Body Strike

In Dearborn, Louisville, Denver, Windsor, Ont., Chester, Pa. and many another city some 100,000 men who work for Henry Ford went last week to their jobs of assembling his 1933 models, planned for display within the fortnight. Ahead of them lay the comforting prospect of many months of steady employment. But the week had not run out before notices were posted on Ford bulletin boards announcing a temporary shutdown.

The 100,000 Ford workers soon learned the cause. In Detroit, 6,000 employes of Briggs Manufacturing Co., which makes bodies for Ford, had walked out on strike. Engines, wheels, gears, tops might be ready, but without bodies new Fords could not be assembled. Because 6,000 workers wanted more pay, 100,000 others were thrown out of work.

Understanding the vulnerability of Labor in a line production industry, the 100,000 Ford workers could appreciate the 6,000 Briggs workers' position. Last October, Briggs had shifted from base rate to piecework wages. Deducted from employes' pay was "dead time"--time lost when they were moving from one part of the plant to another, when materials were delayed, when machines broke down. Some said they were getting less than $10 a week. Not unionized, they could protest only by striking.

Soon hundreds of picketers were pacing before the Briggs plant, bearing such banners as: "We want a minimum wage or we will walk until we die."

Henry Ford acted characteristically. Day after he shut his plants, the London Evening Standard published an interview with him, given by transatlantic telephone at 6 a. m. (Detroit time): "The actual truth is that certain bankers are trying to obtain control of the Ford concern. Certain of my competitors are operating against me, supported by these bankers, with the object of preventing another Ford car from leaving the factory. . . . They succeeded for a few hours. . . . I am going straight out now to clean up the whole affair."

Briskly Henry Ford marched into his Highland Park plant, where part of the Briggs operation is housed. Three hours later Briggs posted a notice of return to a guaranteed hourly wage, abolition of "dead time." Old employes were given two days to come back. Then general hiring would begin. "We'll have to have bodies," said Mr. Ford, "even if we have to make them ourselves."

On the last morning of grace for old employes, the Briggs picketers returned in force, some 4,000 of them. A company statement that 200 to 400 men had returned to work was denied by the strike committee. At noon the deadline passed. Employment gates were thrown open to all applicants. Fearful for their skins, Detroit's jobless hung back. One man who tried to enter the gates was badly beaten. Firemen screwed up their hoses, stood ready to squirt at the first whisper of riot. . . .

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