Building Communities
Building Communities
The barrage of negative publicity that hounded the Willow Run Bomber Plant in the winter and spring of 1943 forced the United Auto Workers and the leaders of Ypsilanti Township to cooperate despite the deep social and political differences between them. This chapter examines the cooperation between Local 50 and local leaders of Ypsilanti to make the Willow Run project work by building communities for the in-migrating population. It looks at the new institutions created as a result of this partnership, including the Willow Run Community Council, the Committee for Congested Production Areas, and the Willow Run Area Recreation Project. It also describes the federal government’s war housing program for plant workers and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s establishment of the Office of War Mobilization headed by James F. Byrnes. Finally, it considers Byrnes’s proposal, called the Byrnes Plan or the West Coast Plan, to tackle the manpower problems in the shipbuilding and aircraft industries on the West Coast.
Keywords: communities, Willow Run Bomber Plant, United Auto Workers, Ypsilanti Township, Local 50, war housing, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Office of War Mobilization, James F. Byrnes, manpower
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