United Automobile Workers

Charles R. Anderson Papers

gstrassel — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 14:43:17 -0400

Charles R. Anderson was a member of UAW Local 662 in Anderson, Indiana, serving the local union’s CAP Council and Citizenship and Legislative Committee. In 1991, he received the Walter P. Reuther Distinguished Service Award for his work with the union. Before that, his expansive career included membership in the United Glass Workers, multiple terms as Delaware County AFL-CIO President, and serving the State Department in training union members in the Republic of Cyprus. The Charles R. Anderson Papers cover his legislative work for the UAW, reports written for the State Department, reports for the UAW, correspondence with political figures, and his various recognitions.

Leon Blythe Papers

pneirink — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 08:50:31 -0400

Daybooks of Leon Blythe, an autoworker in Detroit, from 1923-1926. Also include published family history, Blythe Spirits: A Family History, by Robert W. Blythe.

Louis B. Carrick Papers

drice — Thu, 08 May 2014 17:01:02 -0400

Dr. Carrick, an aquatic biologist, served for a number of years on the staff of the
Environmental Protection Agency. In 1974, he was appointed principal reviewer of all environmental impact statements prepared in the Southeast under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. As a young man, he worked in the automotive industry in Detroit.

These papers contain an unpublished manuscript entitled “Auto Workers in Action: Labor Dynamics of the American Automobile Industry.” It covers the history of union organizing efforts in the Detroit auto industry in the early 20th Century. Louis B. Carrick wrote the manuscript (under the pseudonym Louis Burcar) with Joe Brown, and Benjamin Linsky. The original draft of the manuscript appears to have been completed in 1938 but it was never published. Duplicates were made in 1982 and this copy was deposited in the Reuther Library in 1983 under the condition that it not be opened for research until September 1988. The remainder of the papers contains some information about Dr. Carrick’s life and career.

David Elsila Papers

kschmeling — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 10:34:01 -0400

David Elsila is an activist, educator, writer, editor, and historian best known for his work involving the labor movement. He notably served as the longtime editor for the UAW’s magazine Solidarity, managing the publication from 1977 to 1998. Before then, he was editor for the American Federation of Teacher’s publications American Teacher and Changing Education. Throughout his diverse career, he also taught journalism courses at Wayne State University, wrote several books on labor history, served as Vice-President of the ACLU of Metropolitan Detroit, was a board member and editor of the Michigan Labor History Society, and received numerous awards for his journalistic and civic accomplishments.

International Socialists Records

aorchard — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 10:58:02 -0400

The International Socialists existed from 1968 -1986 in the U.S. with national headquarters in Detroit, and branches in 14 other cities. It was preceded by the Independent Socialist Club, established in Berkley in 1964, which then formed an International Socialist Committee. The International Socialist Club appealed to radical student and Maoist groups. Kim Moody, contributor of several pivotal writings to the socialist cause, helped to establish a branch of the Independent Socialist Club in New York. The Independent Socialist Club became the International Socialists at the 1969 convention, where a formal political platform was established to address the working class movement. Internal disagreements developed around degrees of radicalization and basic philosophy throughout the 1970's. These disagreements led to the formation of other organizations such as the Revolutionary Tendency and Workers Power. In 1986, International Socialists merged with Workers Power and Socialist Unity to become known as Solidarity.

The records in this collection illustrate the evolution of the political principles and internal workings of the International Socialists, mainly through the 1970’s. It shows their struggle for the rights of the working class, to reap the recognition and rewards it felt it deserved for providing the sweat of industrial production, the basis of the nation's wealth.

Sanitary Chemists and Technicians Association Records

drice — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 15:36:47 -0500

The Sanitary Chemists and Technicians Association (SCATA), also known as UAW Local 2334, represents chemists and biologists in the Detroit area. The SCATA records are comprised of correspondence, newsletters, dues paperwork, member grievance, a large vinyl protest sign, and subject files by topic and union member, along with various other materials.

State Workers Organizing Committee Records

drice — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 15:10:18 -0500

The State Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) was a semi-caucus and political movement that worked within several unions, including the Welfare Employees Union (WUE), the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Michigan State Employees Association (MSEA), and the United Auto Workers (UAW) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. SWOC was born from within the WEU and served as an activist organization that played a key role in establishing local union chapters, including the UAW Local 6000 and the AFSCME 1880. Additionally, SWOC took part in rallies, job actions, and legal endeavors on issues related to worker concessions, bargaining rights, layoffs, reassignments, grievances, and welfare rights.

