The UAW and the struggle to organize aircraft, 1937–1942
This article examines the United Automobile Workers’ Union (UAW) efforts to organize the aircraft industry, 1937–1942. It argues that the North American Aviation Strike in Inglewood, California in 1941 played a pivotal role in determining the union's fate in the industry. Following the controversial strike national UAW leaders seized control over the Aviation Organizing Campaign, placing the drive clearly in the hands of the union's auto interests. The move removed local leaders, and alienated a workforce that long cast a suspicious eye on the UAW. Ultimately, as events at Curtiss-Wright in Buffalo, New York show, the decision greatly hindered the UAW efforts in aircraft and opened the door to fierce competition from the International Association of Machinists.
The Demand for Aircraft and the Aircraft Industry, 1907–1958
The invention of the airplane by Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1903 marked the beginning of an industry which has grown to be the largest single manufacturing employer in the United States. Once the airplane was invented, there was wide-spread expectation that producing aircraft would be a very profitable business.
Symptomatic Trans-sexualism
A 24-year-old male schizophrenic had a delusion that he was female and had lived his life as a woman for almost two years. Unlike the only other reported case, his ‘symptomatic transsexualism’ responded to the effective treatment of his schizophrenia.