A Labor Day story
(I originally posted this two years ago. But it's worth digging out, dusting off, and sharing again.)
As we settle back here in the US to celebrate the greatness of American Labor, I'll tell you all a story from the bad old days, when my grandfather Jimmy Ryan worked for Harry Bennett in the Ford Service Department.
Jimmy had moved from Butte Montana to Detroit when Henry Ford started paying $5 per day for assembly line workers. A scrappy little Irishman, and a member of the Gaelic Athletic Association, Jimmy was quickly noticed by Harry Bennett. Harry was the head of Henry Ford's private corporate police department (aka goon squad), and was always looking for men who knew their way around a brawl.
My grandfather died in 1947, so I never met him. When I was growing up I only heard about him in the very best terms, as a hard working man who'd done so much for all his extended family through the dark days of the Great Depression. But it seems there's a bit more to the story, and even now I don't know what it all is.
Anyhow, on to the story that is known. Back in May 1937 there was a little scuffle at Gate 4 of the River Rouge Ford plant. I know grandfather was involved in it some way or other, and whatever he did that day earned him enough credit with old Henry Ford that he was able to get jobs for a number of people who'd been out of work. What the specific details of his actions that day may have been, I'll never know. But as you can see if you read that link, Ford Service didn't exactly cover themselves with glory that day.
Just a sample, for those who don't want to read the entire article:At approximately 2 p.m., several of the leading UAW union organizers, including Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen, were asked by a Detroit News photographer, James E. (Scotty) Kilpatrick, to pose for a picture on the overpass, with the Ford sign in the background. While they were posing, men from Ford's Service Department, an internal security force under the direction of Harry Bennett, came from behind and began to beat them. The number of attackers is disputed, but may have been as many as forty.
Frankensteen had his jacket pulled over his head and was kicked and punched. Reuther described some of the treatment he received: "Seven times they raised me off the concrete and slammed me down on it. They pinned my arms . . . and I was punched and kicked and dragged by my feet to the stairway, thrown down the first flight of steps, picked up, slammed down on the platform and kicked down the second flight. On the ground they beat and kicked me some more. . . " One union organizer Richard Merriweather suffered a broken back as the result of the beating he received.
The group then beat some of the beret-wearing women arriving to pass out leaflets, along with some reporters and photographers, while Dearborn police at the scene largely ignored the violence.
It's one of those stories I read and thank all the powers I wasn't there that day. But if I had been, I'd hope I'd have been on the side of the union organizers, even if that would have put me up against my own mother's father.
So while you're celebrating this weekend, remember what we're celebrating, and how very hard the struggle was.
As we settle back here in the US to celebrate the greatness of American Labor, I'll tell you all a story from the bad old days, when my grandfather Jimmy Ryan worked for Harry Bennett in the Ford Service Department.
Jimmy had moved from Butte Montana to Detroit when Henry Ford started paying $5 per day for assembly line workers. A scrappy little Irishman, and a member of the Gaelic Athletic Association, Jimmy was quickly noticed by Harry Bennett. Harry was the head of Henry Ford's private corporate police department (aka goon squad), and was always looking for men who knew their way around a brawl.
My grandfather died in 1947, so I never met him. When I was growing up I only heard about him in the very best terms, as a hard working man who'd done so much for all his extended family through the dark days of the Great Depression. But it seems there's a bit more to the story, and even now I don't know what it all is.
Anyhow, on to the story that is known. Back in May 1937 there was a little scuffle at Gate 4 of the River Rouge Ford plant. I know grandfather was involved in it some way or other, and whatever he did that day earned him enough credit with old Henry Ford that he was able to get jobs for a number of people who'd been out of work. What the specific details of his actions that day may have been, I'll never know. But as you can see if you read that link, Ford Service didn't exactly cover themselves with glory that day.
Just a sample, for those who don't want to read the entire article:At approximately 2 p.m., several of the leading UAW union organizers, including Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen, were asked by a Detroit News photographer, James E. (Scotty) Kilpatrick, to pose for a picture on the overpass, with the Ford sign in the background. While they were posing, men from Ford's Service Department, an internal security force under the direction of Harry Bennett, came from behind and began to beat them. The number of attackers is disputed, but may have been as many as forty.
Frankensteen had his jacket pulled over his head and was kicked and punched. Reuther described some of the treatment he received: "Seven times they raised me off the concrete and slammed me down on it. They pinned my arms . . . and I was punched and kicked and dragged by my feet to the stairway, thrown down the first flight of steps, picked up, slammed down on the platform and kicked down the second flight. On the ground they beat and kicked me some more. . . " One union organizer Richard Merriweather suffered a broken back as the result of the beating he received.
The group then beat some of the beret-wearing women arriving to pass out leaflets, along with some reporters and photographers, while Dearborn police at the scene largely ignored the violence.
It's one of those stories I read and thank all the powers I wasn't there that day. But if I had been, I'd hope I'd have been on the side of the union organizers, even if that would have put me up against my own mother's father.
So while you're celebrating this weekend, remember what we're celebrating, and how very hard the struggle was.