The Day Lansing Shut Down
Near Lansing, Michigan
On one morning in nineteen thirty-seven, residents of Lansing woke to find their city at a standstill. Capitol Avenue, Michigan Avenue, and Washington Avenue, the main arteries of the capital, were blocked by automobiles, trucks, and thousands of union members, their families, and their supporters. Lansing was on general strike.
The immediate cause was a labor dispute at the Capitol City Wrecking Company, a smaller employer whose workers had voted to unionize only to be fired and locked out. But the situation escalated dramatically when, in the early hours of that day, the Ingham County Sheriff had his deputies cut the telephone lines to the home of Lester Washburn, the UAW's local leader, and arrested his wife, leaving three children alone in the house.
When Washburn returned home and discovered what had happened, he called an emergency meeting at the union hall. By vote, the members declared a Labor Holiday, the term they used for what was effectively a general strike. The streets were barricaded. No commerce moved.
Governor Frank Murphy, a labor-friendly Democrat, came to the capitol to broker talks between the union, the arrested workers, and local authorities. By afternoon, a deal was reached. The nine arrested workers were released on bond. Negotiations at the Capitol City Wrecking Company were ordered to proceed. The crowd dispersed after five o'clock in the afternoon.
General strikes are among the rarest forms of labor action in United States history. The Lansing Labor Holiday of nineteen thirty-seven is remembered as a notable city-wide work stoppage.
