DETROIT WORKS · WORKERS & UNIONS

LABOR & INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS.

Industrial Detroit was also a labor city. Union organization, collective bargaining, wages, seniority, shop-floor rules, grievances, strikes, management authority, and workplace safety all shaped the social history of the factory system.

WORKING DETROIT

Work, rules and bargaining.

The factory floor had its own politics.

Wages, hours, seniority, job classifications, safety and discipline shaped daily industrial life. As industrial unionism expanded, collective bargaining became a major force in the relationship between workers and the companies that employed them.

Contracts formalized many shop-floor rules
Grievances turned workplace disputes into documented procedures
Strikes and work stoppages could affect whole districts
Company, union, government and newspaper accounts did not always describe the same event the same way

KEEP THE VOICES SEPARATE

Labor history is strongest when company records, union material, public records and contemporary reporting are read beside one another. This room treats conflict as documented history rather than choosing a side for the reader.