It’s a largely untold story that the World War II years in Detroit were filled with strikes. Labor had new strength in those days, and if the companies were going to make big profits off the war workers wanted their share.
Not all the strikes were economic such as when racists at the Packard plant led a wildcat strike when African-American workers were permitted to work what was considered a “white” job. This proceeded and likely precipitated the 1943 race riot. That did more damage to the war effort than any strike by far.
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