1969 GM UAW Strike Dates
Can someone tell me the exact dates of the strike in 1969? What was the strike about? Wages I'm sure, but what excactly were the wages and what kind of raise were they after?
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Re: 1969 GM UAW Strike Dates
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Re: 1969 GM UAW Strike Dates
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The 1969 strike at St. Louis (the entire complex - Fisher Body, Chevrolet Passenger/Truck, and Corvette plants) ran from mid-April through mid-June; reasons were the same old UAW song - overwork, health and safety, and open grievances. Wages weren't negotiated at the local level - they were established in National negotiations for each new contract.
The St. Louis local union was very militant. When I was part of the new 1969 Impala/Caprice launch team in the "big" plant in the fall of 1968, as soon as the line reached full rate during the second week of the launch, every union committeeman had already pre-written "over-work" (Paragraph 78) grievances for every worker, had them all pre-signed, and in one day over 5,000 grievances were filed. That was a regular annual occurrence.
There was never a strike at St. Louis initiated at the Corvette plant; both Chevrolet plants (the big passenger/truck plant and Corvette) were the same union local, and when the "big" plant went out, the guys at Corvette had to walk too.
And that's the way it was....until they turned out the lights.Comment
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