Speed-Ups and Related Problems: The UAW and Grassroots Grievances in the Immediate Post-World War II Period

Scholarship on the United Automobile Workers – for many decades the largest industrial union in the USA – has focused heavily on the landmark wage and benefit gains that the union won, especially through pattern bargaining in the post-World War II era. The UAW has been praised as an “American Vanguard” that secured landmark wages and benefits for its members in widely publicised national contracts, especially in the 1940s and 1950s. This article interrogates this image through the lens of the UAW’s executive board minutes, its top decision-making body. Although bargaining gains in these years were real, the national “pattern” was not as uniform as was reported and was constantly under pressure. Despite the gains, post-war autoworkers had many grievances, especially over workloads and “speed-ups.” Workers testified before the board about these complaints, showing that plant conditions were more important to many than wages and benefits. Usually precipitated by these issues, local strikes were a constant problem. As these records show, there was more to the UAW’s history in these years than pattern bargaining. These findings build on literature that has explored rank-and-file dissatisfaction in the auto industry, but extend it beyond local studies, showing how the union’s top leaders experienced the impact of members’ restlessness. The article also demonstrates that workers’ dissatisfaction occurred much earlier than the 1960s and 1970s, the era that has received more attention, throwing light on the roots of subsequent discontent.