Yale and Towne in Detroit

[tfrodent]

Yale and Towne, headquartered in Connecticut, had a plant in Detroit that produced locks for Chrysler. There was a particularly bitter strike there in March, 1937--started by their firing of union-sympathetic employees [[mostly women employees). The headquarters took a scorched earth stance, ultimately got a court order mandating the end of the sit-down from a hardcore judge; the strikers defied the order, were violently ousted, and later charged. In line with this scorched earth mindset from headquarters management, I believe that the Detroit plant was closed. I know they were on the West Side, but I'd like to get the address. It should be in directories from 1937 or before. What became of the premises after Yale and Towne?

[MikeM]

They were located at 12340 Cloverdale Street. By 1940 the factory was occupied by the Detroit Macoid Co, manufacturer of cellulose plastic finishes. They were still there in 1961; after that, I don't know. The building is still there.

[tfrodent]

They were located at 12340 Cloverdale Street. By 1940 the factory was occupied by the Detroit Macoid Co, manufacturer of cellulose plastic finishes. They were still there in 1961; after that, I don't know. The building is still there.

Thanks, MikeM, for your always impeccable information. George Edwards organized that strike. The hard-core judge, Webster, wanted to make an example of him; he sentenced Edwards to 30 days in jail for civil contempt. Edwards' activist father actually tried to intercede, and Webster offered to release Edwards if he would apologize and admit fault; Edwards refused. Edwards got out of jail one day after the Battle of the Overpass. After he got out of jail, Edwards brought pressure to the home turf of Yale and Towne, Stamford, Connecticut. That's when they gave in and signed a national contract. On the one hand, this was a fairly minor strike on the scale of things in the 1930s. But it showed how quickly the tide had turned when it came to sit-in occupation strikes [[GM Flint wasn't too much before this); Gov. Murphy wasn't willing/able to take any more heat on strikes like this, as he did in not suppressing the GM Flint occupation. It shows how much of an anti-union town Detroit still was and state Michigan still was in 1937. There is a fairly good description of these events in the book "Bridging the River of Hate," which is mainly about Edwards' tenure as police commissioner under Mayor Cavanagh. This jail sentence was a "red" [[in the 1950s sense) flag that Edwards had to defend himself against in subsequent years.