Description: These photographs, taken between July 31 and August 2, 1939, were compiled in a scrapbook as a report to the Ohio adjutant general by two National Guard officers, Brigadier General L. S. Conelly and Captain L. J. Abele. The officers were sent to the Fisher Body Plant in Cleveland as observers for the Ohio National Guard during the 1939 strike at the plant. The back of each photograph is labeled with a number and a brief caption. Images 2 and 57 include Eliot Ness, who was Cleveland's director of public safety at the time of the strike. Before coming to Cleveland, Ness successfully battled mobster Al Capone in Chicago. His book, The Untouchables, was published in 1957. Other images in this collection include confrontations between police and strikers, non-striking workers inside the plant and police and fire officials at the scene. The photographs measure 6" x 8" (15.24 x 20.32 cm). Fisher Body Plant opened in 1921 to build car bodies for the Cleveland Automobile Company and the Chandler Motor Car Company. It became a division of General Motors (GM) in 1926. Several major strikes occurred in the automobile industry in the 1930s, as workers were asked to work for less and less due to the effects of the Great Depression. In 1937, workers at the Fisher Body Plant began a sit-down strike that spread to the GM factory in Michigan. The strike ended when GM agreed to recognize the United Auto Workers. During World War II the Fisher Body plant made parts for tanks, guns and airplanes. The plant closed in 1982. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om1526_4400787_003
Subjects: Ohio Government; Military Ohio; Business and Labor; Strikes; Factories; Automobile industry workers; International Union, United Automobile Workers of America (CIO); Ohio. National Guard
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)