How Detroit’s Black leaders shaped Detroit’s environmental justice, labor movements
On May 2, 1968, Black workers at the Dodge Main plant in Hamtramck led a multiracial wildcat strike– a work stoppage unauthorized by a union. The group went on to form the Detroit Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM), which later teamed up with other groups to form the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.
At that time, only white men held skilled trade positions, and Black workers were segregated in the foundry in so-called unskilled and semi-skilled jobs. According to the African American Intellectual History Society, one key point of contention instigating the strike, which was the first in over a decade, was the increasing speed on the factory assembly lines.
Source: Planet Detroit
