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United Automobile Worker
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United Automobile Worker
-
1956-06-01
-
Vol. 19 No. 6
-
UNITED
AUTOMOBILE
June,
WORKER
1956|
ms
ea
Dr
r
Ou
d
il
Bu
to
d
re
Da
We
The young man checked in for his first day of work
at the plant.
The old man checked out on his last. The years of
the old man’s working life at the plant were more than
_
all the lived years of the young man.
Going in, the young man passed the old man. They
looked at each other and the old man seemed to nod
his head at the young fellow going in, but he might
have been adjusting his eyes to the light, getting set for
|
a last walk through the gate into retirement.
The shifts change not only by
with the years, other changes. The
he looked over and seemg¢d to nod
the first time, might have wanted
ots
him something, tell him se
bs greatest discovery of the past generation in the automobile industry has not been the automated factory.
_ It has been the discovery, made by the auto workers themselves, of their own humanity, their own identity, their own
value as people and as citizens.
This discovery, 20 years ago, was an American revolution.
It was a new, bright turn in the democrati¢ road that has had
and will have many turns but no ending.
The discoverers are 20 years older now. They are sur-—
vivors, and history, a saying goes, is written by the survivors.
hours but by years. And
old man going out, when
at the kid coming in for
to stop the = and hand
There is, however, more than one way of writing history. Written one way, it comes out on paper, it is printed
in books, and is published for readers.
- Written another way, it comes out in lives, in acts
of faith and courage and dedication. It can be read.
in the unfolding days and years of accomplishment,
in the living round of men and women and families.
kee
OU
can-almost hear hit
think
talking to the kid. You
You'll
before
.
ed
ck
li
it
ve
ha
u
Yo
u?
yo
do
,
up
d
ze
you have it si
find out. It isn’t that easy. I was in there at a machine
st.
fir
ur
yo
d
an
y
da
t
las
my
is
is
Th
.
rn
bo
re
we
you
g
in
th
me
so
ss
pa
d
ul
co
I
sh
wi
I
y.
la
It’s a kind of re
I
at
wh
on
ss
pa
to
me
ti
fe
li
a
ke
ta
d
ul
wo
to you. But it
it can’t be said in a few words.
You can see the. kid
rassed. He doesn’t know
wants to talk to him, tell
what. The kid wants to be
wants to get in there and
The auto workers have written 20 years of this kind of
history. They will write 20 more, and more 20s after. The
written story is only a paper footnote to the real events,
a paper tribute to the real historians.
along
know,
The words can only be a pale reflection of the deeds.
Just a kind of echo of some of the things some of the survivors might say to the younger crowd if they all had time
to sit down and look back.
Some of the things the survivors might want to say to
|
:
stop for a moment. He’s embarthe old fellow. The old fellow
him something, he doesn’t know
polite'to the old man, but he also
lick the world.
the inheritors.
...
The carriage got its first motor in 1886.
For
50 years
autos
were
built and
sold and
run. For
ut
abo
ed
car
or
w
kne
ody
nob
6,
193
to
6
188
m
50 years, fro
the men who put them together, about what happened
to them on the job or off.
e
th
d
an
ow
ll
fe
d
ol
e
th
e
yb
Ma
.
en
But maybe it did happ
e
Th
r.
he
ot
ch
ea
in
es
lv
se
em
th
w
young kid stopped and sa
.
me
ti
st
fir
e
th
r
fo
te
ga
at
th
in
ng
old guy saw himself comi
t,
gh
li
e
th
to
in
g
in
nt
ui
sq
t,
ou
ng
mi
co
The kid saw himself
|
.
te
ga
e
th
h
ug
ro
th
lk
taking his last wa
g
un
yo
e
th
ok
to
n
ma
d
ol
e
Th
.
ed
il
They stopped and sm
he
u,
yo
ll
te
to
t
go
ve
I’
g
in
th
me
man by the arm. There’s so
e
bl
ta
a
at
wn
do
t
sa
ey
Th
.
et
re
st
said. They went across the
s.
te
nu
mi
w
fe
a
d
ha
he
id
sa
d
ki
e
Th
s.
with a couple of coffee
The older man began to talk....
s
er
rk
wo
to
Au
d.
re
ca
dy
bo
no
d
an
ew
kn
dy
bo
No
were faceless numbers on a time card. They were
nameless digits on the cost sheets.
They made autos in those days by combining so
s
ur
ho
ny
ma
so
for
er
bb
ru
d
an
ss
gla
d
an
el
much ste
with so much muscle, sweat, and nerve.
—
ed
ll
ki
d
an
s
to
au
de
ma
ey
th
w
ho
t’s
tha
s
ar
ye
Over the
|
|
auto workers.
do
d
ul
co
u
yo
t
tha
ng
hi
yt
an
be
to
em
se
’t
There didn
s
r
a
e
Y
0
2
t
s
r
i
F
s
'
W
A
U
e
h
t
of
y
r
o
t
S
l
u
f
r
o
l
o
C
The
on
+
IN araneeh tetra ciate
‘alate eae! ‘aaea a's!
WORKER
UNITED AUTOMOBILE
June, 1956
about it. There
didn’t seem to be any way out—if you were an auto worker in those
years.
Your life moved to the dis yebaoa of the line from layoff to layoff, until pou
came to the end of the line and they pushed you out into the shadows.
There was always another faceless number waiting to take your place.
x
2
kX.
2
here were good years. Yet even inthe best years it was crazy. You couldn’t
plan anything. You couldn't count on an hour of work beyond the péssent
hour.
a4
<4
,
Autos came first. Auto workers came last. Nobody but the auto workers knew
that auto workers were people and it even got hard for them to be sure, with the
line denying it and the foreman denying it, and the layoff yawning and wait-.
ing for them there in the shadows, at the end of every line.
As old Henry Ford used to say about his car: You could have it in any color
ee:
|
|
:
as long as it was black.
And then came the depression. It didn’t come on little cat feet. It stumbled
:
ye
Detroit like
a drunken
giant
_ Count yourself lucky if oe
and
fell headlong
were » somewhere
on the city.
else or hadn't been bora. |
These were the black years, In 1932 elie auto pistcees, with millions of other
ime
nk
had little left but their votes.
They used them, but there was a long lag between the vote and the victory.
In Washington there was a new deal, but in the auto centers employers were using
the same cold, frayed dirty deck.
Caught between speed-up and Eyed with jobs melting away, auto worker was
pitted against auto worker for the scraps and crusts of survival. Men
against women. Country worker against city worker. Old against young.
Younger against older.
The bitterness and hostility were built into group bonus schemes
and piecework plans that were only masks for speed-up. You couldn't
be sure what your pay would be.
¢
Workers had to get into the shop. an hour or half-hour early and
get ready on their own time.
wn
reported to work every day and «waited hours for work that ©
Ts
didn’t arrive. No pay.
‘Safety and health laws were violated. Women replaced men at
reduced rates. Men were laid off indiscrifninately. There was no seniority,
and if they were rehired at all, they came back as new employes.
Older workers were pushed out, and the definition of an
older worker got broader and broader. Married women were
laid off because they were married and because they were
women.
The labor spy business boomed. The line ‘moved faster. In the
cold winter of 1934, in Detroit, Flint, Lansing, Muskegon, Jackson,
Toledo, Dayton, Cleveland, Milwaukee, auto workers formed another
line. They waited for hours to testify before federal investigators.
They told their stories, a report got as far as the desk of the President
of the United States.
etek
There were, the report stated, three kinds of people who stood
in line and told their stories. There were those who seemed, to the
investigators, numbed’ and despairing (although they were not too
numbed and not too despairing to tell their stories). There were those,
_the investigators said, who were embittered, who were against “the system,” and who placed their hope in a “social revolution.”
The third group, the investigators said, were those who were “convinced that something can be done to better their situation.” Hardly
anybody was listening but here, in this conviction that something could
be done, was the first unmistakable accent of a voice that would sBitly
be getting attention in the highest places.
This third voice had a méssage for tin ears. “They are skeptical
of government efforts,” the message ran. “Unless something is done
soon they intend to take things in their own hands to get results.”
Almost nobody was listening. It was now almost 50 -years since
a
Frenchman had invented
the
automobile,
The
getting ready to invent something of their own.
Nineteen-thirty-five, year of the Wagner
auto
workers
were
Act, was also the
year of the formation of the Committee for Industrial Organization. It was the year the voices of auto workers spoke through
the report that got as far as Franklin Roosevelt's desk. The
social lag in the automobile industry was. showing badly. It
would take more than voices, more than government reports,
more, as events proved, than labor boards to bring democracy
into the aot
Page4
AUTOMOBILE.
“UNITED
WORKER.
‘June, | 956
Big Business Turns Its Back
c Needs of People
Old Henry Ford said, in the early days, “A great
business is really too big to be human.” This was
an accurate definition not of what had to be but of
the way things were in the plants. Democracy
seemed to begin and end at the polling place. In
the plant, you couldn’t tell a human being from a
mine mule without a score card.
Before the Wagner Act there had been a number of labor boards. They had been so many
planks for workers to walk.
The workers had called the old NRA
tional Run
Around.
the Na-
The Wagner Act put teeth
into Section 7a of NRA,
which had affirmed the
right of workers to form unions and bargain collectively.. But Liberty League lawyers hired to pro- |
tect corporations from people quickly formed
themselves into a self-appointed “Supreme Court’
and decided the Wagner
Act was unconstitutional.
If a worker thought otherwise, he could
take his grievance to his foreman and then
look for another job. Liberty, though, was
a two-way’ street.
Unemployment
Auto
workers
began
gathering at the other end.
Those who came together at South Bend, In-
diana, in April of 1936 had plenty of nothing.
They had no money. They spoke for and about
7,500 UAW members in the United States and
Canada. But they had an idea, and the idea had
been tested shortly before in Akron, Ohio,
where rubber workers had walked picket lines
and sat down in their plants for over a month
_ and had won CIO’s first big victory.
The idea, briefly and simply stated, was that
a man’s tight to a job was at least as important
as the well-publicized property right of corpota-
tions. If enough men believed this to form unions in the plants, the idea went, political democracy would have a twin brother on the
assembly lines. ~
AN IDEA 20 YEARS AGO
UAW came out of the South Bend convention armed with this idea and an International
Union charter. Akron workers had started up
the street. Auto workers began’ to look up and
take notice.
Some of the other local union groups began
the
in
s
er
rk
wo
er
sl
ry
Ch
W.
UA
th
wi
ate
ili
aff
to
AIWA voted to join. So did Associated Auto-
mobile Workers locals in Hudson
—
several locals of the MESA.
Somebody
plants
and
looked back later and said:
“One of the least influential labor unions in
any major U. S. industry, up to the end of
1936, was the United Automobile Workers
of America.”
It was true. The influence was only gathering
in the minds of-the workers. It hadn’t yet been
brought to bear.
On the surface, nothing much
had changed.
In June, 1936, the idea was tested again, this
Hoovervilles
inge
wa
.a
th
wi
al,
Loc
W
UA
ix
nd
Be
the
by
time
crease, union recognition, and seniority mutes as
proof that the idea could work. |
In October, Chrysler’s Dodge Locals threatened to strike against violation of seniority rules.
Evictions—Where D De We
Go
From
Here?
The
stopped.
idea
proved
had
The
violations
In
lost
and
Deal
was
November, 1936, Liberty League lawyers
a presidential election to restless workers
Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. The New
was still in Washington but the old deal
still standard operating procedure in the
itself again.
automobile plants.
The auto workers were still
holding secret union meetings in cellars.
But
they were also beginning to move up the twoway street.
SUCCESSFUL SITDOWN IN FLINT
A quick sitdown in Fisher Body plant No. 1
in Flint that same November ended in the Union’s favor. The Union came out of the cellar.
A local paper, The Flint Auto Worker, began to
publish.
Bendix workers at South Bend won further
concessions after a seven-day sitdown. »
With the Midland Steel Products and KelseyHayes Wheel sitdowns, events moved to a climax.
In the heart of Detroit, workers at Mid. land Steel won union recognition, seniority
rules, and wage increases after a two-week
strike. The strike widened the definition of
solidarity, enriched the union idea. Until
Midland settled, Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth workers refused to touch frames coming from other plants.
The Kelsey-Hayes sitdown also brought a
settlement that put more flesh and muscle on the
concept.
union
75-cent
The
minimum Kelsey-
Hayes workers won represented a substantial
hike, especially for women. There were a lot of
women working at Kelsey-Hayes in relation to
the size of the plant and the number of women™
then in the industry.
_ These two strikes, though, fad a wider mean-
<tr,
ing. No particular effort had been made to con-
ceal the fact that Ford and other major employers were intimately involved in both struggles
and dedicated to the proposition that a rising
UAW must be stopped in its tracks through the .
good offices of Kelsey-Hayes and Midland managements.
“Shortly after the Kelsey-Hayes strike erupted
in Department 49, where workers were making
Ford
agreed
brakes, management
a UAW
to meet with
grievance committee on the speed-up
' that provoked the stoppage. On the strength of
management's promise, work had resumed. At
9 a. m. of the appointed day, the Union committee presented itself at the Company offices. Word
came out that Kelsey officials were closeted with
one Chester Culver, secretary of the Michigan
Employers’ Association. The committee waited.
Ten o'clock. Eleven o’clock. The Kelsey-Hayes
wheels were still lost in Mr. Culver’s thoughts.
The
UAW
committeemen
cooled
their
heels
until the stroke of noon. Then they got their
answet.
Word
issued
from
the inner
sanctum:
Company officials couldn’t meet with UAW.
The committee left to pass the word to the
workers. Their way into the plant was barred by
Food
Lines
ety
UNITED
oo
WORKER
AUTOMOBILE
June,
1956
a0
plumage and forget the dying bird.
the auto towns.
Paine would have been at home in
It was a country where liberty was not.
