The Autoworkers' $100,000 rubber cheque - A Labour Minute - financially insolvent labor union supports auto General Motors workers in 1937 - Brief Article

In early 1937, General Motors assembly line workers in Oshawa, Ontario had had enough of wage cuts, production speed-ups and the routine firing of older workers. They contacted the United Auto Workers who sent in organizer Hugh Thompson. He signed up the vast majority of the more than 4,000 GM employees in Oshawa, and negotiations got under way, but stalled.

With no other option the workers walked out on strike April 8. But resources were scarce and late in that same month it looked as though the GM employees would be forced back to work under the same miserable conditions as before.

Then UAW international president Homer Martin came to Oshawa and presented local union head Charlie Millard with a $100,000 cheque to see the strike through to a successful conclusion. This was a bold move because the UAW was just starting out as a union in 1937, and it was stretched to its limits in places such as Detroit and Flint, Michigan.

GM and newspapers of the day were all greatly impressed by this financial solidarity. A contract settlement soon followed with substantial gains made by the newly unionized workers in Oshawa.

What the bosses and the media didn't know was that the $100,000 cheque would have bounced like a rubber ball.

Labour Minutes recount the great stories from trade union and working class history and take just a minute to read Roy--Dishaw

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