White Shirt Day

What the day is

White Shirt Day is observed on February 11 in Flint, Michigan and among autoworkers more broadly. It commemorates the end of the sit-down strike against General Motors on that date in 1937, and it is marked by wearing a clean white shirt to work.

The gesture carries the argument. A white shirt was the uniform of management, and wearing one on the factory floor asserted that the person doing the work was no less worthy of respect than the person supervising it.

Origin and background

The strike itself was a turning point in American labor history. Beginning in late December 1936, workers occupied GM plants in Flint rather than walking out, a tactic that made the factories impossible to operate with replacement labor without risking the occupiers and the machinery. The occupation held for roughly six weeks through winter, sustained by supporters outside who passed in food, and by an organized women's brigade that played a significant role in the strike's defense.

It ended on February 11, 1937 with General Motors recognizing the United Auto Workers as a bargaining representative. Recognition by the largest manufacturer in the country transformed the union's prospects, and membership grew enormously in the years that followed.

The observance is generally credited to a Flint local union member in the 1940s, and it has been kept since as a working holiday rather than a day off: the point is to show up, in the shirt.

How to take part

• Wear a white shirt to work if the day means something to you or your workplace.
• Read about the strike. It is a well-documented episode and the sit-down tactic is genuinely interesting as strategy.
• Look into the Women's Emergency Brigade, whose part in holding the occupation is often left out of short accounts.
• Ask older relatives who worked in manufacturing what their plants were like. That generation is thinning out.
• Consider what your own working conditions owe to bargaining rather than generosity.