The State Workers Organizing Committee Records contains material related to SWOC and affiliated labor groups, such as the Welfare Employees Union and the Michigan State Employees Association. Material included in the collection consists mostly of paper records documenting the efforts of SWOC and the MSEA to establish local union chapters and to agitate for workers rights, including meeting and convention information, legal proceedings, promotional materials, and correspondence with various labor groups and government agencies.

Thomas Bernick Papers

aorchard — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 15:09:42 -0500

Thomas Bernick was a journalist and active protester of The Detroit Newspaper Strike, which began on July 13, 1995 and lasted until 2000. An estimated 2,000 to 2,500 workers from six local unions joined the strike and participated in the lengthy battle against the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press in the courtroom. Battle outside the courtroom took place as well, with protesters making numerous reports of violence by a private security firm and the Sterling Heights Police Department. Journalists fought back by creating their own paper in 1996, the Detroit Sunday Journal. The Journal achieved a circulation of 300,000 in its first year and was widely hailed for reporting throughout its run, which ended in 1999.

In 1997, the unions ordered an unconditional return to work, but the newspapers chose to keep their replacement workers on staff, stating they would only hire strikers as positions opened up. The strike finally came to an end in 2000, but many of the strikers did not return to work for the newspapers, and the circulation of both the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press was greatly reduced from that of the 1980s and early 1990s.

The Thomas Bernick Papers contains court documents, meeting materials, photocopies of articles about the strike, and a full series of the Alliance Strike Bulletin, a newspaper run by the Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions. Additionally, this collection holds correspondence, circulation numbers, strike-related periodicals, and meeting materials for the Workers Justice Committee, as well as many of the flyers and pamphlets distributed throughout the strike, both for and against it.

UAW Borg-Warner Department Records

gstrassel — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 11:02:33 -0500

A prominent American automotive components and parts supplier, Borg-Warner (later rebranded as BorgWarner) had factories across the US and Canada represented by the UAW. The UAW Borg-Warner Department Records are the documents of the office within the UAW’s international headquarters that oversaw the union’s operations at Borg-Warner plants. These records consist of correspondence with the union locals representing Borg-Warner employees, arbitration proceedings, strike pamphlets, collective bargaining agreements with Borg-Warner subsidiaries, and much more.

WJBK-TV Collection: Walter Reuther’s FBI Files

aorchard — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 16:29:09 -0400

The WJBK-TV Collection: Walter Reuther’s FBI Files consists of the FBI FOIA release files and related correspondence concerning Walter P. Reuther. The files were released by the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and were then obtained by WJBK-TV Inc. under the direction of WJBK-TV Inc. reporter, William J. Gallagher, in 1987. The majority of the FBI files contain records concerning an internal security investigation of Walter Reuther and the United Auto Workers (UAW) between 1940 and 1970. Additional FBI files relate to a Security of Government Employees investigation of Walter Reuther between 1965 and 1967 when Reuther was an applicant for a position with the State Department, as well as to a background investigation of Walter Reuther, which was conducted at the request of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy between 1953 and 1964, when Reuther was under consideration to be a member of the committee in order to study the peacetime uses of atomic energy. Correspondence records relating to these FBI FOIA release files were created in 1986 and 1987, and are largely between William J. Gallagher and either Robert J. Walsh, Chief of the Freedom of Information/Privacy Office, or Emil P. Moschella, Chief of the Freedom of Information-Privacy Acts Section, Records Management Division.

Collection Spotlight: African-American Labor Oral Histories

wlefevre — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 11:05:00 -0500

In late 1967 Herbert Hill, labor director for the NAACP, traveled to the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit to conduct a series of oral histories with African American men and women that centered around their experiences in the labor movement. read more »

Collection Spotlight: Leonard Woodcock Papers

gstrassel — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 16:45:59 -0400

The Walter P. Reuther Library is honored to announce the opening of the The Leonard Woodcock Papers. Leonard Woodcock orchestrated profound accomplishments in a variety of fields, notably as head of the UAW and later as Ambassador to China, making these historical records a valuable resource to a wide range of researchers. read more »

Guest Post: More than a Lawyer - Maurice Sugar

Public Relations Team — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 15:17:18 -0400

