded by the direct intervention of the Flint Journal, a GM corporation spokesman. For three days it cast doubt on the huge Chevrolet strike vote. Jack Palmer, chairman of the Chevrolet strike committee, appeared before the Buick meeting and strongly, denounced’ the campaign of the Flint Journal. In his speech he pointed out that Chevrolet workers not only voted to back up the international and its strike demands, but had also called on the UAW executive board to call an industry-wide strike, in auto and a national conference of all CIO locals to map out joint wage and contract demands. While Chapman and Mazey received no response from the audience, Palmer was warmly applauded several times during his brief remarks.
The Buick, executive board voted for strike by a 14 to 4 vote but it did nothing to bring the issues to the members. The leadership of the local, having no confidence in Reuther and his strike policy, floundered around and offered no alternatives to the program of Reuther. When they finally decided to support the strike vote, the damage had been done.
Sad to say, the Buick leaders buckled under the pressure of the boss press to permit so-called impartial observers and the press into the meeting. This is in contrast. to the Chevrolet strike committee which told the Flint Journal in no uncertain terms that their meetings were only open to union members.
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Last updated: 31 January 2022