Polish American Women and Detroit’s 1938 Federal Screw Works Strike

December 11, 2025December 5, 2025 ~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Dr. Martin Hershock recounts the violent three-day strike against General Motors supplier Federal Screw Works in 1938, when women from Detroit’s Polish community led the fight to preserve both their recently-recognized union and their neighborhood. Hershock is a Professor of History at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and author of the article, “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.”

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Martin Hershock
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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“No Labor Dictators For Us”: Revisiting Anti-Union Forces in the Flint Sit-Down Strike

December 22, 2022December 19, 2022 ~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

While the 1936-1937 Flint Sit-Down is usually viewed as a pivotal success for the UAW, Dr. Gregory Wood considers more closely the influence of anti-union workers and the General Motors-supported Flint Alliance both during and after the strike. Wood is an associate professor and chair of the history department at Frostburg State University. His research will be featured in a forthcoming article in the Michigan Historical Review titled, “’No Labor Dictators for Us’: Anti-Union Workers During the Flint Sit-Down Strikes.”

Episode Credits
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Interviewee: Greg Wood
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Jessica Levy on “Black Power, Inc.: Global American Business and the Post-Apartheid City”

July 11, 2018July 30, 2018 ~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Jessica Levy explains how American corporations and black entrepreneurs worked together to forge a new politics linking American business with black liberation at home and abroad, focusing particularly on Leon Howard Sullivan, a civil rights leader and board member of General Motors who used his position to influence American corporate anti-apartheid actions.

Levy is a PhD Candidate at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

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