Battle of the Running Bulls - Flint Police and GM Security Forces Attack Sit-Down Strikers with Tear Gas and Gunfire

On January 11, 1937, Flint police and General Motors security forces launch a violent assault on UAW strikers occupying Fisher Body Plant Number 2, attacking with tear gas canisters and live ammunition in an attempt to break the 12-day sit-down strike. The “Battle of the Running Bulls”—named by strikers in mocking reference to police (“bulls”) fleeing the scene—begins when 22 GM plant protection guards arrive at Fisher #2 gates and simultaneously cut heat to the occupied facility in freezing Michigan winter. When protesters, including many women, open gates to bring food to strikers inside, police respond by hurling tear gas into picket lines and through plant windows while firing weapons at workers. Strikers led by UAW organizers Bob Travis and Roy Reuther fight back with plant fire hoses and improvised slingshots loaded with door hinges, bolts, bottles, and auto parts, while members of the Women’s Emergency Brigade break plant windows to give strikers relief from choking tear gas.

The six-hour battle results in 16 strikers wounded (13 seriously with gunshot wounds) and 11 police officers injured before authorities withdraw in defeat, unable to dislodge the occupation. The police violence backfires spectacularly, generating national sympathy for strikers and forcing Michigan Governor Frank Murphy to mobilize the National Guard—not to evict workers as GM demands, but to protect them from further police and corporate attacks. Fisher Body Plant #2, though smaller than Plant #1, holds strategic importance in GM’s production network, making it a flashpoint for corporate efforts to break the strike through force. The confrontation exposes GM’s willingness to use violence against workers asserting federally-protected organizing rights under the 1935 Wagner Act, exemplifying corporate resistance to labor law through private security forces and compliant local police.

The Battle of the Running Bulls becomes a turning point in the Flint strike, demonstrating strikers’ determination and solidarity while revealing corporate brutality to the American public. The violence strengthens rather than weakens the UAW’s position, as public opinion shifts decisively against GM’s tactics and Governor Murphy’s protective National Guard deployment prevents further assaults. Strikers remain alert for additional attacks that never materialize, maintaining their occupation for another month until GM capitulates on February 11, 1937, recognizing the UAW and granting workers’ demands. The battle illustrates how corporate power relies on state violence to suppress worker organizing, while also showing that sustained worker militancy combined with sympathetic government officials can overcome corporate-police coordination—a lesson that shapes subsequent labor struggles and contributes to the UAW’s transformation into a major industrial union representing millions of American workers.