In the News
“Freedom Convoy”
Lessons from 1945 Ford Workers’ Strike
in Windsor, Ontario
Seventy-seven years ago, Ford workers in Windsor, Ontario created a car blockade to defend their strike against an attack by the provincial police. It shows it is not about blockades per se but about who and what the blockade serves.
The Canadian Encyclopedia writes:
“Strikers used about 2,000 vehicles — some stolen, some boxed in on the day of the blockade — to create a barricade that prevented an attack by the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ordered by the provincial and federal governments. On November 5, Windsor City Council demanded that the blockade be moved on threat of involving the military. A separate union, Local 195, staged a sympathy strike in response to the ongoing agitation. Some 8,000 workers from 25 auto plants joined the strike for one month, with no strike pay. Many in the Windsor community supported the strike action, including returning soldiers, church groups and local businesses.”
The late Lyle Dotzert, an autoworker and one of the founders of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 200 in Windsor played an important role in the 99 day strike of 1945. Looking back on the strike, Lyle wrote: “I got into Ford in 1941 and worked there until 1972, over 31 years. …(In 1945), I was sent to Brantford to win support for the struggle and raise money for the strikers. I called home and heard that the Ford workers had all walked out and that they had set up a blockade of cars, etc. …One of the big factors which helped to win this fight was the unity amongst the Ford workers of all nationalities. Another big factor was the support from others, particularly the workers in the Local 195 plants. They came out of dozens of their plants and joined the picket line, shutting down their own operations. They risked it all at a time when there was no job security, no knowing if your job would be there for you, and when the companies maintained a large industrial spy apparatus and blacklists.”
A longtime friend and coworker wrote in the “Lives Lived” section of the Globe and Mail:
“At the critical point of the 99-day organizing strike at the plant in 1945, it looked like the state was preparing to move in mounted officers from the RCMP and OPP, since the Windsor police force was seen as unreliable for the task of breaking the strike. Lyle, who had a silver tongue, had the heavy responsibility of going across Ontario to raise support for the striking workers and prevent a potentially bloody confrontation with police. As a result of campaigning by Lyle and others, an outpouring of support and industrial action across the province stayed the hand of the police.”
(Renewal Update, posted February 14, 2022)
