Recalling Why We Have Labor Day
Growing up in Detroit, I visited the Ford River Rouge plant in grade school and thought it was very impressive. It was cool to see the birthplace of the auto industry. I attended the University of Michigan - Dearborn, which is located today on the grounds of what used to be Henry Ford's personal estate FairLane Manor. I didn't realize then what had happened in the past, and how much the world was changed, or how much it is still impacted today by events such as this confrontation on overpass in Detroit, Michigan. 
UAW organizers including Walter P. Reuther and Richard Frankensteen look on as three Ford servicemen advance menacingly toward them atop the Miller Road overpass near Gate Four of Ford's gigantic Rouge complex. 
The battle marked the turning point for organized labor in winning recognition for auto workers.
The UAW began its campaign by putting up billboards saying "Fordism is Fascism" and "Unionism is Americanism". Small clandestine union meetings were held throughout the Rouge plant in order to develop leaders. But Walter Reuther decided that the UAW had to make a bold move to show the workers that the union was as strong and powerful as the Ford regime. An initial attempt involving flying low over the plant in a plane with a loudspeaker was ineffectual. Reuther decided to make a stand, and scheduled a massive leaflet campaign at the Rouge plant for May 26, 1937. He got a license from the city of Dearborn, opened two union halls nearby, and made two reconnaissance trips to the Miller Road Overpass at Gate 4.
Knowing that it would be dangerous and foolish to go alone, he invited clergymen, reporters, photographers, and staffers of a Senate Committee on Civil Liberties to join the organizers. That morning he addressed 100 women from the women's auxiliary of Local 174 who were supposed to hand out the leaflets to arriving and departing workers on Miller Road.
Two hours before the scheduled time, newspapermen arrived at the site and saw 25 cars filled with men in sunglasses who warned them to get out of the area, and threatened photographers.
An hour before shift change, just before 2 p.m., Walter Reuther, Richard T. Frankensteen, in charge of the overall Ford drive, Robert Kanter, and J.J. Kennedy, the UAW's East Side regional director arrived. The Detroit News photographer, James E. (Scotty) Kilpatrick, thought the backdrop of the Ford sign would make a great picture, and obligingly, the union men walked up the two flights of iron stairs to the overpass.
Facing the photographers, Reuther and his partners had their backs to the thugs that were approaching them. The newsmen's warnings were too late. They were attacked brutally: punched and kicked repeatedly. Frankensteen recounted how two men held his legs apart while another kicked him repeatedly in the groin. One man placed his heel in his abdomen, grinding it, then put his full weight on it. Reuther was punched in the face, abdomen and back and kicked down the stairs. Kanter was pushed off the bridge and fell 30 feet.
Harry Bennett and Henry Ford
Harry Bennett (1892-1979) was head of Ford’s Service Department, or internal security. He ruled the Rouge Plant, and some say Henry Ford himself, through threats and intimidation, arguably becoming more influential than Edsel Ford, Henry’s son and the company’s President from 1919 to 1943.
He first worked in Ford’s art department in 1917, but his “tough guy” manner got him appointed head watchman, and eventually he supervised over 3000 reputed crooks and retired policemen in the Service Department.
“The Battle of the Overpass,” Ford’s 1937 response to attempts at unionization, was led by Bennett. Ford fought unionization until 1941. While rumor had it that Henry Ford wanted Bennett to replace him as president, that job went to Henry Ford II, who fired Bennett in 1945.
The world famous 1937 "Battle of the Overpass." between UAW organizers and Ford "Service" department members. (Photos and Text below from the Detroit News)
UAW organizers including Walter P. Reuther and Richard Frankensteen look on as three Ford servicemen advance menacingly toward them atop the Miller Road overpass near Gate Four of Ford's gigantic Rouge complex. 
The battle marked the turning point for organized labor in winning recognition for auto workers.
Henry Ford had said he would never cave in to the unions. He didn't like their politics and he wanted total control over his company and his workers. He had run the company paternalistically and many workers still had his picture over their mantles.
He also ruled by fear: Harry Bennett, his right hand man, hired spies and thugs (many were ex-cons), 2,000 of them, to man his "Service Department." He ran the Rouge Plant like a Central European police state. Anti-union groups were encouraged, workers were urged to spy on each other and feared losing their jobs if they participated in any union discussions.
The UAW began its campaign by putting up billboards saying "Fordism is Fascism" and "Unionism is Americanism". Small clandestine union meetings were held throughout the Rouge plant in order to develop leaders. But Walter Reuther decided that the UAW had to make a bold move to show the workers that the union was as strong and powerful as the Ford regime. An initial attempt involving flying low over the plant in a plane with a loudspeaker was ineffectual. Reuther decided to make a stand, and scheduled a massive leaflet campaign at the Rouge plant for May 26, 1937. He got a license from the city of Dearborn, opened two union halls nearby, and made two reconnaissance trips to the Miller Road Overpass at Gate 4.
Knowing that it would be dangerous and foolish to go alone, he invited clergymen, reporters, photographers, and staffers of a Senate Committee on Civil Liberties to join the organizers. That morning he addressed 100 women from the women's auxiliary of Local 174 who were supposed to hand out the leaflets to arriving and departing workers on Miller Road.
Two hours before the scheduled time, newspapermen arrived at the site and saw 25 cars filled with men in sunglasses who warned them to get out of the area, and threatened photographers.
An hour before shift change, just before 2 p.m., Walter Reuther, Richard T. Frankensteen, in charge of the overall Ford drive, Robert Kanter, and J.J. Kennedy, the UAW's East Side regional director arrived. The Detroit News photographer, James E. (Scotty) Kilpatrick, thought the backdrop of the Ford sign would make a great picture, and obligingly, the union men walked up the two flights of iron stairs to the overpass.
Facing the photographers, Reuther and his partners had their backs to the thugs that were approaching them. The newsmen's warnings were too late. They were attacked brutally: punched and kicked repeatedly. Frankensteen recounted how two men held his legs apart while another kicked him repeatedly in the groin. One man placed his heel in his abdomen, grinding it, then put his full weight on it. Reuther was punched in the face, abdomen and back and kicked down the stairs. Kanter was pushed off the bridge and fell 30 feet.
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