Sometimes you have to sit down in order to stand up for your rights as a worker. That is what workers in the Firestone rubber plant proved in Akron, Ohio today in labor history, January 29, 1936. Akron was the heart of the rubber industry in the United States, employing 40,000 at its peak. During the Great Depression as many as half of these workers were laid off. The workers had unionized. But the bosses in the factories demanded the speed up of labor, added more hours to the work day, and harassed union leaders. They did this because they knew if the workers walked off the job to protest the unreasonable demands, desperate unemployed workers stood ready to replace the strikers as scab labor. Frustrated, workers at Firestone decided to simply turn off the machines and sit down in the factory. Rubber workers had first tried out the tactic on a smaller scale three years earlier. The move proved successful, because factory owners could not bring replacement labor into an occupied factory without risking damage to their equipment. Sit down strikes occurred throughout the rubber plants in Akron, forcing owners to the negotiation table. The wave of sit down strikes spread throughout the country, including at Flint, Michigan where United Autoworkers occupied a General Motors plant for forty days. These sit down strikes helped usher in an era of expanded union recognition. Sitting down on the job helped these workers win a seat at the bargaining table.
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