Biography
On December 12, 1977, U.S. District Judge John Feikens sentenced seven auto workers — "the Trenton 7" — to a week in federal prison for criminal contempt of a restraining order barring picketing at Chrysler's Trenton Engine Plant (UAW Local 372) in Trenton, Michigan. During the brutal heat wave of the summer of 1977, thousands of Detroit-area auto workers had walked out of plants where temperatures reached 120–130°F; at the Trenton plant, the firing of several union stewards over one such heat walkout triggered a week-long wildcat strike. Of the hundreds of workers who picketed, seven were singled out for prosecution. Although nearly 60 workers fired for heat walkouts at other Detroit-area plants were rehired in a Chrysler–UAW deal, the Trenton 7 were not reinstated and were instead tried without a jury and convicted. Supporters denounced the case as a frame-up and an assault on the right to strike.
Jim Hart was one of the seven defendants. "Between it all," he said, "management and the union are sleeping together."
The two-part Trenton7 report individually identifies this defendant in the Chrysler heat-walkout contempt prosecution. It says JudgeJohnFeikens imposed one week in federal prison on December12,1977, with appeal pending, after a no-jury trial over an anti-picketing order. The article alleges abandonment by UAWofficials and quotes the defendants’ criticism of management/union cooperation. The imposed week is not converted to seven completed days, and no physical prison admission or release is supplied.
The Detroit defense-forum report describes the Trenton7 conviction under JudgeJohnFeikens and a threatened six-week maximum before the subsequent actual sentence. It reports the PartisanDefenseCommittee forum, UAWsupport motions and criticism of union officials abandoning the pickets. The threatened six weeks are not an imposed or completed term, and the later December sentencing record remains intact.
