[lbo-talk] How Americans would respond

[Carl Remick]

>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>...The 1970s were also a time of labor militancy - not always formal, but 
>there were wildcat strikes, sabotage on the line, and from the South, 
>demands for a new economic order.

[Most memorable were the GM troubles in Lordstown, Ohio, culminating in a 
1972 strike -- summed up by NY Review of Books this way:]

March 23, 1972

GM in More Trouble

By Emma Rothschild

Early in February, workers at GM's Vega factories in Lordstown, Ohio, voted 
by a 97 percent majority to authorize a strike over working conditions. The 
struggles which preceded the strike vote are by now famous: a change in 
plant management, layoffs, a disciplinary crackdown, an increase in car 
defects, complaints 'by workers about the speeding up of monotonous assembly 
line tasks, slowdowns, high absenteeism, repeated allegations by GM of 
worker sabotage. It is claimed that workers have attacked the paint, bodies, 
upholstery, and controls of the Vega cars, and GM has offered a $5,000 
reward for information about a fire in the electrical controls of the 
assembly line itself. ...

<http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=10265>

Carl