| Walter Reuther was among the most influential labor leaders of the 20th Century. Although it was not inevitable that Reuther would become part of the labor movement, his passion for equality and social justice would have untimely led him down a similar path. Reuther did not fit the mold of a stereotypicallabor leader. He was ambitious, but took pride in being the nation’s lowest paid union president. As head of the United Automobile Workers (UAW), he held enormous economic power, but used it to better the lives of the union rank and file. As an advisor to Presidents Reuther had great political influence, but applied it on behalf of the disadvantaged. Walter Reuther’s impact on the formativedecades of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s continues to be felt today.
Born the second of five children to German immigrant parents in 1907, Walter Reuther grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia. There he learned the practicality of trade unionism and the idealism of Socialism. After an apprenticeship in tool and die work, he left for the boomtown of Detroit to complete his education and work in the automobile industry. He eventually became a die leader for Ford, but was fired in 1932 for Socialist political activity. The following year Reuther undertook a two year long world tour with his brother Victor, working for a time at the Gorky automobile factory equipped for the Soviet Union by Henry Ford.
Reuther returned to Detroit in time for the great union organizing struggles in the automotive industry. By 1937 he was president of the large UAW Local 174 on Detroit’s West Side and a member of the UAW Executive Board. Both General Motors and Chrysler had been organized with sit-down strikes in 1937, but Ford strongly resisted union efforts. Reuther would learn first hand about Ford’s anti-union activities. On May 26, 1937, he and other union activists were attacked and severely beaten by Ford thugs at the famous “Battle of the Overpass.” Ford would not be organized until 1941. In 1939 Reuther was head of the UAW General Motors Department and led a successful tool and die strike that consolidated the union’s position with the giant corporation.
World War II brought Walter Reuther to public prominence. He received national attention for his plan to utilize unused automobile factory capacity to build 500 aircraft a day. Reuther was offered several high-level posts in the wartime Federal Government, but turned them down to stay with the UAW. He was a frequent consultant to Franklin Roosevelt and developed a friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt that would last the remainder of their lives.
Walter Reuther lead a major strike against General Motors at the end of 1945 in which he demanded a 30% increase in pay. He made the unheard of demand that GM open its books to the public to prove their ability to pay without raising automobile prices. Although a compromise was reached without opening the books, Reuther would continue to promote the concept that automobile corporations had an obligation beyond making money for their stockholders. Their actions should also take into account the welfare of their workers and society at large.
Walter Reuther was elected president of the UAW in 1946, a post he would hold until 1970. During that period he provided his membership with gains unheard of during the early years of the automobile industry. Beyond economic achievements, autoworkers enjoyed enhanced job security, vacations, benefits, pensions and supplemental unemployment benefits (SUB). SUB continued most of a worker’s income during layoff and eased the cyclical nature of auto work. Working in the industry was transformed from a low-wage, part-time job full of insecurity, to an occupation that supplied a living wage and optimism for the future. Struggles abounded to achieve this and the period between 1946 and 1970 saw numerous strikes in the automobile industry.
Reuther also paid a price for his high profile leadership in the labor movement. In 1938 he was almost kidnapped and murdered by gunmen. Threats would dog him for much of his career. In 1948 he was nearly killed by a would-be assassin’s shotgun blast that permanently damaged his right arm. Never regaining full mobility, the arm would give him pain for the rest of his life.
Reuther reached the heights of national labor leadership when he was elected to the presidency of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1952. He used the position to seek a merger with the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which was finalized in 1955. AFL president George Meany became the head of the new confederation, while Reuther took a subordinate role as head of the Industrial Union Department. Meany’s conservative leadership frustrated Reuther, and he withdrew the UAW from the AFL-CIO in 1968. |
| As a leader in the Democratic Party, Walter Reuther was an advisor to Presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson. He sought to widen the Federal Government’s role as a guarantor of civil liberties and provider of expanded social programs. He was influential in the passage of civil rights legislation and was a close consultant in developing the War on Poverty program.
Reuther believed the social and economic impact of unions should expand beyond its own membership. He once spoke on the result of tying social security benefits to worker’s pensions. The higher the monthly amount of social security payment, the less the automobile companies had to contribute. Shortly after this was agreed to, Congress passed the first social security increase in 12 years. Millions of people who had never been a member of a union or heard of the UAW directly benefited by the union’s action.
Walter Reuther also demonstrated a personal commitment to civil rights and social justice. He could be found marching with civil rights activists in Mississippi and hospital workers in South Carolina. Reuther was a strong supporter of the Southern Christian Leadership Council and a friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The UAW financed the enormous Freedom Marches in both Detroit and Washington in 1963. It was at these marches that King delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech. Reuther also provided essential financial and logistic support for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers in their struggle to humanize agricultural work.
Believing that labor had to organize internationally to counter multi-national corporations, Walter Reuther forged ties with labor organizations worldwide. He traveled to numerous countries including Japan, Tunisia, Israel, Mexico, India, and maintained contacts with trade unionists from many nations. Reuther was a founding member of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and affiliated the UAW with the International Metalworkers Federation. Although never fully realized, Reuther helped pioneer the bridging of international borders through the labor movement.
Walter Reuther was a strong believer in worker education and, in the late 1960s, the UAW started the construction of an education center near Black Lake in Northern Michigan. The center would provide union education to UAW members and their families in a recreational environment. It was while flying to the center that Walter Reuther and his wife May were killed in a crash on May 9, 1970. The center is named in their honor. Although his life was cut short, Reuther’s enormous contributions have made a lasting impact on American society. |
