The Flint Sit-Down Strike: Labor, Management, and Unionization

Compelling Question: Was the Flint Sit-Down Strike a natural response to the economic and/or social conditions that laborers faced? Is this what led to the desire to unionize?

6.1.2 Labor’s Response to Industrial Growth – evaluate the different responses of labor to industrial change, including the development of organized labor and the growth of populism and the populist movement.
7.1.2 Causes and Consequences of the Great Depression— explain and evaluate the multiple causes and consequences of the Great Depression by analyzing the economic and social toll of the Great Depression, including unemployment and environmental conditions that affected farmers, industrial workers, and families.

Staging the Question

Discuss the perspectives that laborers and management had when it came to strikes being used to address labor disputes.

Supporting Questions:

1. What perspective did workers hold when it came to unions and/or strikes?
2. What perspective did management hold when it came to unions and/or strikes?
3. What explains why the UAW pushed for collective bargaining when GM management opposed it?