It was a country
re
whe
,
ion
nat
er
wid
the
of
n
cer
con
and
dge
wle
kno
the
m
fro
closed off
of
ce
pea
the
en
tak
mis
had
er
ord
and
law
of
ers
end
def
ed
int
the self-appo
d
uce
ind
nce
sile
the
re
whe
and
ice,
just
al
soci
for
an industrial plantation
by fear had been mistaken for contentment.
|
fs.
ser
the
of
n
io
ll
be
re
a
,
ves
sla
the
of
olt
rev
a
s
wa
_ What had happened
of
d
ar
he
r
eve
d
ha
dy
bo
No
.
nts
eve
w
ne
the
fit
n’t
did
ns
tio
The old defini
on
tle
cas
his
in
n
ro
ba
No
.
ves
sla
his
th
wi
ng
a plantation owner bargaini
n
me
the
h
wit
e
at
ti
go
ne
to
wn
do
me
co
to
n
ow
kn
en
the hill had ever be
le.
tab
ce
en
er
nf
co
the
nd
ou
ar
sat
s
ht
ig
kn
the
ly
On
d.
who worked the lan
s
er
nd
fe
de
the
,
nts
eve
w
ne
the
fit
n’t
did
ns
tio
ini
Since the old def
nd
ta
rs
de
un
of
d
tea
ins
ns
tio
ini
def
the
e
sav
to
ed
of law and order tri
it
gh
ou
th
al
t,
pas
the
of
ce
pea
the
for
ed
ng
lo
ey
Th
ing the events.
the
by
ed
rc
fo
en
and
d
se
po
im
ce,
pea
ée
abl
ior
hor
was an unjust and dis
.
k.
wea
the
on
strong up
to
ed
tri
y
the
y;
tor
his
on
ew
rf
cu
a
p
sla
to
ed
tri
s
er
nd
fe
And so the de
place the twentieth century under house arrest.
e
at
or
rp
co
its
r
de
un
Act
er
gn
Wa
the
ed
pl
General Motors, having tram
o
aut
the
d
se
cu
ac
d
an
e
nc
ce
no
in
al
leg
of
le
nt
feet, wrapped itself in the ma
workers of illegally occupying its plants.
POLICE BRUTALITY was all too common when workers first
ofnty
cou
and
city
n
upo
ed
call
ers
loy
emp
and
ze
ani
org
to
began
ficials to “protect our property rights.”
n
w
o
D
t
a
S
s
d
n
a
s
u
o
h
Scores of T
n
o
i
n
U
a
e
v
a
H
d
l
u
o
C
y
e
h
So T
s
er
rk
wo
00
,0
89
me
so
,
37
19
8,
y
ar
nu
Ja
By
in.
The auto workers dug
on
ti
uc
od
pr
0
00
0,
15
's
GM
0
of
00
3,
11
11,
were sitting down. By January
workers were on strike.
s,
ce
en
er
nf
co
ny
ma
re
we
e
er
Th
r.
yea
w
ne
a
It was a cold winter but
d
an
s
le
mi
g,
in
it
wr
l
ia
or
it
ed
ch
mu
many press releases, many headlines,
t
on
fr
rs
to
Mo
l
ra
ne
Ge
ht
ug
ca
d
ha
y
miles of letters to editors. But histor
ht
ig
‘l
e
th
d
an
t
gh
li
e
it
wh
l
ue
cr
a
in
e
ag
st
al
on
ti
na
e
th
on
and center
it
d
an
37
19
s
wa
It
s.
er
rk
wo
to
au
e
th
d
ul
wo
r
he
it
Ne
.
go
let
wouldn’t
would never be 1936 again.
col
t
tha
d
sai
he
en
wh
ng
ti
ra
ge
ag
ex
en
be
ve
ha
t
gh
mi
_ Mr. Knudsen
ce
in
nv
co
to
me
ti
tle
lit
a
ke
ta
d
ul
wo
it
y;
sta
to
re
he
s
wa
lective bargaining
Mr. Sloan that Mr. Knudsen
ad
ro
,
the
on
on
si
vi
a
in
had seen the future
t
gh
ri
's
GM
11,
ry
ua
br
Fe
on
me
ca
h
ic
wh
d,
en
the
in
t
Bu
to Indianapolis.
the
th
wi
e
bl
ta
ce
en
er
nf
co
the
at
me
ti
st
fir
e
th
r
fo
t
and left hands me
United Automobile Workers.
e
th
ld
to
d
ha
ey
th
at
wh
ne
do
d
ha
s
er
rk
wo
o
ut
‘a
he
‘T
:
ed
ay
st
d
ha
ey
Th
.
do
d
ul
wo
ey
th
s
or
at
ig
st
ve
in
federal
shi
as
ng
ti
ac
s,
wn
to
d
an
es
ti
ci
of
t
lo
a
in
te
la
up very
tory’s midwife.
l
ia
or
it
ed
s
es
Pr
ee
Fr
t
oi
tr
De
A
h.
rt
bi
sy
ea
an
’t
sn
wa
It
re
fo
be
le
nd
ca
le
tt
li
a
lit
ar
ye
w
ne
e
th
of
7
y
ar
on Janu
he
“T
g,
in
ad
he
e
th
r
de
Un
.
le
dd
Mu
.
St
of
ne
ri
sh
d
ol
the
d:
we
lo
al
s
es
Pr
ee
Fr
e
th
War on General Motors,”
is
n
o
i
t
s
e
u
q
e
l
o
h
w
e
h
t
s
y
a
s
n
a
o
l
S
t
n
e
d
i
s
e
“Pr
of
s
t
n
a
l
p
e
h
t
n
u
r
l
l
i
w
n
o
i
t
a
z
i
n
a
g
r
o
r
o
b
a
l
a
r
e
h
t
whe
l
l
i
w
t
n
e
m
e
g
a
n
a
m
e
h
t
r
e
h
t
e
h
w
or
,
s
r
o
t
o
General M
y
l
t
n
e
i
c
i
f
f
u
s
a
us
to
s
m
e
e
s
s
i
h
T
.
so
o
d
to
continue
”
.
n
o
i
t
a
u
t
i
s
e
h
t
of
n
o
i
t
i
n
i
accurate def
s
s
e
r
P
e
e
r
F
e
th
,
r
e
e
b
r
a
e
n
e
d
a
m
o
h
w
e
l
p
o
e
p
Like the
ac
y
l
t
n
e
i
c
i
f
f
u
s
“
s
a
w
t
a
h
W
.
e
c
n
a
t
s
i
d
of
e
g
d
u
was a poor j
t
a
h
w
of
h
ut
tr
e
th
m
o
r
f
r
fa
s
a
w
s
s
e
r
P
e
e
r
F
e
th
r
fo
curate”
was happening.
Y
T
R
E
B
I
L
R
O
F
W
O
L
B
A
STRIKE
f
l
e
s
m
i
h
d
e
n
g
i
s
o
h
w
r
e
t
i
r
w
r
e
t
t
e
l
e
th
s
a
w
e
r
e
h
t
n
‘The
iag
r
o
b
a
l
.
l
l
A
“
:
r
o
t
i
d
e
e
th
to
e
t
o
r
w
d
n
a
”
n
a
s
i
“Non-Part
n
u
d
e
c
a
l
p
,
s
e
c
n
a
s
i
u
n
c
i
l
b
u
p
as
d
e
s
s
a
l
c
be
d
l
u
o
h
s
tators
”
.
s
g
n
a
g
n
i
a
h
c
in
k
r
o
w
to
der arrest and put
e
d
n
i
of
n
o
i
t
a
r
a
l
c
e
d
a
at
th
e
m
i
t
t
rs
fi
e
th
t
’
n
s
a
It w
d
n
a
n
o
s
a
e
r
t
of
s
l
w
o
h
h
t
i
w
d
e
t
e
e
r
g
n
e
e
b
d
a
h
e
pendenc
d
e
l
l
a
c
n
e
e
b
d
a
h
n
e
m
e
m
i
t
t
rs
fi
e
th
t
’
n
s
a
w
It
.
rebellion
it
s
a
w
r
o
N
.
s
e
e
n
k
r
ei
th
f
of
p
u
g
n
i
t
t
e
g
r
fo
s
e
m
a
ditty n
be
it
n
e
h
w
,
d
e
s
u
e
r
e
w
s
e
n
o
t
s
d
n
a
ks
ic
st
e
m
i
t
t
the firs
.
m
e
h
t
t
t
u
h
t
'
n
d
l
u
o
w
s
e
m
a
n
came clear
e
n
i
a
P
m
o
T
,
es
bl
ou
tr
of
In another time
d
n
A
”
.
y
r
t
n
u
o
c
y
m
is
e
er
th
/,
“W/here liberty is vo
y
e
h
T
;
”
r
e
d
r
o
d
n
a
w
a
l
“
of
s
r
e
d
of the uphol
|
had said,
he wrote
pity the
wk kK
NEARLY
150,000 people jammed
Cadillac
a
ed
ll
ca
n
io
Un
e
th
en
wh
Square in Detroit, right,
now
td
si
t
ic
ev
to
ts
mp
te
at
ce
li
po
rally to protest
s
ie
it
or
th
au
ty
ci
ce
in
nv
co
ed
lp
he
ers. The turnout
is
Th
.
ss
ne
si
bu
t
an
me
rs
ne
ow
at least that the sitd
s
wa
d
ow
cr
e
th
e
il
wh
n
ke
ta
s
wa
picture
.
ak
pe
s
it
d
e
h
c
a
e
r
it
re
fo
sembling, be
still as-
-
FIGHT FOR YOUR SALVATION
is
ol
ap
an
di
In
in
ng
ni
ai
rg
ba
ve
ti
ec
ll
co
for
t
ou
Mr. Knudsen had come
,
rs
ge
na
ma
t
an
pl
al
loc
e
Th
n.
ma
e
bl
ra
no
ho
an
and Mr. Knudsen was
the
of
d
ar
he
r
ve
ne
,
ng
ni
ai
rg
ba
ve
ti
ec
ll
co
of
d
ar
he
however, had never
ed
lik
it
;
ws
la
e
th
g
on
am
ng
si
oo
ch
d
an
g
in
ck
pi
.
Wagner Act. GM was
ty
li
ga
le
e
Th
s.
er
wy
la
n
ow
its
by
d
te
re
rp
some legality very much, as inte
the
of
n
io
Un
the
th
wi
al
de
to
it
d
un
bo
h
ic
wh
of the American Congress,
mo
to
au
ke
ma
to
ed
nt
wa
t
jus
It
of.
rt
pa
no
ve
auto workers, it would ha
d
an
es
nc
va
ie
gr
ir
the
s,
er
rk
wo
to
au
t
ou
ab
biles and sell them, and forget
their demands for justice.
ach
at
de
to
ne
do
y
ll
ga
le
g
in
be
of
ce
oi
ch
The auto workers faced the
ce
en
nd
pe
de
in
of
n
io
at
ar
cl
de
a
ng
ki
ma
of
or
cording to the old definitions,
that would itself become the foun-
dation of new law and new rights.
They chose to ring out the old, to
ring in the new. The bursting of
their chains made some noise and
was regarded in some quarters as
violence. Violence, too was a matter of definition. The defenders of
the castle on the hill had never no-
ticed the violence of the assembly
em
st
sy
e
ag
on
pi
es
the
of
or
e
lin
that
had
cost
GM
the
sum
of
.
36
19
of
f
hal
st
fir
the
in
55
,8
94
$9
20th Anniversary
UAW-TV PROGRAM
SUNDAY, JUNE 10
2:30 p.m. (EST)
NBC TV Network
Consult your newspaper for.
local time and station
UNITED AUTOMOBILE
June; 1956
AEP EE OS, tot Be 820.0 ag
WORKER
Page
9
In a few short months, the face of industry had changed; even its
heart had been touched. How deeply, time would tell. New air had
entered a lot of old work places. A whole new frontier had opened. A
lot of claims were staked. But a wide wilderness remained to be cleared.
For men on both sides of bargaining tables, the new freedom brought a
new vertigo. A union had been born in struggle. The question now was:
how would it live and grow.
|
FACTIONS PLAGUE THE UNION
The Union’s president, Homer Martin, had no chart for rough waters.
Management had signed papers, but management’s men in the shops too
often wanted to believe that the Union was a bad dream from which they
would awaken.
:
As
vaded
a high
guing
nostalgia and resentment gripped management, so ideology inlabor. Factions formed. Martin thought he could ride it out with
hand, flouting the Union constitution, suspending officers, intriwith the last great holdout in Dearborn. To worsen this time of
troubles, the whole country dipped and soured economically.
LEADING the Cadillac sitdown strikers out of the plant near
the end of the 1937 General Motors strike are, left to right: Julius
Hochman, ILGWU; Richard Frankensteen, Leo Krzycki, Homer
Martin, Walter P. Reuther. This was the famous false armistice.
The strikers kept their word; GM didn’t. The UAW discovered
GM’s duplicity in time. Cadillac workers set up picket
many other plants workers continued to sit down inside.
for a Detroit newspaper
der how they feel after
bed young but I wake up
Old and young, they
growth of sentiment in
UAW
lines;
in
wrote of them during the strike, “I often wonsleeping on a wooden bench all night. I go to
Roary
|
old.”
stayed for a principle. “There seems to be a
the papers,” the same fellow. wrote, “that the
isn’t the voice of the workers.
My department was organized 90
per cent and I know at a meeting Thursday we voted to strike with but
two opposed to the idea.”
That was Cadillac from the inside; to strike was an idea. In the words
of the striker who became a reporter, it was also “a great deal like an all
|
:
night poker game.”
“You don’t know,” he said, “how long it will last and there is a
lot more at stake than the pennies in the pot.” :
For men and wives and kids who had just weathered a man-made de-
pression,
increase was
a man-made wage
in the pot were onlya by-product. It
brought the new day to the factories, a
been at the mercy of the line, at the beck
And the genie’s name was solidarity.
“MOMMA,
WE’RE MAKIN’
HISTORY”
“Hello, Momma,
we're makin’ history.” It was a cartoon in a New York paper. It was
springtime, 1937, and Momma’s daughter had caught herself in a historic
workers.
Martin insisted he had been on the backstairs because they happened
to be handy, not because they led to any sell-out. The UAW Executive
Board invited him to prove it by coming up with a bona fide agreement
with
Ford.
He
was
also instructed
to call a special convention
of the
Union.
|
|
_ Martin’s response was not to open meetings with Ford, but to suspend
15 of the Board’s 24 members. The democracy that auto workers had
only yesterday introduced to the shops was being throttled at the heart
of their Union.
The hounded majority fought back. Joined by five other officers, the
banished
15 removed
Martin
from
office for violating the constitution,
elected R. J. Thomas president, and issued a call for a ratifying convention.
:
MARTIN CALLS RUMP CONVENTION
Martin didn’t wait to receive the judgment of the rank-and-file.
rushed headlong down the road to schism.
standing up to the boss with the rubber workers and the auto
One of the least influential labor unions in any major U.S. industry had
just succeeded in making an impression on the country's greatest corporation, and suddenly being a worker took on new meaning, new dignity.
e.
stor
t
roi
Det
n
mai
’s
rth
lwo
Woo
in
n
dow
sat
s
girl
ten
d
dre
hun
One
They slept on the counters, hung their laundry on a fire escape to dry,
and collected a five-cent hourly wage increase.
....
