sit-down strike: a strike in which workers remain at their stations to avoid being replaced by strike breakers
Sit-down strikes were a phenomenon of the thirties. Probably the most famous sit-down strike occurred in Flint, Michigan in 1937. General Motors workers struck for 44 days, in spite of attempts by owners and the police to rout them out with teargas bombs. Michigan Governor Frank Murphy insisted that food deliveries be allowed, so strikers could not be starved out. GM finally agreed to let its employees join the United Autoworkers Union. These developments encouraged a wave of sit-down strikes across the country until the Supreme Court declared them illegal in 1939.