Labor Movement: April 19, 1911

The Spirit of Solidarity -- a $1.3 million granite sculpture, plaza and fountain -- sits on the land of the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum on the banks of the Grand River near the Indian mound.

More than 6,000 Grand Rapids, Michigan, furniture workers—Germans, Dutch, Lithuanians, and Poles—put down their tools and struck 59 factories in what became known as the Great Furniture Strike.
For four months they campaigned and picketed for higher pay, shorter hours, and an end to the piecework pay system that was common in the plants of America’s “Furniture City.” Although the strike ended after four months without a resolution, Gordon Olson, Grand Rapids city historian emeritus, said once employees returned to work, most owners did increase pay and reduce hours.

Excerpt from Strike!: How the Furniture Workers Strike of 1911 Changed Grand Rapids