Wednesday 30th December 1936

Strikes closed seven General Motors (GM) factories in Flint, Michigan, US. The giant car maker employed upwards of 200,000 men, and more than one in six of them stopped working during the strike. The United Automobile Workers of America, a labor union, was quarrelling with GM over the right to bargain collectively with manufacturers. The work stoppage was so large that it threatened to force layoffs in the steel, glass, and battery-manufacturing industries, due to reduced demand.