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Not a word did the agreement say about the Union's original demand to represent all General Motors workers. Mr. Lewis was obliged fortnight ago to back down from that flat demand. By the terms of the actual agreement he gained virtually nothing that he could not have had when the strike began. But with the agreement went a letter from Mr. Knudsen to Governor Murphy, saying:
"The United Automobile Workers. . . state that they fear that ... we might deliberately proceed to bargain with other groups for the purpose of undermining the position of this particular union. . . . We cannot enter into any agreement with anyone which can have the effect of denying to any group of our employes the rights of collective bargaining. . . . We undertake not to seek or to inspire such activities on the part of other groups for the purpose of weakening this particular union. . . . We hereby agree with you that within a period of six months from the resumption of work we will not bargain with or enter into agreements with any other union or representatives of employes or plants on strike in respect to ... matters of general corporate policy . . . without first submitting to you the facts of the situation and gaining from you the sanction of any such contemplated procedure as being justified by law, equity or justice toward the group of employes so represented."
Since 20 of General Motors' 69 plants have had strikes, this promise in effect gives the Union the exclusive right to bargain for all the employes of such plants during the next six months, provided 1) Governor Murphy makes no exceptions (not regarded as probable) and 2) the issues raised are "matters of general corporate policy."
At Flint, Wyndham Mortimer read the terms of the settlement to the sit-downers before John L. Lewis was again taking his 6 p. m. medicine. When he read that General Motors would recognize the Union as bargaining agent for its members, the sit-downers grumbled. When he read Mr. Knudsen's letter, the grumbling ended.
Soon bedlam broke out in the plants. Wives in automobiles pulled up to the plants sounding their horns continuously. Magnesium flares burned in the streets, movie cameras ground as the sit-downers stood up and marched out.
"We will march out as a victorious army, in a glorious crusade for a better life," bellowed a Union leader. A jubilant parade marched past the factories and through the streets of Flint.
Who Won? While C. I. O. men shouted in triumph, General Motors men held their peace. Not so William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor, long on the defensive against Mr. Lewis and his C. I. O. Said he: "So far as recognition of the Union is concerned, the situation is practically the same as it was before the strike was called. As regards the closed shop principle, the defeat is complete." "Then you consider it a defeat?" asked a newshawk.