| 1913 Studebaker strike | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | June 17–23, 1913 (6 days) | ||
| Location | |||
| Caused by | Change in Studebaker's pay schedule from weekly to biweekly | ||
| Goals |
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| Methods | |||
| Resulted in | Strike ends in failure for the strikers, company later makes change to their pay schedule to placate workers | ||
| Parties | |||
The 1913 Studebaker strike was a labor strike involving workers for the American car manufacturer Studebaker in Detroit. The six-day June 1913 strike, organized by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), is considered the first major labor strike in the automotive industry.
Early in the year, the IWW, a radical anti-capitalist labor union, began to actively organize Detroit autoworkers, who had become a center of the automotive industry. IWW organizers, including Matilda Robbins and James H. Walsh, initially attempted to organize at the Ford Motor Company, but following fierce opposition, they shifted their focus to Studebaker. The company had recently shifted its pay schedule from weekly to once every two weeks, which was very unpopular with the workers. Tensions escalated even more when a vocal critic of the two-week pay schedule was fired, and about 3,500 workers went on strike on June 17. In the following days, this number grew to about 6,000 Studebaker employees, and their demands included a weekly pay schedule, improved working conditions, and an eight-hour day. By June 19, workers attempted to spread the strike to other car manufacturers, which led to a violent confrontation with police outside of the Packard manufacturing plant and a subsequent city ban on large marches and parades. While the strikers continued to make their demands public and attempted to generate support, Studebaker began hiring strikebreakers. Facing this, the strikers voted to end the strike on June 23.
During the strike, Studebaker instituted a policy where employees could receive up to 70 percent of their pay halfway through the two-week period, which placated many of the employees. The IWW maintained a presence in the city and planned to target Ford the following year. This, among other reasons, contributed to Ford announcing a $5 daily pay for its workers at a time when the industry average pay was about half of that. The strike was one of several that ended in failure for the IWW in 1913, and the union continued to face both internal and external issues through the following years. In Detroit, organized labor would not gain a stable and sizeable foothold until the 1930s.