Hershey, Pennsylvania witnessed a six-day sit-down strike of workers at the Hershey Chocolate Corporation in 1937. The strike ended in violence, as dairy workers and non-striking Hershey employees stormed the factory to force out strikers. Eventually, Hershey Corporation workers signed an agreement with the Bakery and Confectionery International Union, becoming one of the first American candy companies to unionize.

Police evict retail clerks occupying N.Y. Woolworth’s in fight for 40-hour week - 1937

Steel Workers Organizing Committee – soon to become the United Steel Workers – signs its first-ever contract, with Carnegie-Illinois, for $5 a day in wages, benefits - 1937

UAW workers win sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan, forcing General Motors to recognize the union. In the 40-day action, the strikers were protected by 5,000 armed workers circling the Fisher Body plant - 1937

CIO president John L. Lewis and U.S. Steel President Myron Taylor sign a landmark contract in which the bitterly anti-union company officially recognized the CIO as sole negotiator for the company's unionized workers. Included: the adoption of overtime pay, the 40-hour work week, and a big pay hike - 1937

450 Woolworth’s workers and customers occupy store for eight days in support of Waiters and Waitresses Union, Detroit - 1937

63 sit-down strikers, demanding recognition of their union, are tear gassed and driven from two Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. plants in Chicago. Two years later the U.S. Supreme Court declared sit-down strikes illegal. The tactic had been a major industrial union organizing tool - 1937

On February 11, 1937, workers paraded out of the General Motors body plant in Flint, Michigan, victorious after 44 days. “Suddenly in the distance we heard them singing ’Solidarity Forever,’” recalled Shirley Foster, the wife of a union organizer. “It was an enormous celebration all over the city that night. Flint would never know a feeling like that again.”
https://www.history.com/news/flint-sit-down-strike-general-motors-uaw

Congress approves legislation allowing for a total of $940,000,000 to be used for Depression-era relief projects. $790,000,000 of this money was intended to be used to fund work relief and flood recovery programs - 1937

The movie Modern Times premieres. The tale of the tramp (Charlie Chaplin) and his paramour (Paulette Goddard) mixed slapstick comedy and social satire, as the couple struggled to overcome the difficulties of the machine age, including, unemployment and nerve-wracking factory work, and get along in modern times - 1937

Thirty-seven thousand maritime workers on the West Coast strike for wage increases - 1937

Workers win a two-day sitdown strike at the Brooklyn electric plant that powers the city's entire subway system - 1937