Blogs

The Wayne State University Mace, a ceremonial scepter used at certain official university occasions, will be present on Friday, April 4, when M. Roy Wilson is inaugurated as the 12th president of Wayne State University. The mace also appears at Commencement ceremonies and at each year's New Student Convocation. The Wayne State University Mace has been in use for thirty years; it was built for the university by Phillip Fike.  read more »

Social movements that disrupt the status quo and go on to change the lives of participants most often coalesce around a powerful leader. In 1962, Cesar Chavez, a former migrant worker and community activist, began the long struggle for farm workers’ rights by organizing the National Farm Workers Association in Delano, California—the forerunner of the UFW. By 1965, after signing up about 1200 members, Chavez was asked to join a grape strike in Delano led by the predominant Filipino Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC).

The Walter P. Reuther Library commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Delano Grape Strike by recounting its near fifty-year relationship with the United Farm Workers to document and preserve its legacy.  read more »

The Walter P. Reuther Library is very pleased to announce the Sam Fishman Travel Grant Awardees for 2014. Each year, the Fishman Travel Grants provide up to $1000 for travel to the Reuther Library for research into its vast collection of archival records related to American labor movement. The award is named in honor of Sam Fishman, one of Michigan’s great labor leaders.  read more »

At 12:01 am on March 4th, 1989 the ALPA pilots of Eastern Airlines (EAL) walked out in a sympathy strike to support the International Association of Machinists (IAM) strike. The pilots held the line for 285 days, but when they finally voted to return to work at the end of November there were no jobs left to return to. In fact, in less than three years after the vote to strike, Eastern Airlines ceased operations permanently, never to fly again.  read more »