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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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AUTOMOBILE WORKERS

The outbreak of strikes in San Francisco began in July '34. However, before that I think came the Toledo strike, which followed the trouble in the automobile workers. Of course, the automobile workers were unorganized when we came here in '33 and there had never been any sizable organization among them. There had been occasional flurries of organization drives - not real drives, but efforts - on the part of different unions affiliated with the AF of L to make some organization among people who worked in automobile plants, but always without any noticeable success. Nevertheless, of course, some of the automobile workers belonged to unions. For instance, a good many of the machinists belonged to unions. A good many of the metal polishers belonged to the metal polisher unions. Of course, the carpenters, masons, and so forth, that worked around as maintenance men in the automobile plants frequently, if they were in a locality that was heavily organized, were members of the local carpenters'





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