The Battle of the Overpass was an incident on May 26, 1937, in which

Walter Reuther Walter Philip Reuther (; September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He ...

and members of the

United Auto Workers The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico) ...

(UAW) clashed with

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

security guards at the River Rouge Plant complex in Dearborn,

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. After images of the incident were released to the public, support for

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

and his company greatly decreased.

Leaflet campaign

The UAW had planned a leaflet campaign entitled, "Unionism, Not Fordism", at the pedestrian overpass over Miller Road at Gate 4 of the River Rouge Plant complex. Demanding an $8 (equivalent to $150 today) six-hour day for workers, in contrast to the $6 (equivalent to $ today)

eight-hour day The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses. An eight-hour work day has its origins in the ...

then in place, the campaign was planned for shift change time, with an expected 9,000 workers both entering and leaving the plant.

Ford security force response

At approximately 2 p.m., several of the leading UAW

union organizer A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of trade union member (often elected) or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers. In some unions, the orga ...

s, including

and Richard Frankensteen, were asked by a ''

Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on Februar ...

'' photographer, James R. (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 Harry Herbert Bennett (January 17, 1892 – January 4, 1979), was a boxer, Naval sailor, and businessman. From the 1920s through 1945, he worked for Ford Motor Company and was best known as the head of Ford’s "service department", the company's ...

, came from behind and began to beat them. The number of attackers is disputed, but may have been as many as forty.Walter P. Reuther Library - Battle of the Overpass
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Beatings

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.

Aftermath

Photographs

The security forces mob also attempted to destroy photographic plates, but the ''Detroit News'' photographer James R. Kilpatrick hid the photographic plates under the back seat of his car, and surrendered useless plates he had on his front seat. News and photos of the brutal attack made headlines in newspapers across the country.

Ford

In spite of the photographs, and many witnesses who had heard his men specifically seek out Frankensteen and Reuther, security director Bennett claimed — "The affair was deliberately provoked by union officials. . . . They simply wanted to trump up a charge of Ford brutality. ... I know definitely no Ford service man or plant police were involved in any way in the fight."

UAW

The incident greatly increased support for the UAW and hurt Ford's reputation. Bennett and Ford were chastised by the

National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Na ...

for their actions. Three years later Ford signed a contract with the UAW. A partially fictitious account of these events appear in

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in sever ...

's book, ''

The Flivver King ''The Flivver King: A Story of Ford-America'' is a novel by American author Upton Sinclair, published in 1937, that tells the intertwined stories of Henry Ford and a fictional Ford worker named Abner Shutt. Plot summary On Bagley Street in the c ...

''.

References

{{commons category, Battle of the Overpass (Ford-UAW)

External links

Detroit News retrospective

Detroit News "Richard Frankensteen, the UAW's 'other guy'

Henry Ford Museum site

Walter P Reuther Library

Smithsonian Magazine: Ford Won a Battle and Lost Ground
1937 labor disputes and strikes Manufacturing industry labor disputes in the United States Ford Motor Company labor relations Labor disputes led by the United Auto Workers the Overpass Riots and civil disorder in Michigan Labor-related violence in the United States 1937 in Detroit Walter Reuther Labor disputes in Michigan