“Music hath charms to sooth a savage heart, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.” –William Congreve 1670-1729

This quote, among others, was scribbled on notes belonging to the famous and first Labor Lawyer –Maurice Sugar, and can be found in the Reuther Library’s Maurice Sugar Papers. read more »

Local Chapters Unite: The UAW and its Divided Opinion on Bussing in Pontiac Schools

Public Relations Team — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 14:47:38 -0500

Why was the United Auto Workers union involved in the highly controversial legal issue of racially-integrating busing policies in the Pontiac school district? From an outsider’s perspective, there is no clear link. The issue of forced busing has nothing to do with a worker’s union. However, it is important to remember that these workers went home to their families each night. read more »

Oral History Heroes: Millie Jeffrey

rbizonet — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 16:13:12 -0500

As the Oral History Project Archivist at the Reuther Library, my job is to arrange and describe our oral history collections so researchers can find them -- work that has been made possible by a National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) Documenting Democracy grant awarded to the library in 2014. I’ve come to greatly admire many of the interviewees, and to be fascinated by their life stories and accomplishments. In a series of blog posts, I’ll tell about some of my “oral history heroes” and what makes them special to me. read more »

Podcast: Jessica Levy on "Black Power, Inc.: Global American Business and the Post-Apartheid City"

mcourtney — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 11:00:15 -0400

Check out the latest episode of Tales From the Reuther Library, our bi-weekly podcast! This episode, Jessica Levy explains how American corporations and black entrepreneurs worked together to forge a new politics linking American business with black liberation at home and abroad, focusing particularly on Leon Howard Sullivan, read more »

Reuther Library Acquires Horace Sheffield Jr. Collection

ageraci — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 14:19:11 -0400

The Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, is pleased to announce the acquisition of an archival collection documenting the life and work of Horace Sheffield Jr.

The Sheffield Collection will give insight into the life and work of a labor and community trailblazer through personal and family papers, correspondence, images, and ephemera collected over a life of leadership: as an official in UAW Local 600, founding member of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), President of the Detroit CBTU, founder of the politically influential Trade Union Leadership Council (TULC) and Detroit Association of Black Organizations (DABO), director of the Detroit NAACP, and administrative assistant to UAW President Douglas Fraser. read more »

UAW CAP Department Records Part II Now Open

gstrassel — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 16:05:41 -0400

The Reuther Library is happy to announce the opening of an addition to the UAW Community Action Program (CAP) Department Records. These new records offer insights into elections from 1960-1972, with an emphasis on political races in Metro Detroit. read more »

UAW Memo on N.A.G.

mcourtney — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 15:17:43 -0500

Memorandum from Lenny Hartmann to Ken Morris regarding UAW Local 596 support for the NAG, an anti-busing group in Pontiac, Michigan.

(3058) Portrait, Owen Bieber, 1988

eclemens — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 11:07:41 -0500

Portrait of Owen Bieber, President of the United Auto Workers Union.

(34343) McFarland Map of UAW Local 174 Connections

mcourtney — Tue, 10 May 2016 11:25:17 -0400

Map created by Dr. Steven McFarland illustrating the connections between UAW Local 174 employers and members.

Podcast: "Taxing Limits: The Political Economy of American School Finance"

teller — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 16:39:28 -0400

Kelly Goodman speaks about the political history of funding education through local and state taxes. Having worked as a data analyst for the Detroit public schools, Goodman pursued graduate school to explore the structural issues surrounding questions she often found herself asking: why are some schools perceived to be bad? Why do some schools receive less funding than others? How does the economy work, and for whom? read more »

Podcast: Julia Gunn on Civil Rights Anti-Unionism: Charlotte and the Remaking of Anti-Labor Politics in the Modern South

teller — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 16:15:15 -0400

Dr. Julia Gunn explains how progressive civil rights politics enabled Charlotte, North Carolina, to become the nation’s second-largest largest financial capital while obscuring its intransigence towards working-class protest, including public sector sanitation workers, bus drivers, firefighters, and domestic workers. read more »

This Union Cause: The Queer History of the United Automobile Workers

teller — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 16:54:57 -0400

Wayne State history PhD candidate James McQuaid discusses his research on the gradual cognizance and acceptance of queer autoworkers in the twentieth century, leading toward the UAW’s rapid embrace of LGBTQ-friendly policies and initiatives in the 1990s. read more »