The kitchen and dining room staffs of the
Willard Hotel sat down in Washington. Bellboys lolled in the lobby and waiters sipped
milk shakes in the bar. The hotel recognized
Casting in his lot with the
but they still believed in the Union. The Union not as it had faltered
and fumbled since the big victories, but as it might be after its wounds
had been bound up and its house had been put in order.
The March, 1939, convention gave the UAW-CIO a new lease on
life, the possibility of a new militancy, a new sense of purpose and
direction. The companies, however, had determined that labor’s momentum of 1937 must not be recovered.
A badly shaken corps of managerial personnel had regained enough
poise
shops,
apples
wings
to
a
of
to
pretend the Union was a mirage. Grievances piled up in the
wave of firings whetted the appetite of foremen for the shiny
yesteryear, word ran that the good old days were waiting in the
bring the house down with the famous open-shop routine.
their union.
Barbers sat down in Perth Amboy, New
Jersey. In Chicago, 62 miles of freight
tunnels under the Loop were paralyzed by
a strike. Girls of the National Pants Co.
sat down in New Castle, Pennsylvania. |
Sixty thousand
workers stood in Cadillac
Square. The streetcars couldn’t move.
In every region, in all the industries, America’s forgotten men and women reminded each
other that they were human beings, discovered
that the story of human struggle and human
freedom had unwritten chapters for them and
their children. Liberty in 1937 became a twoway street. Free enterprise, suddenly, included
|
people.
PACKARD, HUDSON, BRIGGS FOLLOW
‘In auto, Chrysler followed GM. Then came
Packard, Hudson, Briggs. It was contagious,
not automatic. The dominoes fell, but the soli-
darity of men and women
toppled them.
By
September of 1937, the men and women of the
UAW
size.
had cut 400 companies down to human
|
He
AFL, he called his own convention. The delegates who showed up were
welcome. But the new pennies — noisy, but they spoke for no more than 18,000 workers.
was the genie in the lamp that
A special convention of the UAW-CIO met in Cleveland the end of
new dignity into lives that had
that same March to repudiate the Martin regime. The CIO group repreand call of unchallenged power.
sented 371,213 members. They weren't all paying their dues regularly,
A garment girl was yelling out of a loft window:
posture,
In this atmosphere of economic stagnation and of uncertainty in
the shops, Martin throughout 1938 maneuvered against his Executive
Board members, while supervisors and foremen gambled and prayed
that unionism was a sometime thing. 1938 slipped away in this fashion, with the 1937 victories imperilled. The year 1939 began with
Martin denouncing CIO and meeting on the backstairs with Harry
Bennett of the Ford Motor Company.
ee
¥
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT as President acted boldly to enable labor to organize. His understanding of the problems of
everyday people helped America beat back
the depression.
MRS. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT continues to be a champion for working people
everywhere; has always supported labor.
Here she is at the 1947 UAW Education Conference chatting with Walter P. Reuther.
UNITED
AUTOMOBILE
June,
WORKER
1956
COR SUNDAY
FOUDNYS. ow
nf
a maneuver which caught ‘the Cusovation
ping; unaware of UAW. determination.
SPIRITS WERE HIGH when tool and dié
workers shut down General Motors again in 1939,
General
Motors I'ries
WX
MRE
to Break a Divided
nap-
Union;
se
ri
rp
Su
by
GM
s
ke
Ta
ke
ri
St
1939 Tool and Die
Martin’s split still poisoned the air of the shops.
tees formed
Dual shop commit-
by Martin’s lieutenants ran abeut, clamoring
ment’s attention, claiming rank-and-file loyalties.
It was
for manage-
a temptation
management couldn't resist. General Motors moved to exploit the situation, to destroy collective bargaining and smother the Union on its bed
2
ee
,
7
of pain.
_GM’s Mr. Knudsen stepped forward again into the spotlight. With
a ite impartiality, and with newfound respect for the National Labor
Relations Board, he announced that it was impossible to tell whether the
Chaos
.
workers
auto
the
nted
represe
caucus
rump
s
Martin’
or
UAW-CIO
would have to reign, Mr. Knudsen indicated, until the NLRB got around
to taking representation votes.
Meanwhile, UAW-CIO
members of the Briggs Body Corpora-
low
fel
d
re
nd
hu
a
n
tha
re
mo
of
rge
cha
dis
the
t
ins
tion struck aga
d
de
ee
-n
ch
mu
g
in
nc
va
ad
and
t
en
em
at
st
in
re
ir
the
g
in
nn
wi
workers,
evidence of the continued vitality of the Union.
ed
ok
ov
pr
,
ble
ila
ava
he
y
rtl
sho
d
ul
wo
ony
tim
tes
nt
que
elo
Even more
of
ng,
nki
thi
was
he
at
wh
by
as
d
sai
n
se
ud
Kn
Mr.
t
wha
by
not so much
ng.
nki
thi
was
he
d
ure
fig
r
he
ut
Re
er
lt
Wa
by what UAW’s GM Director
in
r
we
po
ng
ni
ai
rg
ba
d
ite
lim
’s
W
UA
t
tha
e
dg
It was common knowle
d.
te
le
mp
co
e
wer
ls
de
mo
0
194
the
for
s
die
the
en
1939 would vanish wh
the
em
th
h
wit
and
g
in
ch
oa
pr
ap
e
wer
s
Reuther, aware that seasonal layoff
loss of the Union’s
economic punch,
decided that General Motors was
stalling.
BASIC LOYALTY OF WORKERS
e
ag
er
av
the
od
ri
pe
r
ea
-y
ve
fi
a
er
ov
t
tha
Reuther had statistics to prove
r.
yea
a
hs
nt
mo
six
ly
on
ed
rk
wo
ea
ar
t
oi
tr
tool and die maker in the De
This was no news
the
be
to
ed
ov
pr
it
t
bu
,
rs
ke
ma
die
d
an
l
too
to the
GM
ce
in
nv
co
to
s
wa
t
tha
gy
te
ra
basis of a st
that the UAW-CIO
still
commanded the allegiance of the auto workers.
the
d,
te
le
mp
co
s
wa
m
ra
og
pr
g
in
ol
to
40
A few weeks before the 19
’s
GM
as
gy
te
ra
st
n
se
ud
Kn
the
th
wi
n
-o
ad
Reuther strategy collided he
ge
wa
a
r
fo
ck
ru
st
,
es
gu
ea
ll
co
op
sh
tool and die makers, seconded by jobincrease, and production workers
lined up to collect unemployment
pensation.
com-
r
Fo
e
o
nt
we
s
op
sh
e
di
d
an
ol
to
y
ke
’s
A baker’s dozen of GM
ey
th
e
ev
li
be
to
d
ie
tr
nt
me
ge
na
ma
of
n
a few violent hours, the me
ch
oa
pt
ap
an
as
s
ga
ar
te
d
an
es
kl
uc
kn
s
as
br
ous revive the school of
e
th
in
ll
sti
lay
es
ur
xt
fi
d
an
s
jig
e
to labor relations. For 29 days th
rs
to
Mo
l
ra
ne
Ge
,
39
19
,
st
gu
Au
of
shops. Then, in the first week
ry
su
ea
tr
O,
CI
WUA
at
th
ed
dg
le
came out of its tent and acknow
ll
sti
d,
ve
li
ll
sti
t,
ou
th
wi
d
an
in
th
gone, dues down, sorely beset wi
s.
er
rk
wo
to
au
r
fo
d
te
ac
d
an
e
spok
man
kes
spo
as
W
UA
d
ize
ogn
rec
GM
w
No
.
nts
pla
17
It was no longer
in 42 plants. And there was a wage increase, to sweeten the pot.
g,
firin
y
trar
Arbi
ce.
rien
expe
GM
the
from
it
prof
to
sed
refu
sler
Chry
sler
Chry
of
f
elie
disb
er
deep
the
d
ecte
refl
e
thes
s,
ease
incr
e
wag
of
refusal
“management that automobile unionism had roots in the needs and hopes
of Chrysler workers.
nt
wa
't
don
We
it.
an
me
u
yo
t
tha
us
ow
sh
,
ect
eff
in
d
sai
y
the
us,
ow
Sh
-
ths
tru
the
let
and
,
ike
Str
s.
our
not
is
th
tru
ur
Yo
y.
to live with this realit
|
clash.
CHRYSLER
WORKERS
HIT BRICKS
The truths clashed in a 54-day strike. The Chrysler truth was badly
com
ro
Neg
the
e
lat
ipu
man
to
d
trie
y
pan
Com
The
flawed with cynicism.
ied
den
men
For
s.
ker
wor
ro
Neg
h
wit
ke
stri
the
sh
sma
to
d
trie
,
munity
work because of their color, Chrysler dangled jobs, other men’s jobs. The
Com
the
y
pla
to
d
use
ref
y
The
ve.
glo
the
h
eat
ben
fist
the
saw
s
roe
Neg
pany game. At the end of 54 days, Chrysler's truth was wiser and larger.
d,
ore
ign
be
not
ld
cou
on
Uni
the
that
dge
wle
kno
the
ed
It now includ
could not be waved or bludgeoned away.
e
cam
d
ite
awa
y
erl
eag
so
had
n
dse
Knu
Mr.
that
ons
cti
ele
_ The NLRB
with the turn of the year. The secret ballots were sharp echoes of the
y
lit
ide
h-f
hig
,
1939
of
s
line
ket
pic
the
on
ed
rais
ces
voi
ve
ati
irm
aff
al
origin
recordings of the true sentiments of the rank-and-file
Packard, UAW-CIO by 4 to 1. Motor Products, UAW-CIO by
UAW
for
votes
ape
seca
1.
to
13
by
O
-CI
VAW
gs,
Brig
1.
to
10
CIO in 11 Chrysler plants.
April was the cruellest month for Mr. Knudsen. In April, 1940,
UAW-CIO piled rey on majority to win NLRB votes in 49 GM
plants.
Out of the confrontation of truths, a larger definition of democracy
had emerged. Men without voices only two years before had cleared
ld
cou
rs
iso
erv
sup
nt
pla
l
loca
that
nds
sou
ing
mak
e
wer
and
s
oat
thr
r
thei
now hear above the noise of their machines.
was being cleared.
Out in Fort Dearborn,
however,
an old man
The industrial wilderness
continued to believe you
ck.
bla
in
it
ed
nt
wa
u
yo
as
ng
lo
as
or
col
any
in
it
ve
could ha
ere
“Th
.
said
d
For
y
nr
He
,”
men
our
m
fro
s
int
pla
com
no
rd
hea
e
hav
“TI
t
en'
hav
I
.
got
y
ead
alr
t
en'
hav
y
the
m
the
e
giv
can
on
uni
a
is nothing
given the Wagner Act a thought.”
d
che
rea
t
et
nn
Be
ry
Har
,
sm
ni
io
un
rd
wo
the
rd
hea
d
For
When Henry
ryeve
ed
nt
wa
he
but
,
ric
ent
ecc
an
s
wa
n
ma
for his blackjack. The old
anof
on
as
re
e
on
for
out
d
pe
ep
st
y
the
en
Wh
body else to keep in line.
e
lik
s
wa
It
k.
bac
em
th
t
bea
d
ul
wo
nt
me
rt
pa
De
othér, Bennett’s Service
that for a long time.
“UNITED
| June, 1956
AUTOMOBILE
Time moved around the Rouge works year by year, leaving it rotting
_.
in the industrial dark ages. Machines and models changed, old Henry
and little Harry went on, almost forever, dishing it out in black to every
organizer who tried to get over the moat and across the drawbridge.
The story of how it went on almost forever and then changed is more
it
that
pt
exce
now,
it
mber
reme
to
s
want
ody
Nob
tale.
ld
e-to
twic
a
than
can’t be forgotten. It can only be lived down by remembering it, by making every minute of the present and future a prayer-and a resolve that: tt
will never happen again.
FORD SHOWDOWN APPROACHED
When UAW-CIO turned from General Motors and Chrysler in 1940-
for the climactic struggle with Ford, the wounds were still bleeding, the
broken bones had still not mended, the reign of terror that kept Ford
workers in line was still a way of life and death within the few square
niles of earth where old Henry Ford held history at bay.
The beatings that Bennett’s men had given Union organizers in.
Kansas City and Dallas were green memories. The swollen faces of
-Reuther and Frankensteen after the beating they got on the Ford
- overpass in May of ’37, the fractured skull and the broken back of
the men assaulted at the Ford gates the same bloody day, all the violence and terror in all the plants from Edgewater, New Jersey, to
Long Beach, California, had entered into the blood of the old man’s
industrial arteries to provoke a resistance that would lay the old
ways low.
Harry Bennett and his boys had shaken them up in the aisles once too
‘often. The job selling, the extortion, the intimidation, the speed-up, had
corrupted some, had broken many, had really worked, almost but not
|
quite forever.
Beginning in 1940, the day of reckoning approached. The waves began to lap against the feet of the old empire-builder. Against every shop
rule, a new tide was coming in. Under the very eyes of the Gestapo, fear
changed to defiance.
It hadn’t caused Ford any thought when the NLRB found his Company guilty of unfair labor practices in Detroit in 1939. As 1940 began
to break against the battlements, NLRB decision after NLRB decision
went against Company lawyers, against the Ford myth of being a sovereign state within the nation. Ford was ordered to reinstate hundreds of
workers, to pay millions of dollars in back pay. Here was food for
thought. Ford appealed.
BENNETT
REWRITES
WORKER
Page
Bennett, still playing for
tribute UAW handbills inside
take a walk. Thanks, Harry,
speech crowded in, right up
laughs, offered to have
the Ford plant if UAW
but no thanks, said the
to ‘the Bates, bringing
If
his own men disdistributors would
unionists. So free
Ford facts to Ford
workers.
THE RIGHT TO SMOKE AT WORK
Ford’s multi-million dollar stable of lawyers fought an expensive de-
Jaying action through the courts. The findings of the NLRB were upheld
by the Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. Ford went higher. In
February, 1941, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to review
the lower court ruling. The Ford bulletin boards of February 18, 1941,
carried an announcement that the Company would comply with the law.
| Henry Ford was alone now with his workers and their Union.
©
News that the king was naked spread through the empire. At Lin-coln and at Highland Park, men won the right to smoke. And where
there was smoke, there was fire. Union- wildfire. In every department, stewards were elected. Grievances began: to move toward
settlement. It looked like an end and a beginning.
And
it was.
There
was
a desperate,
eleventh-hour
resurgence
of the
oons as they sensed their dominion crumble. They came down the aisles
once more, ripping off Union buttons, transferring or firing key unionists.
