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Strikers Sleeping at the Farm Crest Bakery; Detroit, 1937 (Image Courtesy of Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University)
You could say that these women are “sleeping on the job.” Most likely, their rest is well deserved. They are in the midst of a sit-down strike against their employer – the Farm Crest Bakery of Detroit. It is February 1937, and sit-down strikes have become “all the rage!”
Organized Labor and the Great Depression
The Great Depression, which began in 1929, ultimately led to a growth of labor unions. Financially strapped companies called on workers to do more with less staff, and thus, more workers saw the value of organization. In general, Americans’ view of unions began to change.
In 1933, the U.S. Congress passed the National Industrial Recovery Act. Among other matters, the Act recognized labor’s right to organize and bargain collectively. The Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional. Congress reacted by passing the Wagner Act in 1935. The Wagner Act included some – but not all – provisions of the National Industrial Recovery Act. Labor’s right to organize and bargain collectively were among the provisions included.
There was some concern that the Supreme Court would strike down the Wagner Act, as well. The Court, however, sustained the Act in a 1937 ruling. Afterwards, Union membership rapidly increased.
Even before the 1937 Supreme Court ruling, union membership had been growing, and unrest grew with it. Earlier, in 1936, a new labor tactic had emerged: the sit-down strike!
Sitting Down for Victory
In a sit down strike, the striking employees remain in their place of employment during the strike. Rather than picketing the outside of a plant, they simply sit down and stop working.
Naturally, early historical examples of the tactic exist. The Great Depression-era sit-down strikes differed by being more conspicuous, with strikers overtly seeking public attention. The first such strike occurred at the Goodyear Rubber Company in February and March 1936. The sit-down phase of this strike was brief, and the world’s first mass sit-down strike occurred two months later in France. The French strike captured worldwide attention, and soon, sit-down strikes became more common.
The United States saw other sit-down strikes in 1936. The most dramatic of these began at the year’s end and continued into 1937. This was the famous Flint sit-down strike, initiated by auto workers against General Motors. It seems to have begun spontaneously on December 30, 1936. An agreement between GM and the United Auto Workers finally ended the strike on February 11, 1937.
The Flint sit-down strike began a trend, and in 1937, the tactic became widely utilized by workers in many professions and across the nation. For labor, it held definite advantages over more traditional strikes: Sit-down strikes were less likely to become violent, and strikers’ morale was more easily maintained.
The Farm Crest Strike
The Detroit Labor News reported on the Farm Crest Bakery strike on February 19, 1937. It noted that the Farm Crest strike was one of four strikes occurring simultaneously in Detroit (The other three were occurring at the Webster Cigar Company, the Fireside Press and Frigid Food Products, Inc.). According to the Labor News, Farm Crest employees were demanding “a ten cents per hour wage increase and a forty-eight hour week.” One week later, the Labor News reported that the Farm Crest strike had lasted three days and that employees were now back at work. The Labor News noted that management concessions included seniority in case of layoffs, and recognition of the union and of employee grievance committees. The Labor News also noted a ten cent an hour wage increase – with male employees now earning fifty five cents an hour and female employees earning forty five cents an hour (In future years, women workers would be fighting many battles for equal pay.).
Read More About It
The following sources were consulted for this article:
A Caring Society: The New Deal, the Worker and the Great Depression by Irving Bernstein. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985.
Detroit Labor News. February 19, 1937 and February 26, 1937 issues.
Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State by Willis F. Dunbar and George S. May. Third Revised Edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995.
Frank Murphy: The New Deal Years by Sidney Fine. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1979.
“’We’ve Got ‘em on the Run, Brothers’: The 1937 Non-Automotive Sit Down Strikes in Detroit.” By Carlos Schwantes. Michigan History, vol. 56, no. 3 (1972), pp. 179-199.
I am looking for anyone that used to work for Farm Crest. My dad worked his whole life, or @least the last 20 years of it before he died in 1990 Him and I worked out of the 8 mile branch.
I would love to find some of the 3 color logos that were on the uniforms A jacket a envelope, or 2.
I love Farm Crest, and the Farm Crest people I just do not like the way they did Farm Crest, and Tip Top bread
Many of us who grew up in the 40′ and 50’s loved the little cakes called Cuban Spice cakes made by Farm Crest and we want to get the recipe. We are desperate to taste that wonderful little cake again. Please help and send me the recipe.
My father worked out of the chicago Ill branch and then opened a branch in grand rapids michigan.
My Father started as a route driver for Farm Crest in the thirties. Eventually he became President of the bakery in the early seventies, if I recall correctly. He blamed the unions for the Bakery’s demise. They had the best baked goods.
The Cuban spice cake was renamed ‘Hawaiian spice cake’ after Castro’s communist revolution.
My Father took me to the bakery in Redford location and Downtown to the main bakery. I’m trying to find out if the building is still standing. I think it was in the Russell Center. Does anyone know?
David
My Grandfather developed a lot of the central, western and northern Michigan territory. The Hawaiian spice cake was my all time favorite. I would love to get that recipe.
I live in the Philippines now but remember the Farm Crest Store on 8 Mile Road west of Beech Daly!! We were from Southfield in Michigan and went every Saturday to get the little spice cakes for school lunch’s. I’m still tasting in my mouth the Molasses cookies that they got from the big open boxes of
cookies behind the cash register. Still looking to see if anyone has the recipe for those Molasses Cookies!! They were the “BEST”!! Good Memories!!!
David St. Dennis
Yes the building is standing.
Where can I find a Farm Crest Jacket, or Cake rack. Yes I know it was in violation of the rules but I started working for Farm Crest at about the age of 5. Non-union of course. My father took me out on his route every chance. I watched as he worked hard and put two routes into one and drove over 100 miles a day to Kenzington, gulf courses, supermarkets, and every little diner and store in between. He covered a rt from Farmington to Novi, South Lyon, Brighton, Milford.
As I got older, I would set up the cake racks Moving the older toward the front and placing the fresh it the back. Then we started selling Tip Top bread and buns. The trucks were given more shelving and my fathers Rt. grew. He worked hard for every dollar he earned.
I long for anything to hold something with a Farm Crest logo on it. I grew up believing one day I would get to take over my fathers Rt and use everything my father taught me. That day never came.
At the close of Farm Crest the union got my dad a job pushing a broom at a corner vegetable stand