[Podcast] A Miasma of Metals: The Steelworkers’ Environmental Call Following the Donora Smog of 1948

teller — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 11:30:05 -0400

Louise Milone recounts how smog produced by the southwestern Pennsylvanian steel industry poisoned the air in the Monongahela Valley town of Donora on November 1, 1948, killing more than 22 people and sickening thousands more. Exploring the response of the US Steel Corporation, employees, and Donora residents, Milone explains how the United Steelworkers of America union pushed for an investigation and improved environmental and health and safety regulations following the disaster. Milone is a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Georgia Department of History. read more »

[Podcast] Bargaining for the Common Good: Milton Tambor Reflects on 50 Years in Labor and Social Activism

teller — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 15:23:33 -0500

Labor leader and social activist Milton Tambor discusses his life’s work in Detroit since the 1950s as a social worker; AFSCME local union president, staff representative and assistant education director; and teaching faculty in both labor studies and social work at Wayne State University and other institutions. read more »

[Podcast] Brewing a Boycott: Collective Activism and the Decades-Long Coors Beer Boycott

teller — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 11:49:07 -0500

Dr. Allyson Brantley explains how large and diverse groups joined together for a decades-long consumer boycott of the Coors Brewing Company to fight against its union busting, discriminatory hiring practices, and politics. read more »

[Podcast] Communists and Community in Wartime Detroit

teller — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 09:57:06 -0400

Dr. Ryan Pettengill explains how communist activists in Detroit worked with labor activists during and after the Second World War to enhance the quality of life in the community by advocating for civil rights, affordable housing, protections for the foreign-born, and more. read more »

[Podcast] From Bargaining Table to Diplomatic Table: Leonard Woodcock in China (Part 1)

teller — Thu, 06 May 2021 16:50:23 -0400

[Podcast] From Bargaining Table to Diplomatic Table: Leonard Woodcock in China (Part 2)

teller — Wed, 26 May 2021 11:54:28 -0400

After Leonard Woodcock stepped down as president of the UAW in 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter sent him to Beijing as a diplomatic envoy and ultimately as the nation’s first ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. In the second of a two-part interview, his wife Sharon Woodcock talks about Deng Xiaoping's visit to the United States; Leonard Woodcock's work after leaving the State Department, including his work on the Board of Governors of Wayne State University; and his support of the Reuther Library. read more »

[Podcast] Hillbilly Highway: Charting White Migration from Appalachia to the Industrial Midwest

teller — Fri, 03 May 2024 08:47:31 -0400

Dr. Max Fraser shares the often overlooked story of the “hillbilly highway,” the route nearly eight million poor, rural, white Americans took in the 20th century from economically depressed areas in the Southeastern and Southern United States toward higher paying factory jobs in the Upper South and Midwest. read more »

[Podcast] Midnight in Vehicle City: Modern Lessons From the Flint Sit-Down Strike

teller — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 15:03:58 -0400

Edward McClelland recounts the gripping details of the Flint sit-down strike, and considers what we can learn today from the strikers’ successful fight for shared prosperity in 1936-1937. read more »

[Podcast] No Equal Justice: The Legal and Civil Rights Legacy of George W. Crockett Jr.

teller — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 10:59:00 -0400

Peter Hammer describes the life and legacy of civil rights icon George W. Crockett, Jr. A Black lawyer who fought racism and defended constitutional rights in landmark cases in the 1940s through the 1960s, Crockett brought his ethos to the Detroit Recorder’s Court during his time on the bench from 1966 through 1978, and to his decade of service in the 1980s as a Congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives. read more »

[Podcast] Polish American Women and Detroit’s 1938 Federal Screw Works Strike

teller — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 14:09:41 -0500

Dr. Martin Hershock recounts the violent three-day strike against General Motors supplier Federal Screw Works in 1938, when women from Detroit’s Polish community led the fight to preserve both their recently-recognized union and their neighborhood. read more »

[Podcast] The UAW’s Southern Gamble in Foreign-Owned Factories

teller — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 09:32:50 -0500

Dr. Stephen Silvia explains how the UAW built a cooperative relationship with workers’ councils and unions at foreign automotive companies, but has nevertheless struggled to organize those companies’ vehicle factories in the southern United States since the 1990s due to anti-labor politics and the companies’ shared anti-union playbooks. read more »