It was too late. Ford workers this time fought back. Ten departments
were brought to a standstill by strike. The NLRB was deluged with new
charges against the Company. UAW applied for elections in three Ford
plants. Hundreds of Ford workers signed Union cards daily.
Harry Bennett didn’t believe it was the end of an era. He repeated
the Ford promise to obey the law, then added: “We will bargain till hell
freezes over but they won't get anything.”
At midnight on April 1, 1941, the Ford Rouge plant fell silent. Harry
Bennett's hell froze over, and the Ford workers marched across it together to freedom.
CONSTITUTION
At the same time, UAW forced a test of the constitutionality of an
‘anti-handbill ordinance in Dearborn. Harry Bennett, who was something ~
of a comic genius, had told the Dearborn Common Council that handbilling in front of the plant would cause traffic snarls. Determined:to
keep traffic moving at all costs including sacrifice of the Bill of Rights,
the city fathers had delivered themselves of the ordinance.
Bennett's re-write of the American Constitution had not been
ratified by the Congress or any state legislature. UAW President
Thomas went out to Dearborn with a handbill crew and got himself
arrested, putting Ford’s decree to the test. Judge Lila Neuenfelt,a
womanly justice of the peace who had read the American Constitution recently and who had the courage of several lion tamers,
weighed Harry Bennett’s ordinance in the scales of her profession
and found it lighter than hot air.
With devastating candor, she declared her finding: the Dearborn antihandbill ordinance was unconstitutional, both by United States and by
Michigan standards.
UAW handbillers came back. The written word flowed freely again
in Dearborn. Armed with warrants drawn from a more pliable justice,
Dearborn police went through the motions of arranging a number of arrests. Judge Lila Neuenfelt, who had refused to issue warrants, was
waiting in her court. As quickly as the police brought in the UAW.
mancbiltess she freed them.
CITY, Missouri—Sixteen pickets, members of the
KANSAS
United Automobile Workers of America, a CIO affiliate, are shown
being booked after arrest for attempted picketing at the Ford as-
sembly plant here. The UAWA
called a.strike here on December 10
where Company officials protested recently there was inadequate
police protection, and 150 police promptly arrested all 49 men who
attempted picketing.
(The cutlines above which Wide World Photos sent with
1937 picture was an omen of the frenzy in Ford’s future.)
THIS WAS FLINT IN 1937, tear gas ind whiny guns. It was an approach to labor relations while: cM
of its mind as late as 1939 and which was being developed to a fine point at Ford.
this
had in the back
“Page 12
|
UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKER
‘June: 1956
The Famous ‘37 Battie of the Overpass
‘ord Empire
Ford cried havoc and let slip the dogs of industrial violence for a last
round of rioting. Bennett put on a good show, sponsoring a fake sitdown
with
hired
strikebreakers.
Bennett’s
master
to an old enemy,
appealed
Franklin Roosevelt, to save him from the Reds. But it was American history that. was closing in on the old man. Time no longer bypassed the
Rouge works. Ford was moving now in the mainstream. The Ford Motor Company, it could be said in more than one sense, had been brought
into the Union.
|
|
The strike of the Ford workers lasted 10 days and ended with the
Company's agreement to recognize the Union's grievance procedure and
to abide by the results of a secrét vote of the 83,000 qualified Ford workers in the Detroit area.
:
When that vote was taken on May 21, 1941, 70 out of every 100
workers polled voted for the UAW-CIO. The first union contract
with Ford was signed on June 21, 1941. The Ford workers had won
a substantial victory, a staggering annual pay increase, and a kind of
peace with honor and hope.
Peace, however, was indivisible. There was a shooting war in Europe.
It was five months before Pearl Harbor.
Robert Kanter, Walter Reuther, Dick Frankensteen
and Jack Kennedy.
standing on the overpass by the Rouge waiting for handbillers to arrive.
In five short years, the automobile workers had won enough everyday
equity in the plants to give a certain substance to the slogan “Detroit,
arsenal of democracy.” During the next five, those who were left behind
to machine the tools of victory in war fought a holding action against the
mock patriots of both extremes to keep the substance in the slogan.
They’re
Long before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had bombed us out
of a lingering dream of neutrality, the auto workers and their Union had
attacked the folly of trying to live and do business as usual in a world on
ee
3
fire.
FACING REALITIES OF WAR
:
In the summer of 1940, with France prostrate under the Nazi panzer
divisions and with Britain braced to take the shock of total war alone,
American industry’s dollar-a-year men were warming chairs in Washington and mile after mile of chrome-bright' peacetime cars were still snak-
ing off Detroit’s assembly lines,
—
:
- This daydream of production and profits as usual was interrupted
suddenly by a proposal of Walter Reuther that the entire industry use its
3
excess capacity for the mass production of military planes.
President Philip Murray of clo took the Reuther plan tothe a
WF
Ler
White House along with a CIO proposal for the all-out mobilization |
of American industry. From the White House, the plan went to the
dollar-a-year men of the Office of Production Management.
Chief of
production for OPM was none other than Mr. Knudsen of General
emwere
ers
work
auto
,
years
five
in
time
nd
seco
the
For
rs.
Moto
barrassing auto manufacturers by proposing new models in ideas.
The idea that auto plants could be used to produce planes and, other
g
zin
bla
that
ing
dur
s
rer
ctu
ufa
man
h
wit
l
wel
sit
not
did
war matefiel
y
the
as
ter
win
and
fall
that
m
the
h
wit
l
wel
sit
not
summer of 1940. It did
y
the
1
194
t
hou
oug
thr
And
al.
tic
rac
imp
n
pla
r
the
Reu
continued to call the
le
tab
for
com
a
e
wag
ld
wou
ry
ust
ind
an
ric
Ame
that
sion
illu
the
to
ng
clu
for
ing
ker
dic
le
whi
d
han
one
h
wit
n
sio
res
agg
off
g
din
hol
,
part-time war
favorable amortization terms with the other.
Events never quite shattered this illusion, but the conversion forced
on the country by Pearl Harbor demonstrated the practicality of Reuther's
man
The
in.
es
ov
—m
t
men
art
Dep
e
vic
Ser
d
For
he
e—t
ubl
tro
as
DE
FA
SMILES
in the center of the Ford trio is Wilfred Comment, then superintendent of the B
Building. The others are servicemen, in other words, thugs.
E
s
mp
lu
his
g
tin
get
is
en
te
ns
ke
an
Fr
k.
wor
to
go
THE SERVICEMEN immediately
an
em
ic
rv
Se
r.
ove
ed
rk
wo
s
get
;
ed
nd
ou
rr
su
is
r
he
ut
Re
in the center.
.
er
ph
ra
og
ot
ph
s
ce
na
me
,
tim
vic
a
of
out
run
ng
vi
ha
cround,
s
tool
and
nts
pla
its
t
shif
ld
cou
ry
ust
ind
le
who
a
:
ion
not
al
ent
dam
fun
from civil to military production.
in left fore|
|
_
- EXPERTS IN ACTION! His coat pulled
over his head—an old Serviceman trick—
|
Frankensteen gets pummeled.
| | WORKING OVE
ion man goes dow
cuffs in Comment’
ccieninitiy
~
:
UNITED
June, 1956
WORKER
AUTOMOBILE
UAW
wanted to find that proper relationship not only for its own
members but for all workers and consumers. It wanted, in the words of
Walter Reuther, to make progress with the community and not at the
expense of the community. The community interest in the winter of
1945-46 demanded higher wages without higher prices. It demanded that
wage eatners get enough purchasing power to consume
ing flow of goods released by American know-how.
_ There was little serious quarrel with these general
as they were advanced by the Union. The trouble
Union negotiators tried to explore the relationship of
the ever increas|
propositions,
started when
wages, prices,
and profits at the bargaining table. It was then that they ran head-on
into the concept of the Corporation as a sovereign state within the
|
:
|
ioe
ae
- nation. GM did not, could not, deny that there was some connection between
wages,
UAW LEADERS watch the ranks form at the Rouge for the
Start of the 1941 Ford strike. They are, 1. to r.. Michael Widman,
_ Walter Reuther, Jim Morgan, George Addes and Harry Ross.
of important home fronts until those who had gone away came back.
Some of the relatives and friends did not return. There was no man-made
scale that could take the measure of these personal losses. Together they
pointed to a fact of life: no union of men for whatever purpose could
settle for small answers and forget the big questions.
Workers whose families depended on take-home pay for survival
could never ignore the importance of another quarter in the pay envelope. Yet neither could they cut themselves off from the wider movements of men and events, whether in Detroit or Washington or the
remotest world capital.
The wider definition that auto workers gave to trade unionism was
not a freak or a fluke. It didn’t come out of R. J. Thomas’ head or Walter Reuther’s head or Emil Mazey’s head. It came out of Pearl Harbor
and D-Day. It came to the door with the telegram from Washington
that began, we regret to inform you that your son, your brother, your
husband...
|
POSTWAR PROBLEMS FACE UNION
The postwar years of the UAW were a struggle to narrow the gap
prices, and profits.
GM
could not, either, affirm with a straight
face that prices’of GM cars were not set by its own calculations but by
some impersonal law of economics revealed to Charles Wilson in a flash
of lightning and a crash of thunder on the summit of the GM Building.
Since the connection existed, UAW negotiators said, let’s explore it.
Let’s remove collective bargaining from the jungle of name-calling and
table-pounding and place it in a civilized compound of facts and figures.
GM replied, in effect: We don’t want to leave the jungle. There
is a connection between wages, prices, and profits, they agreed, but
only management knew what it was. It wasn’t anybody else’s. business. It was in industry’s safe and industry’s combination, and would
you please stop twirling the dial.
This was no high school debate. The whole country was listening
because Detroit was democracy’s peacetime proving ground, and nobody
wanted to be downgraded into depression by a leaking away of purchas- —
ing power that could begin in Detroit and end in national and world
catastrophe.
There was another issue, unvoiced yet present in the minds of negotiators. Nobody wanted to-mention it because it involved the ugly concept of power, and power outside of the technical field is supposed to be
unAmerican.
Bluntly put, it was this:
How
strong was the Union, after
the wartime interval? How much pushing around could industry do,
. how much pushing around would the workers and their Union take in
the closed, everyday world of the plants when the public was looking
somewhere else and the worker and the foreman were alone?
It was a bleak question but it was a real one put by practical men to
themselves in the still of the night. How deep were the roots, how strong
were the loyalties, how green were the memories? What were the chances
l
cora
a
W
UA
the
was
,
word
a
In
ory?
hist
ern
mod
e
som
ng
aki
of unm
island that might sink back into the sea or was it a firmly-held beachhead
from which the future could be taken?
between nickel-unionism and nickel-management on the one hand and
,
the liberated atom on the other.
They began witli a public dialogue between the world’s largest Union
and the world’s largest Corporation on the subject of wages, prices, and
profits.
The case of the General Motors workers was advanced in a brief,
“Purchasing Power for Prosperity,” presented to the Corporation by
UAW’s GM Director Walter Reuther in October, 1945.
The Union
asked for a maintenance of the wartime level of real
Wages, a maintenance of purchasing power in the peacetime economy.
Since workers were bearing the cost of -reconversion in loss of overtime and in lower hourly rates, the Union asked a 30 per cent increase in
wages. The UAW brief showed that industry could grant such an in3
crease without raising prices.
American durable goods industries had come out of the war in wonderful financial condition. The automobile industry was one of the most
profitable, and General Motors was one of the most profitable of the auto
|
industry's corporations.
WAGE BOOST WITHOUT PRICE RISE
The relationships that would govern the peacetime
economy were
rapidly being fixed. Congress was rushing tax relief to business, a lush
peacetime market was eager to satisfy pent-up demand for .industrial
products. Everything pointed to years of peaceful prosperity, of capacity
operations and record profits—if the right relationship between wages,
‘prices, and profits could be found at the bargaining table.
eaate
age
man
t
mos
,
ore
bef
ed
wer
ans
n
bee
had
it
on,
sti
que
old
It was an
ment men no longer asked it or answered it with complete seriousness.
k
bac
ned
lea
just
it
e,
tabl
e
enc
fer
con
the
at
seat
nt
fro
It didn’t take a
against the wall and blew smoke rings. But it was there.
It was there because nothing is ever static, nothing is ever automatic,
ple
Peo
.
nge
cha
ple
peo
and
ple
peo
is
on
uni
A
r.
eve
for
sure
nothing is
ve
lea
and
m
the
h
wit
ngs
thi
e
som
y
carr
y
the
,
ngs
thi
get
for
learn and
had
ors
Mot
l
era
Gen
of
rs
age
man
The
.
road
the
of
others along the side
10
ost
alm
for
r,
the
ano
or
n
hio
fas
one
in
W,
UA
the
been dealing with
kwor
o
aut
d
tte
kni
that
ues
tiss
on
Uni
the
g
bin
pro
yeats. They were still
was
on
Uni
the
that
wn
sho
be
to
ted
wan
still
ey
‘Th
ers one to another.
War
the
of
er
ord
p
shi
ber
mem
of
ce
nan
nte
mai
a
not
living tissue and
Labor Board.
ey
Th
n.
ow
sh
be
to
ed
nt
wa
y
the
but
er
sw
an
the
They really knew
and
,
ces
pri
es,
wag
n
ee
tw
be
hip
ons
ati
rel
the
on
refused to bargain
n.
cer
con
lic
pub
of
ter
mat
a
was
hip
ons
ati
rel
s
thi
profits, although
e.
ris
erp
ent
e
vat
pri
to
e
ris
erp
ent
e
fre
om
fr
d
fte
shi
ent
The acc
usind
of
out
se
rea
inc
ge
wa
a
g
kin
see
of
on
iti
Against the UAW pos
ced
pla
rs
to
Mo
l.
era
Gen
,
ces
pri
of
el
lev
the
g
bin
tur
trial profits without dis
of
y
ne
mo
ge
sta
the
in
e
ris
ge
wa
a
was
er
off
an offer and a threat: the
ACR
MISSILES FROM INSIDE thrown by
In
.
ry
ur
sc
to
s
et
ck
pi
ed
us
ca
en
tm
et
nn
Be
the foreground is “Gravyboat” Jones,
then chairman of Pressed Steel Unit.
EARLY IN 1941 members of the UAW
Auxiliary distributed copies of the United
_Automobile Worker following a ruling by
the U. S. Supreme Court. —
HELPED keep up morale and
WOMEN
“manned” the soup kitchen in all the major
strikes. This
scene
could have
been in any
one of scores of strike headquarters.
