On the morning of Saturday 27 February 1937, at the big Woolworth's on Woodward Avenue, a union organizer named Floyd Loew blew a whistle, and 108 young women stopped working. Most were paid about 25 cents an hour. The Flint sit-down had ended with General Motors' surrender only two weeks earlier, and the saleswomen and lunch counter staff took the idea and applied it to a five-and-dime. They stayed in the building and slept on mattresses in the store. The demands included union recognition, a ten-cent raise, an eight-hour day, overtime after 48 hours and free uniforms. Organized by Local 705 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees, whose young organizer Mira Komaroff, later Myra Wolfgang, became one of the best-known labour leaders in Detroit, the strike spread to a second store on the Monday. The newspapers covered it heavily, and the strikers passed the time dancing in the aisles. After seven days Woolworth's settled, granting a five-cent raise, overtime pay and free uniforms across all forty of its Detroit stores. Sit-downs followed at Woolworth's stores from New York to San Francisco. The win did not last. The contract lapsed that October, and the company replaced departing workers with people who wanted no union.
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