“Seems to Me You Have Plenty of Nerve”: Polish American Women, Detroit's Federal Screw Works Strike of 1938, and the Fate of the UAW

Abstract In early 1938, after significant gains made by the United Automobile Workers union in the aftermath of the 1937 sit-down strike epidemic, Detroit auto manufacturers, led by General Motors and its suppliers, such as the Federal Screw Works, actively strove to reverse union gains and to assert greater authority over their workforces. The effort by Federal Screw resulted in a violent three-day strike as company workers, most of whom were Poles from the surrounding neighborhood and many of whom were women, took forceful action to preserve the family and community autonomy only recently regained in the face of the ongoing Depression and through the hard-won unionization of their workplace. Steeped in a long tradition of female advocacy stretching back to the Galician province from which these women came and activated by the Depression's onslaught on their homes, their families, and their community, Polish women played a central role in the strike and the violent rioting that characterized the three-day walkout. Their activism carried the day, and the union persevered against Federal Screw. This victory, led by Polish women, ensured the union's survival as well as that of the community that these women fought for.