June,
1956
cscs
ieee
UNITED
|
esses spceiimuneciitnttesidenateinanasae
tne
aie
EEN
WORKER
AUTOMOBILE
CC
ALT
ALD
ALLL DOA
LO
Page
LAO
A
Te
A
SO
THE LINE GREW until the block-big General Motors
cled by pickets marching 10 and 12 abreast.
THE SIGNS at Flint showed Solidarity,
but GM had to be convinced.
the Union agreed to scale down its demand to the Board's figure. A na-
tional conference
negotiators into the old rut of nickel unionism, tried to get them to settle
for a money gain that would be here today and gone tomorrow.
The Union team bargained in behalf of the principle of higher real
wages, of greater purchasing power as a national base for lasting prosperity and full employment.
TO
be considered a down payment
rose in the postwar years.
GM
The GM workers, through their Union, tried to tell the country they
were tired of the old treadmill, of the old private deal behind the pub-
Things hadn’t changed much perhaps, but one matter was set-
tled. The question lurking at the back of many minds was given an
answer that would hold for a long time as human affairs go. The
21,
living tissue of minds and hearts and loyalties, not a
President Truman’s
Fact-Finding
the
Board: in
—
GM-UAW
sent Walter Gordon Merritt, whose union-bustMerritt’s appearance was brief.
AND
THE.SOCIETY
OF
He stated that.
Labor Relations
him blushingly wrong.
money,
i
turned it down.
IS BORN
not-live-better
money,
It was catch-up
keep-the-wolf-from-the-door
money,
workers had walked picket lines after the war.
—
The strike, how-
The treadmill would have
to be turned into an escalator. A wage earner’s income would have to
keep pace with price levels. Purchasing power wasn't the theory of some
ca
tener
aeatsnadetcnenctanencesectaroepsoronns
FORD WORKERS completely surrounded
GM’s main offices with a Solidarity motorcade rolling bumper to bumper.
not
send-your-son-to-college money.
And it would be gone again as the treadmill turned. The next encounter would have to give contract life to the principle for which the GM
President Truman’s fact-finders reported their findings: GM could grant
.
ces
pri
g
sin
rai
t
ou
th
wi
ur
ho
an
ts
cen
4
191
of
se
rea
inc
a wage
con
ch
mu
t
ou
th
wi
ly
nt
re
pa
ap
11,
y
ar
nu
Ja
On
10.
y
ar
nu
Ja
s
wa
at
Th
sideration of the Board’s report, GM
CLAUSE
-eatlier been filched from their pockets by rising prices.
had said it wasn’t so, but the facts proved
:
|
After 113 days of picket-line bargaining, 12. cents of the 18% cents
gained by the General Motors workers in 1946 was money that had
Stephen DuBrul, chief economist for General Motors and a member
GM
Correction of plant inequities
but because industry’s assault on price controls was soon suc-
ESCALATOR
THE
propriations for federal housing.
Revealed as a vice-chairman of the Sentinels a few days later was
President C. E. Wilson
assurance of tax rebates, GM
The next years would be a series of encounters on the economic front.
The principles advanced in General Motors negotiations of 1945 would
way
their
ing
find
s,
plant
the
in
life
aday
work
n
give
and
ed
be elaborat
into the clauses of contracts and laying the bases of a new wage strategy
to protect auto workers and other wage eatners against the risks of an
inflationary economy dominated by bigger and bigger business.
Act, the Wage and Hour Act, the Social Security Act, all federal laws for
apall
to
end
an
and
ers;
farm
aid
to
laws
all
and
s
price
of
rol
cont
the
of the GM bargaining team.
With
labor for inflation.
Shortly before the Board published its findings, a series of nationwide
ads sponsored by a “Society of Sentinels” proposed the repeal of all the
the National
The major issue was prices.
cessful. The inflationary pressures the GM workers had resisted for 113
days proved irresistible. GM and industry generally regarded the higher
rate to wage earners as a cheap price to pay for the chance of blaming
SENTINELS
‘social legislation of the past generation:
stated at the time, wages were no longer the major
But, as the UAW
ers won,
the Corporation “feels that it should not participate” in the Board’s proceedings “so long as ability to pay is to be treated as a subject of investigation, fact-finding and recommendations.”
GM
production
brought the GM settlement up to the level of the fact-finding board’s
19'¥,-cent figure.
But the economic encounter had been inconclusive, not because GM
couldn't comfortably pay eut of profits the wage increase the GM work-
ing experience went back as far as the Danbury Hatters’ Case of 1908, to
appear before the Board.
as GM
BARRIER
beginning with the return to work.
dispute declared that “ability to pay will be regarded as one of the fac:
tors relevant to the issue of an increase in wages.”
One week later, GM
PRICE
on future increases
13% cents from November 7, 1945, and an 18'2-cent hourly increase
The GM workers had gone on strike on November 21, 1945. On De-
cember
that produc-
wasn’t concerned about getting back into production. GM was interested
in cracking the flimsy price barrier in Washington.
Com
ate
Sen
the
of
g
rin
hea
a
at
y
ntl
blu
it
put
son
Wil
s
rle
Cha
s
GM'
‘mittee on Education and Labor. “If you want higher wages paid you
are going to have to have higher prices,” he said.
He drove his point home with the observation that if the country
was going to “hold the line on prices then we'll have to worry along
with strikes and all take a big loss.”
The agreement reached on March 13, 1946, on the afternoon of
of
se
rea
inc
e
wag
rly
hou
ve
cti
roa
ret
a
d
nte
gra
day,
th
113
ke’s
stri
the
the lines formed.
newcomers as they
that things hadn't
the way.
maintenance of membership order of the War Labor Board.
ASSAULTS
issue.
lic’s back in which everybody lost. They wanted to set out on a new road.
leading upward to security and abundance, even if they had to take the
:
first hard steps themselves to point the way.
They took those first hard steps in the General Motors strike of the
Union was a
President Truman
wired
workers
was
GM
that
tion
posi
n’s
Unio
fhe
ed
icat
vind
had
ng
ruli
rd
Boa
The
The
es.
pric
ing
rais
t
hou
wit
ease
incr
e
wag
ial
tant
subs
a
t
gran
able to
1914-cent figure, while it did not meet the GM workers’ full equity, could
SECURITY
1945-1946 winter. The picket shacks went up again,
Men who had known the worse winter of ’36-'37 told
warméd themselves at coke fires and in union halls
changed much, you'still had to struggle every step of
of GM
the
ate
nst
rei
re,
figu
ent
4-c
191
the
ept
acc
ld
wou
GM
if
ume
tion could res
old contract, and negotiate a settlement of local plant issues.
General Motors, to keep its profit margin intact, tried to talk UAW
ROAD
cir-
ever, could still have been settled on the basis of the Board’s ruling, for
inflation. The threat to break through the last flimsy price barriers still
standing in postwar Washington and force the general public to pick up
the tab for the wage increase in the form of higher automobile prices.
A NEW
ee
offices were completely
¢
main
I5
o
THE
PICKETLINE
coast-to-coast. This was
stretched from
the Linden, New
* Jersey, struggle against GM’s might.
AC WORKERS in Flint already were
veterans of the picketline. They kept
marching to prove their determination.
Page
UNITED
16
AUTOMOBILE
WORKER
June,
1956
Sa
- A SHOTGUN BLAST into the Reuther home just missed ending
the life of the UAW President in April of 1948. Mrs. May Reuther
sat many anxious hours by his hospital bedside after the assassina-
tion attempt on her husband’s life.
:
economist. It was what made the worker a consumer and what kept the
merchant in business.
|
?
UAW kept the principle alive in 1947 negotiations, but it was
not until the 1948 contract with General Motors that the principle
was written into a formal agreement. With it came another new departure in wage bargaining, contract recognition of the worker's
right to benefit from the rising proficiency of American tools.
An escalator to keep you even with prices, a share and a stake in rising productivity. These twin fruits of the General Motors postwar
struggle were now gracefully accepted by Corporation representatives.
They would keep the worker abreast of change.
ANOTHER ASSASSINATION effort, a shotgun blast in the Victor Reuther home, came near taking the life of Victor Reuther, then
UAW Education Director. He is shown here in his hospital bed with
his brother, Roy, and wife, Sophie.
the end of Communist influence in the Union.
|
Reuther came out of
the 1946 engagement surrounded by a hostile executive board determined to block his every move.
Hope lay in the rank and file. In one year there was a quiet revolu-
tion in the shops and union halls. Out of it came a 1947 Convention
triumph of a new leadership team solidly grounded in rank-and-file
support and firmly committed to a progressive, militant trade-union ptogram, in which the workers’ interests as wage earner and citizen would
be paramount;
a program
which
identified those interests with the inter-
ests of the national and world community of freedom-loving peoples.
“You have ably presented labor’s case,” the Corporation’s letter to
the Union read. But labor’s case was not all in. And labor’s case at home
had been complicated again by things that happened to the peace in other
7)
countries. |
The wartime alliance that had held the postwar world together had
fallen apart. American friends overseas were still struggling out of the
economic and physical ruins of war. What the Communists couldn't
take with their action squads, as in Czechoslovakia, they were close to taking through domination of French and Italian trade unions and political
parties.
FACTIONALISM CREEPS IN
The United States faced a clear choice: Either support our friends,
the free governments and free unions of Europe, or let them go down
one by one, until we stood alone against the Red imperialists. Either give
Europe the food and the machines whose lack bred the misery and bitterness Communism. exploits—or lull ourselves with the old isolationist
dream that we could go forward alone while the rest of the world was
dragged-back into slavery.
That was the creeping crisis of 1946, 1947, 1948.
in the headlines.
Its consequences
were
It was written large
felt in the Union
even as auto
workers faced the daily economic round in the plants.
Another factional struggle weakened the UAW. This struggl
had its roots in a basic conflict between the vast majority of wage
earners who were trade unionists for the best American reasons and
a small but hard-working minority who took their cues from the
foreign policy line of the Soviet Union.
The Communist minority had begun to make trouble during the war.
In 1940, after the Stalin pact with Hitler, American Stalinists fomented
strikes to disrupt the flow of supplies to the embattled British. After
Hitler's attack on Russia and the United States entry into the war, the
American
Communist party’s
labor’s position in the plants.
The defeat’of the Communist element in the UAW was the prelude
to their general ejection from the American labor movement. UAW and
CIO swung their support behind the Marshall Plan, which the Communists had opposed. At the bargaining tables, the 1948 gain of the cost-ofliving escalator and the annual improvement clause represented the first
major steps in applying a general economic program. _
One April evening of 1948, a shotgun fired through the kitchen window of a Detroit home almost took the life of the UAW president. The
shooting of Walter Reuther—like the later attempt on the life of his
brother Victor—is still an open case. The assailants are still at large.
Whoever they are, there can be little doubt that although they aimed at
the Reuther brothers they were trying to lay low a brand of unionism,
and were prepared to commit murder to do it. The Reuther shootings shattered for a time whatever illusions
may have been in the air about latter-day unionism’s blue skies, happy days, arid easy progress. They were a harsh call back to a frequently unpleasant, even tragic, reality. There were no automatic
gains, no easy conquests.
UAW ’s wage program broke with an older notion that there was
nothing wrong with the working man or woman that another few cents in
the pocket couldn't cure. Auto workers didn’t lose their interest in wage
gains. They simply added to-that interest a demand that the gains they
line shifted to a policy of utter surrender of
In each instance, the American interest was ruthlessly and cynically
cast aside. But as long as the Communists were supporting the war, they
was
nt
eme
mov
labor
the
in
with
only
and
sted
mole
usly
serio
were not
At
ns.
tutio
insti
free
to
d
pose
they
t
threa
the
of
tion
ecia
there a true appr
ng
maki
were
ists
trial
indus
other
and
cker
enba
Rick
e
Eddi
a time when
new
the
on
rts
repo
ing
glow
with
g
rnin
retu
‘and
ia
Russ
to
s
visit
goodwill
rd
reco
true
the
was
ns
unio
trade
the
in
with
only
ps,
grou
g
rulin
t
Sovie
|
n.
agai
ge
chan
d
woul
line
the
when
day
the
st
again
kept,
COMMUNIST AIMS SQUASHED
At the 1941 UAW convention, the Union’s International constitution
was amended to bar Communists, Fascists and Nazis from elective or
ody
ryb
Eve
.
ons
uni
al
loc
d
in
n
a
l
ona
ati
ern
Int
the
h
bot
in
ce
offi
appointive
inStal
a
out
ke
smo
to
n
tha
ion
tut
sti
con
the
nd
ame
to
er
easi
was
it
knew
ist during the all-out-for-victory phase of Communist tactics. But the
inthe
for
ed
par
pre
ng
bei
was
und
gro
the
n,
tte
wri
record was being
_
evitable showdown,
The election of Walter Reuther to the presidency of the UAW
of
ing
inn
beg
the
d
alle
sign
1946
of
n
tio
ven
Con
at the Atlantic City
BRIGGS THUGS tried to seare away the Union
beatings for Union leaders. One of the victims of
of terror was Ken Morris, then a militant officer of
now co-director of Region 1. He is shown recovering
beating by hired goons.
with merciless
this 1946 reign
Local 212 and
from a vicious
UNITED
June, 1956
AUTOMOBILE
Page 17
WORKER
made be lasting, not just intermittent bribes to keep them quiet during
|
the life of a contract, money that looked real but wasn’t.
The new program was based on building fundamental principles into
contract language. The money gains would flow from the principle. And
each principle would respond to a specific economic need or aspiration
of the wage earner.
|
TOO
OLD
TO
WORK;
TOO
TO DIE
YOUNG
The principle of the escalator clause was one aspect-of the new pro-_
gram. The principle of the annual improvement clause was another.
After the principles were established, the money gains in each category
followed.
e
Another fundamental principle, first established in the Ford contract
of 1949, arose from a fact of life familiar to all men, but brought home
as sharply as anywhere in the auto towns: a man‘ grows ‘old, he has so
much work in him, so much allotted time and energy to pour into the
|
productive stream.
What happened to a man when the wells of time and energy
ran thin? What had the conditions of work in industry enabled him
to fish out of the stream and
save for himself and his family when
he was too old to work and too young to die? Did a man who had
poured his life’s blood into industry’s iron veins deserve more from
industry at the end of the line than a certificate of merit or a gold
3
watch?
ae
rs
Nobody had asked these questions of auto manufacturers and stayed
for an answer—until UAW negotiators sat down
Company management group in June, 1949.
with a Ford Motor
|
There hadn't really been enough time. In the old days before the
Union, there wasn’t even a seniority system. With the birth of the Union
had come the seniority system, first line of defense of the worker against —
premature economic death.
Pension questions were in the air during the war, but so was the
Luftwaffe, and the auto workers had put first things first.
