Conditions were ripe for the rise of unionism in the Depression-ravaged 1930s. Ford Motor Company was the last of the "Big Three" to unionize. The turning point came on May 26, 1937, when Ford security men brutally beat UAW organizers at the "Battle of the Overpass" in Dearborn. Local 600 formed in 1938 and initiated a crippling strike at the Rouge Plant. The union's efforts produced a new contract signed in 1941.
