Professor Marty Hershock
“A Neighborhood Affair: The Detroit Federal Screw Works Strike of 1938 - the Polish Diaspora’s Role in Saving American Labor”
Marty Hershock is Prof. of History at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. A specialist in 19th Century American political and social history of Michigan, he has written/edited four books as well as a number of academic articles, book chapters, reviews and encyclopedia articles. A lifelong resident of the Detroit Metropolitan region, Hershock earned his B.A. in history from UM-Dearborn, aM.A. in history from Wayne State University, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He joined the Dearborn faculty and the Social Sciences Department in 1999. He has served in many important capacities, most significantly as Dean of CASL. He is a recipient of the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award (2003).
Prof. Hershock’s talk addresses the role of Polish workers in forging the modern American labor movement in the early/mid-1930s, especially unions affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) which represented the nation’s massive unskilled workforce (a large proportion of which, in America’s primary industrial centers such as Detroit, were of Polish heritage). Less understood is the vital role played by the same group, particularly its female members, in protecting these advances in the face of significant backlash in the years immediately following the initial success of such unions as the United Automobile Workers (UAW). The story of Detroit’s Federal Screw Works Strike of 1938 offers a window into this important story. The strike, short but violent, and the support of the Polish neighborhood in which it unfolded, reveal much about the strength and cohesion of Detroit’s southwest Polish community. That Polish women were front and center in this story offers an important opportunity to explore the largely ignored contributions of this group to our history.