The questions were raised again in 1946, but the immediate danger of
inflation took priority. With the levelling off of living costs in 1948, the
UAW announced that pension demands would have top billing in the
1949 encounter.
TENSION MOUNTS OVER PENSIONS
Editorial writers reached for their squirt guns. Industry's Cassandras
reached for their crystal balls, found disaster around the corner. Pensions
were impractical, like everything else workers had wanted and~needed.
UAW
locals received a letter from the International Union, alerting
CHRYSLER WORKERS shoulder their picket signs before
“closing ’er down” for the 1948 strike. Chrysler always had to be
convinced workers would strike if they had to.
Reuther told them
about the time back in 1932 when
he and other
skilled trades workers in the B building were lined up twice in the same
day and given two wage cuts, ten cents an hour before lunch and a
nickel after.
“We went back after lunch,” he remembered.
‘Since there was no
revolution, they thought, hell, these guys liked that, so they lined us up
and took another nickel away after lunch.” After 17 years, it was funny.
Then there was talk about pensions and Reuther made a pledge.
There would be, he said, no 1949 contract at Ford unless a pension
plan found its way into the agreement. There was no dissenting
voice. |
them to the imminence of the pension drive. A UAW Education ConferOver
in
the
conference
room
there
were
dissenting
voices,
but
it
got
ence of 2,500 key delegates from the locals was centered on the pension :
harder
and
harder
to
hear
them
against
the
rumble
in
the
plants
and
the
demands. _
:
—
hours.
final
the
out
measured
it
as
clock
the
of
sound
In February, 1949, the UAW called an International Economic ConFord
was
bargaining
now.
The
freeze
had
become
a
spring
thaw,
an
e,
enc
fer
Con
d
For
al
ion
Nat
s
on’
Uni
the
il
Apr
In
ns.
sio
pen
on
ference
September.
in
late
was
it
although
and
s
cus
dis
to
met
,
nts
pla
d
For
the
all
m
fro
s
ker
wor
d
For
of
assembly
There
were
36
hours
to
go..
As
they
wound
from
the
clock
into
the
prepare the pension demands.
transcript, a new day came through the windows and touched the lined
A new Company line violating old agreements on line speeds profaces of the negotiators, making them look older than when they had
voked a strike on May 5 in the Rouge B Building and in the Lincoln
first come into the room to talk pension.
plant. These issues had to be cleared away before pension talks could
It was.as if the hours at the table had become years in the plants. It
tianego
UAW
2,
une
On*J
29.
May
on
ed
settl
was
e
strik
The
start.
was as if Union and management had found agreement on the debt intors walked into a room and sat down on one side of a table. They
dustry owed its veterans by sitting down in a room and growing old in
had come to talk pensions with Ford. The Union had decided to stay
36 hours.
for an answer.
only rejected
all economic
Ford’s first answer was unpleasant. The Company not
the UAW demand. It proposed an 18-month freeze on
issues.
Chrysler negotiations began. Back in the plants, Ford
wer
ans
try
win
one
t
tha
und
gro
the
on
es,
vot
ike
str
taking
:
9
other.
workers were
deserved an-
e
ke
au
lw
Mi
its
d
el
‘h
W
UA
as
n
ai
rt
ce
un
d
an
e
ns
te
s
wa
n
The situatio
.
ar
ye
at
th
of
10
ly
Ju
on
g
in
nn
gi
be
Convention,
ng
ti
vo
by
s
nd
ma
de
n
io
ns
pe
ed
Delegates back
ts
en
rr
cu
e
Th
s.
nt
me
ss
se
as
ke
ri
st
y
emergenc
't
sn
wa
It
.
ng
ro
st
re
we
ke
ri
st
that ran toward
|
freezing weather.
Back
in Detroit,
PENSIONS
FOR FORD
WORKERS
‘Talking about averages, ratios, and percentages, the men in the room
had lived again the lives of Ford workers from the dark ages when all
the cars were black to the first light of the newest day, when a little
more color would be the fashion, both in cars and lives.
A new day had come to Ford. A great-business was no longer too big
to be human. The date was September 29; 1949.
the clock in the confer-
s
es
tl
ui
fr
of
ys
da
ty
ne
ni
f
of
ed
ck
ti
ence room
un
ce
ti
no
ke
ri
st
ve
ga
n
io
Un
bargaining. The
der the law.
CH
TE
SS
CA
AT
R
E
H
T
A
G
S
ER
IM
DT
OL
‘Then the Union held a new kind of labor
rally. It was a gathering of men whose seniority status had been written, over long years,
in the color of their hair and in the lines of
their faces. It was a caucus of veterans and
pioneers, who had lived through the dark ages
of an empire,
when
time had moved
around
eRe
the Rouge works and every foreman was a
king. It was a gathering of the oldest and
most honorable clan.
They packed the auditorium of Cass Tech-
nical School to hear Walter Reuther, who had
been a Ford worker himself, talk about the old
days that had gone and the new days that were
still coming. _
FORD OLDTIMERS set up their own picketline during the 1949 UAW-Ford pension negotiations. Union negotiators pointed to them and said, “They’re what the pension demand is all
about,” and the Union kept faith with its senior members.
*
ae
Page
AUTOMOBILE
UNITED
138
Chrysler
June,
1956
orkers Win Pension Strike |
The Ford pension plan was the first pension program won through
collective bargaining in any mass-production industry. It was the first to
embody the three basit principles of a sound pension program:
1) The non-contributory principle: management financing.
2) The actuarially-sound principle: creation of a trust fund into
which the Company pays cost of both past and future service
credits.
3) The equal-representation principle: program administered by a
joint Union-management board.
One week after the Ford settlement, the steel industry leadership was
still unable to read the handwriting on the Ford Motor Company’s wall.
Five hundred
_
WORKER
thousand. steelworkers had to strike to win a pension pro-
:
gram that included the non-contributory principle.
CHRYSLER FORCES LONG STRIKE
At Chrysler, management’s vision was
even more gravely impaired.
Negotiations there had begun on July 6, 1949. On January 8, 1950, more
than 800 Chrysler local union officers, committeemen, and shop stewards
met and recommended that a strike deadline be set.
the final day, two-thirds of the total in direct donations to local unions.
Another million dollars, Mazey estimated, would go for relief before the
first post-strike payday.
SHARING THE SACRIFICE
Four million dollars might be petty cash to GM; the whole Chrysler
experience in the hundred days, so rich in the intangibles of sacrifice and
anonymous courage, was much more than any GM economist could put
|
|
a price on.
And so it was that the Chrysler workers helped the General Motors
workers to win the historic GM settlement of May 23, 1950, eight
months after the initial breakthrough on the pension front at Ford.
. Solidarity was more than a word in a song. Solidarity had
wrought what the UAW called “the most significant development in
labor relations since the mass-production industries were organized
|
in 1936-1937.”
The 1950 GM agreement went through the $100 ceiling on pensions
established in the Ford contract. It brought a 3343 per cent increase in
factor, continued the 1948
the annual improvement
escalator provisions,
On January 10, the UAW Chrysler Division leadership decided to
serve a seven-day strike notice. Chrysler workers had already, in September of the previous year, voted eight to one in favor of strike action.
There had been little serious bargaining. Chrysler wasn’t having
any new days, any pioneering or industrial statesmanship. Chrysler
was having a strike, which began at 10 a. m. of Wednesday morning, January 25, 1950, and lasted every day of 100 days.
The
Chrysler contract, slated to live until August,
1950, was termi-
nated by the strike. The Union, in the strike’s third week, served a series
of non-economic demands on the Corporation.
UAW International moved to collect the special strike assessment
voted by the last convention. There was a mass rally in the State Fair
Coliseum attended by 25,000 Chrysler workers.
l
era
Gen
in
held
been
had
Law
ley
art
t-H
Taf
by
ired
requ
s
vote
B
NLR
Motors plants in February. 88.6 per cent of the valid ballots cast went to
the UAW. This vote, the historic Ford settlement, the massive strike
expenditures of all UAW members through the International Union, all
these were part of the pattern, elements in the struggle that in time would
win a measure of justice for the men who-were too old to work yet not
too old to expect more of life than the scrapheap that would have been
their fate before the Union.
E
L
P
I
C
N
I
R
P
K
C
A
B
S
R
E
K
CHRYSLER WOR
|
ae.
er
ysl
Chr
the
of
s
nd
ha
the
in
was
e
fat
ir
the
0,
In the spring of 195
|
|
ds.
han
ter
bet
in
n
bee
e
hav
’t
ldn
strikers. It cou
ng
goi
n
bee
had
men
kes
spo
on
ati
por
Cor
m,
roo
e
In the conferenc
ta.
ret
ope
ny
pen
eethr
the
as
n
ow
kn
ce
dan
ndg-a
son
al
through a statistic
sPre
the
by
set
rds
nda
sta
the
er
und
far
ce
far
ic
nom
eco
This was a low
cur
the
for
n
ter
pat
r
hou
ert-p
cen
10a
rd,
Boa
ident’s Steel Fact-Finding
|
g.
rent round of bargainin
10e
Th
.
ike
str
of
s
ek
we
11
en
tak
had
er
ysl
Chr
As of April 11,
,
sh
Na
by
o
als
but
d,
For
by
y
onl
not
d
nte
gra
n
cent pattern had bee
ue
-OLDTIMERS all over the nation watched
Chrysler pension strike.
of the
the progress
.
and established what was then a unique hospital-medical program, according to whose terms GM agreed to pay half of Blue Cross and Blue
Shield coverage for each GM worker and his family.
With the major pacesetters firmly committed to what had begun as
just another impractical Union proposal, other contracts rolled in.
When
Briggs settled, granting a union shop and checkoff as well as the pension
program, Briggs workers were not too caught up in their own affairs to
forget to thank the Chrysler workers and to acknowledge the part played
by the GM settlement in clinching their own gains.
ALLIS-CHALMERS
WORKERS
BACK
COME
Out in Wisconsin, there was rebirth. Rising from the absolute wreckan
won
s
worker
rs
Chalme
GM
Allisbefore,
.
years
ers
two
oth
Union
and
their
of
age
g,
in
ur
ct
fa
nu
Ma
dd
Massey-Harris, Kaiser-Frazer, Bu
only
could
history
torn
strife248’s
Local
erof
int
light
the
in
too
that
ent
e
agreem
wer
als
ici
off
GM
but
29,
negotiations had started March
|
g.
nin
onal.
gai
sensati
bar
called
be
ch
mu
do
to
ike
str
er
ysl
Chr
ested in the progress of the
in
down
written
were
story
pension
the
of
s
chapter
first
the
so
And
°
the
on
ne
do
n
bee
ad
-h
me
ti
g
lon
a
for
ng
ni
ai
rg
ba
ive
ect
eff
y
onl
The
with
gates
plant
h
throug
walked
s
veteran
first
the
e,
languag
t
contrac
so
not
d,
se
es
pr
im
re
we
y
all
fin
als
ici
off
er
sl
ry
Ch
Chrysler picket lines.
es
lifetim
for
them
thank
ce
to
timepie
nial
ceremo
a
than
more
ing
someth
o
wh
n
me
the
of
n
io
at
in
rm
te
de
the
by
as
s
tic
tis
sta
n
io
Un
the
by
much
labor.
of
were staying out of the Chrysler plants.
its
to
principle
the
from
line
straight
short,
no
been
had
There
id
pa
n
io
at
in
rm
te
de
t
tha
,
old
s
day
100
s
wa
’
ike
str
the
en
wh
4,
On May
inof
heights
the
to
risen
not
had
officials
Corporation
application.
W
UA
the
ed
di
bo
em
d
an
n
er
tt
pa
t
cen
10the
t
me
t
tha
nt
me
le
tt
se
a
off in
up
hand
a
given
been
had
They
effortlessly.
statesmanship
dustrial
em
ce
en
er
nf
Co
GM
s
n'
io
Un
the
er,
lat
s
day
e
re
Th
pension program.
l
ra
ne
Ge
the
e
at
in
rm
te
to
e
te
it
mm
Co
g
in
at
ti
powered the National Nego
,
ER
RK
WO
LE
BI
MO
TO
AU
TED
UNI
.
ct
ra
nt
co
rs
to
Mo
r,
te
un
co
Mich.
14,
en
Detroit
er
Ave.,
Jefferson
sl
E.
8000
Office:
ry
Publication
Ch
e
th
es
in
ur
it
nd
pe
ex
ke
ri
St
.
er
ov
’t
sn
wa
The story
announced UAW
on
2
.1
91
,3
01
,0
$3
at
d
oo
st
y,
ze
Ma
r
re
su
ea
Secretary-Tr
Send undeliverable copies to —
:
2457 E. Washington St., Indianapolis 7, Ind.
RETURN POSTAGE GUARANTEED
2457
Circulation Office:
E. Washington
St., Indianapolis
:
7, Indiana
International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and
PUBLICATION,
OFFICIAL
Agricultural Implement Workers of America, affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Published
monthly.
Yearly
at Indianapolis,
monthly.
to members,
subscription
Ind.,
as second-class matter
60 cents;
|
under
to non-members,
the Act of August
$1.00
Entered
24, 1912, as a
3
EMIL MAZEY
Secretary-Treasurer
WALTER P.e-REUTHER
President
RICHARD GOSSER, NORMAN MATTHEWS,
LEONARD WOODCOCK, PAT GREATHOUSE
Vice-Presidents
International
CHARLES BALLARD
RAY BERNDT
GEORGE BURT
CHARLES BIOLETTI
ROBERT CARTER
ED COTE
in
nt
me
mo
e
ns
te
s
ow
sh
e
ol
yh
ke
a
h
ug
ro
PICTURE TAKEN th
s
hi
s
ke
ma
,
ra
me
ca
to
ck
ba
r,
he
ut
1949 UAW-Ford negotiations. Re
.
er
ov
it
s
ll
mu
,
ra
me
ca
ng
ci
fa
,
or
at
ti
go
ne
rd
point. John Bugas, top Fo
i
Executive
Board
MARTIN GERBER
ROBERT W. JOHNSTON
CHARLES H. KERRIGAN)
HARVEY KITZMAN
RUSSELL LETNER
WILLIAM McAULAY
NORMAN B. SEATON
'
CHARLES BAKER,
FRANK WINN,
Managing Editor
.
Members
JOSEPH McCUSKER
GEORGE MERRELLI
KENNETH MORRIS
PATRICK O’MALLEY
KENNETH W. ROBINSON
RAY ROSS
Editor
PHOTOS—James
Yardley
STAFF—Russell Smith, Jerry Dale, Robert Treuer, Jim Richard
Members: American Newspaper Guild, AFL-CIO
UNITED
ee
June, 1956
PO
by all the Ford, Chrysler and ‘GM
workers who
AUTOMOBILE
WORKER
Page 19
ee
had driven a good
:
bargain without ever entering the conference rooms.
It had been that way every time a principle was at stake, at every major
to
sed
refu
had
1936
in
rs
age
man
t
plan
l
loca
s
GM’
e
sinc
road
the
in
turn
believe that Mr. Knudsen
knew what he was talking about when he said
ai
.
stay
to
e
com
had
g
nin
gai
collective bar
If the past performances of history were any guide, it would alway
be that way. No good and needful thing would ever be won without.
struggle, or without the united strength that proves capacity to struggle.
In the beginning the first agreements had been single sheets of paper,
thumb-smudged and rumpled. Now they were volumes of many pages,
with index and supplement and appendix. Union negotiators were
backed by a corps of technicians in research and social-security departments, who
worked hard and long and well to state the workers’ ease.
At first there had been only the wilderness and the worker’s will
to cut his way through. Now a clearing had been made, the size of
the contract reflected the growth of a body of civilized law in the
factory community.
|
Yet between the lines of every indexed agreement could still be read
the same act of faith and will that had wrung the first reluctant signature
ftom management years before. The biggest mistake anybody on either
side of the table could ever make would be to forget that the Union lived
between as well as within the lines of the contract.
On
the
eve
of
the
UAW
pension
drive,
Federal Social Security payments averaged less
than $35 a month, and it would have been
difficult to isolate half a dozen clear voices
among employers uttering any word in favor
of increasing them.
By linking its pension demands to Social
Security benefits, UAW touched a nerve that
ran directly to the employer pocketbook. A
trash of public responsibility developed: Labor
suddenly was not alone in advocating an increase in federal payments. When the federal
increase came, it was the end result of a proc-
ess that had begun with the initial pension vic-
tory at Ford. The Union's victory had served
a wider interest. It had not been “for members only.”
Of five major planks in the UAW
postwar wage platform, substantial progress-had now been made in fixing four
in the contracts: cost-of-living adjustments, annual improvement increases,
hospital-medical protection, and _ pensions. The fifth plank, a dream of auto
workers before they ever had a union,
was still a dream.
It had been mentioned
GRIM-FACED Chrysler workers gather at strike rally (top)
tion which led to the joyous victory celebration pictured here.
in the report that had gone as far as President Roosevelt’s desk in
1935, the first story of the real lives of auto workers to make any
headway in the outer world.
The afnual wage was only a dusty New Deal footnote when the
UAW ’s 13th Convention placed it at the top of the Union’s bargaining
agenda. That was the spring of 1951. This was the signal, as in the
pension campaign, for a new flow of editorial ink, a new rendering of
solemn snap judgments before anybody had bothered to take a close look
at the question.
A guaranteed wage for mass-production workers had been a dream
show
the kind
of determina-
not because it was impractical but because anything the auto workers had
wanted in the days before the Union was a dream—or a nightmare. The
Union itself had been a dream, impractical, utopian, and crazy.
And then
one day the Union lived. It had been that way with every gain the auto
workers had made. First you had to have a dream. Then somebody told
you you were dreaming. Then you made the dream come true. It could
be the same with an annual wage, thought the delegates of the 13th Con|
vention.
The auto industry, with every car that came off the lines, was proving
the need for it. The industry was moving back to an earlier pattern of
instability, bunching its production in the first
part of the year, hiring temporary workers
who took employment from regulars, disrupting families and communities.
on
The temporary workers were being dumped
the, street, to swell public relief rolls, in
some cases to resort to
costs never got onto the
facturers as elements in
automobiles. They were
community paid. |
crime. ‘These public.
books of auto manuthe cost of making
costs that the whole
The catch was that employers had no direct,
immediate, and what might be called selfish
interest in admitting them as the costs of doing business. They would not change their
way of doing business until these public,
costs were laid squarely at their doors.
The auto worker had always borne the
brunt of unemployment in the industry. He
had always taken the rap for what used to be
called the “inevitable” layoff at model-changeover time. Before the Union came along to
win him call-in pay, he was called in but not
paid whenever management had failed to
manage well enough to have work ready for:
him.
PRESIDENT HARRY S. TRUMAN had a deep understanding of workers’ problems. His
successful campaign tour of industrial centers in 1948 was recalled by many attending this 1954
Labor Day rally in Detroit.
:
|
Management began to manage better
as soon as call-in pay became the penalty
for not managing work schedules well
enough.
Work
was the main
objective,
AUTOMOBILE WORKER
UNITED
June,
1956
se
THE
FROM
.
land
the
oss
acr
nts
fro
g
zin
ani
org
on
day
ry
eve
e
mad
was
history
BEGINNING
Auto workers were already worried about automation. Mechanical brains and automatic factories threatened to throw entire trades
and skills onto history’s slag heap, turn whole thriving communities
|
- into ghost towns.
it
as
n,
tio
oma
aut
ise
pra
to
ely
mer
t
ten
con
med
see
t
men
Manage
g
kin
loo
t
hou
wit
e,
wag
ual
ann
the
ce
oun
den
to
ely
mer
t
ten
con
seemed
hard and long at either. Labor had to look hard and long at both, because labor knew in its bones that all the happy talk about the march of
technology would never save working men and women from the headaches and heartaches of the short-run.
But
e.
anc
adv
l
ica
log
hno
tec
ed
com
wel
t
men
age
man
n
tha
less
no
Labor
t
wan
’t
didn
or
Lab
es.
pos
pur
an
hum
for
r
tige
the
e
tam
to
ted
wan
or
lab
conto
ted
wan
it
ow;
orr
tom
c
oni
ctr
ele
old
any
into
se
bwi
cra
fle
shuf
to
or
Lab
.
nge
cha
l
ica
log
hno
tec
of
ces
uen
seq
con
al
soci
the
front squarely
presented itself as a determined custodian of the human in a world where
untrammeled
technology might as easily shrink as expand the human
.
sphere.
ow
thr
ds,
han
idle
for
d
lan
ter
hin
the
ur
sco
ld
cou
that
t
men
A manage
AT THE 1947 CONVENTION in Milwaukee, the UAW’s inter-
This
s.
dian
Cana
ive
-act
ever
the
from
t
boos
big
a
got
r
national flavo
banner read, “Quebec! The New Frontier of the UAW-CI0O.”
anorg
an
en
wh
n
pla
to
w
ho
d
rne
lea
nt
me
ge
na
Ma
not call-in pay.
the
ng
hi
uc
to
by
ive
ent
inc
an
ed
id
ov
pr
s
er
rk
wo
of
nt
ized moveme
sensitive nerve that ran from head and heart to pocketbook.
r
te
ea
gr
r
fo
ed
ne
the
to
e
ok
aw
nt
me
ge
na
ma
Similarly with pensions:
n
ee
tw
be
ce
en
er
ff
di
the
ng
yi
pa
elf
its
d
un
fo
it
Social Security benefits when
|
.
ng
ni
ai
rg
ba
e
tiv
lec
col
by
ed
fix
els
lev
federal levels and the
d
ha
s
nd
ma
de
s
or'
lab
en
wh
ies
lit
Management had confronted rea
th
wi
me
sa
the
be
d
ul
wo
d
an
be
d
ul
co
It
made it costly to dodge realities.
of
nd
ki
a
be
d
ul
wo
ge
wa
al
nu
an
ed
te
a guaranteed wage. The guaran
call-in pay for modern times.
T
N
E
M
U
C
O
D
NG
VI
LI
A
BE
ST
MU
CT
RA
A CONT
c
ha
a
re
Ko
in
on
si
es
gr
ag
t.
is
un
mm
Co
by
ed
Meanwhile, a war provok
n
io
at
tu
si
a
ng
ti
ea
cr
t,
on
fr
me
ho
the
on
s
ip
sh
unsettled economic relation
.
50
19
in
ed
gn
si
re
we
s
ct
ra
nt
co
r
ea
-y
ve
fi
en
wh
which had not been foreseen
cor
r
jo
ma
th
wi
ts
en
em
re
ag
m
er
-t
ng
lo
ed
pt
ce
ac
d
UAW members ha
s
se
ea
cr
in
al
nu
an
d
an
on
ti
ec
ot
pr
ng
vi
li
fporations on condition that cost-o
ge
na
ma
ed
nd
mi
re
d
ha
n
io
Un
e
Th
.
em
th
d
te
an
gr
be
in base wage rates
:
.
51
19
,
ry
ua
br
Fe
as
y
rl
ea
as
t
fac
s
thi
ment of
s
nt
me
ve
mo
e
th
th
wi
ed
at
tu
uc
fl
es
nc
wa
lo
al
ng
vi
li
fWorkers’ cost-o
A
s.
tic
tis
Sta
r
bo
La
of
au
re
Bu
the
of the consumers’ price index of
,
er
mb
ce
De
of
as
x
de
in
S
BL
the
g
in
ut
mp
co
change in the method of
e
th
to
d
ol
the
om
fr
on
si
er
nv
co
a
e
at
ti
go
ne
to
1952, made it riecessary
new index.
nre
s
nt
me
st
ju
ad
r
he
ot
ke
ma
to
y
it
un
rt
po
This situation created an op
the
o
int
n
te
ea
d
ha
es
ic
pr
ng
si
Ri
n.
io
at
fl
in
by
nt
dered urge
s
op
sh
g
in
bb
jo
the
in
es
rat
e
ad
tr
d
le
retired workers. Skil
r
ou
-f
ty
en
Tw
s.
op
sh
e
iv
pt
ca
the
in
es
rat
d
le
il
sk
away from
e
rat
se
ba
his
of
e
fre
ng
ti
oa
fl
re
we
y
pa
GM workers’ hourly
;
ary waters.
|
pensions of
had climbed
cents of the
on inflation-
them for a season into established communities where housing was alureg
le
jost
to
line
n
tio
duc
pro
d
wde
cro
a
into
m
the
e
eez
squ
t,
tigh
dy
rea
lars, then yank them out again and show them the door to idleness and
relief, a management that could do this clearly believed that workers
were expendable. Workers, in this view, were pack mules good enough
to lift a production index to a seasonal peak, not good enough to deserve
y
pan
com
to
t
ugh
bro
ries
sala
al
annu
that
rity
secu
ic
nom
eco
of
kind
the
ji
,
executives. =.
n
wee
bet
ty
equi
of
d
bon
no
was
e
ther
eved
beli
rly
clea
t
men
age
Man
©
low
fel
e
Th
te.
sui
ive
cut
exe
the
in
n
ma
the
the man at the machine and
the
of
s
day
365
d
foo
ed
uir
req
t
tha
h
mac
sto
ive
sit
sen
at the top had a
lot
His
ce.
pie
the
or
r
hou
the
by
live
ld
cou
tom
bot
the
at
guy
The
r.
yea
ns
tur
and
sts
twi
the
all
s,
che
lur
and
s
mp
bu
run
rtsho
was to take all the
s.
blis
erm
g-t
lon
s
er’
loy
emp
the
to
led
t
tha
d
roa
the
of
GAW TO MEET MIGHTY NEED
adbro
ed
ed
ne
t
tha
t
cep
con
a
was
d,
ere
cov
dis
er
rk
wo
o
Equity, the aut
y
wa
otw
a
7,
193
and
6
193
in
m
do
ee
fr
e
lik
,
me
co
ening. It had to be
the
o
int
t
gh
ou
br
n
bee
had
y
ac
cr
mo
de
l
ria
ust
ind
street. A measure of
the
to
ed
nd
te
ex
be
t
mus
it
w
No
ns.
dow
sit
the
of
e
plants since the tim
e.
mad
e
wer
s
ion
ess
rec
and
ps
um
sl
e
er
wh
y,
om
on
ec
the
broader reaches of
The main features of the UAW
annual wage or guaranteed employ-
ment proposals were published in April,
1954, one full year in advance
on
out
em
th
ead
spr
to
r
yea
e
ol
wh
a
had
nt
me
of negotiations. Manage
ent
tha
in
Yet
in.
aga
and
in
aga
em
th
nd
ou
ar
wly
the floor and walk slo
the
of
is
lys
ana
ed
ail
det
a
e
tur
ven
nt
me
ge
na
ma
did
tire year, not once
of
n
rai
ter
the
to
ly
ict
str
ts
en
em
nc
ou
on
pr
its
ed
fin
Union plan. It con
.
om
do
l
era
gen
and
cy
pt
ru
nk
ba
of
es
ci
he
op
pr
ng
propaganda, utteri
le
mp
si
e
on
ot
rg
fo
nt
me
ge
na
ma
,
er
st
Lost in its images of disa
ss
ne
si
bu
of
t
ou
s
er
oy
pl
em
t
pu
to
e
nc
te
is
ex
in
t
fact: a union is no
ge
wa
al
nu
an
W
A
U
e
Th
.
bs
jo
of
t
ou
s
and thereby throw its member
e
th
ng
ti
if
sh
by
g
in
rk
wo
s
er
mb
me
W
A
U
plan was a plan to keep
n
-i
ll
ca
a
s
wa
It
.
ss
bo
e
th
to
er
rk
wo
e
th
costs of unemployment from
s.
ed
ne
ry
ra
po
em
nt
co
et
me
to
gh
ou
en
e
rg
pay plan writ la
d
ke
as
n
io
Un
e
Th
.
53
19
in
es
su
is
e
es
th
ce
fa
to
ry
st
UAW asked indu
to
ed
gn
si
de
s
ct
ra
nt
co
m
er
-t
ng
lo
t
tha
t
industry to acknowledge the, fac
tic
ed
pr
un
d
an
en
se
re
fo
un
to
d
on
sp
re
govern human relationships must
e
es
th
of
rn
bo
ies
lit
rea
w
ne
the
to
d
an
able changes in the outer world
oe
s.
op
sh
the
changes in
si
po
’s
W’
UA
of
e
ns
se
the
te
ia
ec
pr
ap
to
st
fir
General Motors was the
tion.
On May 22, 1953, GM
acknowledged the living-document principle
r
he
rt
fu
to
ed
re
ag
25
y
Ma
on
rd
and agreed to ‘several changes. Fo
th
bo
g
in
at
or
rp
co
in
t
en
em
re
ag
an
ed
gn
si
changes. On May 27 Chrysler
the GM
and Ford
improvements.
Finally, on May
28, General
Motors
ns
io
at
ti
go
ne
in
n
io
Un
the
by
de
ma
s
in
ga
agreed to match the additional
|
|
.
er
sl
ry
Ch
d
an
rd
with Fo
T
S
O
O
B
A
R
T
X
E
N
A
T
GE
S
SKILLED WORKER
Among
in
ur
ho
an
s
nt
ce
e
fiv
to
se
ea
cr
in
an
re
we
s
ge
an
the major ch
the annual improvement
s
nt
ce
24
the
of
s
nt
ce
19
of
on
ti
di
ad
factor; an
d
le
il
sk
the
in
se
rai
ts
en
-c
10
a
e;
rat
se
ba
in the cost-of-living float to the
trades hourly rate; an increase in maximum
pension benefits from $125
ire
ret
in
y
ad
re
al
s
er
rk
wo
to
ed
nd
te
ex
in
to $137.50 monthly, with the ga
s.
er
rk
wo
d
re
ti
re
for
es
rat
p
ou
gr
ld
ie
Sh
ue
Bl
ment: and Blue Cross-
e
th
at
me
ca
sm
li
na
io
ct
fa
of
od
ri
pe
e
iv
THE END of a destruct
e
th
on
ty
ri
jo
ma
a
ed
in
ga
te
sla
r
he
ut
Re
e
th
en
wh
1947 Convention
si
re
-P
ce
Vi
d
te
ec
el
ywl
ne
s
te
la
tu
ra
Executive Board. Reuther cong
dents John
yar
et
cr
se
w
ne
e
th
d
an
er
ss
Go
d
ar
ch
Ri
d
an
Livingston
treasurer, Emil Mazey.
June,
UNITED
1956
AUTOMOBILE
Launches All-Out
UAW
with Phony
Ford Counters
The employer's liability under the plan
was limited. His costs, moreover, were largely
avoidable. Once an adequate reserve in the
proposed trust fund had been created, employers, by keeping workers working, could
escape further charges.
With automation threatening wholesale
disruption in employment, with American
leadership of the free world based on our
Page 21
WORKER
GAW;
Drive To Win
St ock Purchase
Plan
es
repeated assertion that democratic institutions gave the best answers to the funda-
mental problems of economic stability and
progress, employers had the highest and most
urgent incentives to negotiate a guaranteed
wage plan. Stabilized employment and sustained purchasing power were indispensable
ingredients of American strength. They guaranteed no victory in the world struggle for
men’s minds and loyalties. Yet without them
that victory would surely escape us.
If these larger reasons did not appeal to
employers, UAW technicians had provided a
more specific and precise incentive, finely
tooled for the purpose of sending a stimulus
along the self-interest nerve. Just as pension
demands had been related to Federal Social
Security payments, so an employer's financial
responsibility under the .guaranteed wage
plan was related to state unemployment compensation.
BECOMES
A DREAM
part of the backdrop,
A REALITY
Under the guaranteed wage plan as with the pension program, the
Union wanted a trust fund established and a joint board of administration. Again, there was no call for any promised land, only the opening
of another door on the future. The Union wanted employers to acknowledge in contract words and phrases their responsibility for sta_bilizing.employment.and_sustaining purchasing power Out of the fundamental principle, once acknowledged in contract form, would flow the benefits.
_
|
6
When the historic 1955 contracts were finally signed, The Detroit Free
Press, whose editors for years had reached for their kleenex every time
an auto manufacturer sneezed, had this to say:
“The magnitude of what has just happened in Detroit is beyond
the mental reach of any man to comprehend. The guaranteed wage idea
- will grow big and grow fast. It will affect the lives of every man, womcney
an and child for years to come.”
Whatever
else the Free Press believed
about
the annual
wage,
this
passage suggested no doubt that the auto workers had won the principle
and opened another door, not only for themselves and their families, but
3
:
|
for the broader community.
Nor had there been any doubt in the minds of Corporation officials
as negotiations progressed. General Motors did not refuse to bargain
on the issue without a Supreme Court ruling as it had at first refused to
take up the pension issue in 1949. Young Henry Ford did not say, as old
Henry had said once upon a time, that hé would throw the keys away
fies
GM
and Ford did two ‘other things instead.
as
as
THE GUARANTEED ANNUAL WAGE was moved to the front in Union planning
soon as pensions were secured. The 1951 Convention in Cleveland featured the demand
They broke com-
petitive habits for the occasion and formed a kind of united bargain-
ing front against the UAW. And they tried to drive a billion-dollar
_ wedge between the Union and its members.
a vivid reminder
of the goal ahead.
When the annual wage was first being studied by the Union, some of
the UAW members leafed through their book of memories and began to
wonder what basic contract gains they would have to trade to get the
new demand. They wondered, for example, if they would have to give
up overtime pay, as workers had surrendered it under the Hormel plan
in Austin, Minnesota.
FORD OFFERS “PARTNERSHIP” PROGRAM
The Union assured them there would be no trading of past for future
gains. Corporate radar, however, had picked up the echoes of these
questions and decided to turn them to account. They decided to make
it easy to surrender the atinual wage demand, to create a rank-and-file
stampede for green pastures, and to provide a rift between Union ranks
and leadership.
,
Destiny had chosen Ford again to lead the way, so Ford led with what
the Company claimed was half a billion dollars. It was essentially the
same
as the General
Motors
offer, made
a couple
of weeks
before but
not publicized because of a temporary agreement between GM and UAW
negotiators that bargaining would be done without publicity.
The Ford offer bore the imposing title of Stock Participation, Income
Stabilization, and Separation Allowance
Plans.
It was billed as the big-
gest and most generous offer ever to alight in the center of a bargaining
table.
The Union team asked the Company men to tell them, dollar by
dollar, how good the allegedly big package really was. The Company
men obliged, for the record. To hear them tell it, the package was
worth every cent of 12 cents an hour.
Central to the Company offer was the stock-purchase proposal. Every
Ford worker with one or more years of seniority could contribute up to
10 per cent of his gross pay to purchase of Ford stock. The Company
would add five per cent more.
It turned out that the prize in this prize
package was a booby prize; a grey-flannel
suit with only one pair of pants tailored for
that minority of Ford workers willing and/or
able
to invest,
over
a long
period,
a fixed
percentage of their income in Company stock.
Purchase of stock by the worker was a conditidn of the Cotnpany’s contribution. Holding
on to the stock was another condition. It
Was an invitation to the Ford workers to live
beyond their means; the offer did not respond
to the worker’s need for protection against
layoffs,
Union.
There
as did the GAW
is
no
doubt,
proposed
however,
by the
that
the
grey-flannel suit looked good, however well
it would
RR
ens
re
AIRCRAFT PROBLEMS cropped out when the industry, which mushroomed during
World War II, failed to measure up to its postwar responsibilities. This Douglas worker and
his family in Long Beach, California, helped meet that situation on the picketlines in 1950.
wear.
And
the Company
claimed
that it cost as much as or more than the Union overalls.
GM
and Ford management
were clearly inviting the men and women in
the shops to trample the annual wage demand
and the Union bargaining teams into the dust.
UNITED
AUTOMOBILE
WORKER
June,
1956
the Ford group came in, sat down, and resumed bargaining. The industry
front had been broken. The principle of the guaranteed wage was won
on June 6, 1955.
|
On June 1, 1956, the guaranteed wage provisions of the 1955 contract
went into effect. Employers would add supplementary benefits to a laidoff worker’s unemployment compensation to raise his total payments during the first four weeks of unemployment to 65 per cent of his normal
take-home pay, and during the next 22 weeks to 60 per cent.
Other important gains were registered in the 1955 contracts. A beginning was made in giving workers vested rights in pensions, entitling
them to carry pension rights with them to other companies. Pensions,
with Social Security, were raised to as high as $240 a month. There was
a 50 per cent increase in permanent and total disability pensions. The
improvement factor was boosted to six cents, or two and one-half per
cent—in certain cases three per cent—whichever proved higher. There
were substantial additional gains: in holiday pay, in skilled trade increases, in vacation and hospital-medical payments, in adjustment of inequities. The UAW for the first time won an unqualified union shop in
|
General Motors.
}
SUBSTANTIAL GAINS
MANY
former director of Region. A, was chosen
PAT GREATHOUSE,
vice-president of the UAW in 1955, filling a vacancy created by the
elevation of John W. Livingston to director of organization for the
merged AFL-CIO.
Greathouse is
ae
to his new office by
Secretary-Treasurer Emil Mazey.
This bid was underscored by a personal letter from Henry Ford II to
the UAW. The letter repeated newspaper insinuations that the UAW
leadership team was afraid of the rank and file. It conveyed Mr. Ford's
hope that UAW’s decision on the prize package would reflect the wishes
of Ford workers.
UAW’s reply to the Company, a letter from Walter Reuther to
Henry Ford II, was presented to Company representatives by the
National Ford Negotiating Committee on May 30, 1955.
The Union letter stated that UAW was anxious to avoid a strike and
to bring about a peaceful settlement on a basis of fairness and equity. It
that
on
enti
cont
’s
Ford
of
note
ng
taki
,
offer
y
pan
Com
the
summarized
management’s proposal would cost upwards of 12 cents an hour. It
reached
without
the full,
democratic
fibe
ld
cou
it
that
so
al
pos
pro
W
GA
its
ify
mod
to
eed
agr
UAW
aent
res
rep
own
y's
pan
Com
the
by
ed
ish
abl
est
ts
limi
the
hin
wit
nanced
tives as the cost of financing the Company plan. The Union compromise
thus left the two parties differing only on two methods of achieving a
and
s
ker
wor
d
For
for
ty
uri
sec
of
e
sur
mea
r
ate
gre
a
:
goal
d
ire
des
lymutual
oympl
une
and
s
off
lay
of
ips
dsh
har
and
s
ard
haz
the
t
ins
aga
es
ili
_their fam
ment.
The Reuther letter proposed that the Ford workers themselves,
_ by secret ballot, make a choice between the Company and Union
methods of achieving the goal.
When the letter was presented to the Company negotiating team, Ford
asked
for a recess.
Then another recess.
The trust fund principle was won.
So was the principle of adminis-
tering the guaranteed wage plan by a joint Union-employer board.
The Union of automobile workers had entered its 20th year of
FORD MAKES OFFER PERSONALLY
agreed that no decision should be
participation of Ford workers.
A door had been opened. Employers had acknowledged responsibility
to maintain the living standards and purchasing power of workers laid
off through no fault of their own.
Benefits were geared to state unemployment compensation, giving
employers an incentive to improve state laws, to stabilize employment.
At the end of the second. recess,
ng
ri
ee
on
pi
ed
ud
cl
in
s
ha
s
er
mb
me
W
UA
THE BETTER LIFE for
opr
r
la
mi
si
d
an
t
oi
tr
De
in
e
ut
it
st
In
th
al
He
W
programs at the UA
grams in other UAW centers. The emphasis is on diagnosis and preventing disease.
life and growth.
An old friend of the auto workers, who had been
- with them at Flint during the sitdowns, had come back to UAW for
a visit in 1954 and had written a story on her second impressions for
Harper’s Magazine.
Mary Heaton Vorse called her piece, “The Union That ies
-She had
come
back
to a Union
that had
1,124 locals
in 415
towns
Up.”
and
cities of 34 states, five Canadian provinces. She didn’t recognize in this
young
giant the beleaguered bands of workers who had held out in the
plants against the cry of newspapers and vigilantes to “shoot them out.”
She remembered the spirit of the workers. She remembered the hard
work
of the women’s
auxiliaries, the colored tams the ‘women wore: ted
in Flint, green in Detroit, and.in- Saginaw, blue-
ee
She compared the Flint of those past days with the Flint of the sum-
mer of 1953, when the tornado struck Beecher Township, when UAW
gave $100,000 to the disaster fund, and when UAW members participated 1 in the vast house-raising of Operation Tornado.
SENSE IN A CIVIL RIGHTS CRISIS —
_ Mary Vorse recalled the race riots in Detroit in 1943, when the only
oasis of sanity had been the plants where the Negro and white UAW
members had continued to work side by side. She remembered 1950,
when UAW had done so much to eliminate discrimination in ABC
Bowling.
She had come back to a Union that had grown, never stopped growing. Men were older, life was more complicated. She saw a Union that
felt a.responsibility to respond to.every economic need and aspiration of
the men and women in the plants, along the whole broad front of demo-
cratic action and striving.
THE
FDR-CIO
Center in
like these
~
HAPPIER LIFE includes summer sessions for kids at the
Camp and Sand Lake Camp in Michigan, the Ottawa Union
Illinois and other UAW-backed facilities where youngsters
have a grand time outdoors.
UNITED
)
June, 1956
AUTOMOBILE
WORKER
Page 23°
SRS GepO TET He STEM
SRR
LEFT—Ford Rouge workers hear news of the settlement that
ple
nci
pri
the
ed
ish
abl
est
ch
whi
ct
tra
con
.
1955
the
y,
tor
his
made
;
of the guaranteed annual wage.
d
an
s
er
mb
me
n
ow
its
t
ec
ot
pr
to
ng
vi
mo
‘She saw a Union already
o,
int
nt
we
e
Sh
.
on
ti
ma
to
au
of
ct
pa
im
the
om
fr
y
it
un
mm
the whole co
see
ld
ou
sh
ou
“Y
,
her
to
d
sai
es
id
gu
r
he
of
e
On
some of the plants.
rd
Fo
the
to
ed
ar
mp
co
g
in
th
no
t’s
tha
en
ev
d
the DeSoto plant—an
”
n.
me
ed
ne
t
n’
es
do
it
,
es
in
ch
ma
all
is
t
an
pl
at
Th
d.
an
plant in Clevel
Mary
up. The
electronic
grown in
Vorse left to write her
men in the plants, faced
age, had a right to feel
the full years since 1936,
to defend their interests as wage
article about a Union that had
by the new mechanical monsters
that-their Union, however much
was none too big and none too
-
t
men
tle
set
5
195
the
ced
oun
ann
r
the
Reu
P.
er
lt
Wa
E—
ABOV
the
of
s
ple
nci
pri
the
n
dow
led
nai
ch
whi
ors
Mot
l
era
with Gen
UAW-won pattern. At left are weary GM executives.
grown
of the
it had
strong
earners, as citizens, and just as plain
a
be
to
ed
is
om
pr
y
ad
re
al
at
wh
of
s
le
gg
ru
st
ng
mi
co
the
human beings in
second industrial revolution.
pel
dis
was
n
tio
oma
aut
ut
abo
do
to
had
The fitst thing the Union
the
ut
abo
s
cle
cir
nt
me
ge
na
ma
in
ted
era
some of the easy optimism gen
en
tak
n
bee
had
r
the
Reu
ter
Wal
era.
on
prospects of the new push-butt
d
ha
d
an
es
iv
ut
ec
ex
rd
Fo
the
of
e
on
by
nt
through Ford’s Cleveland pla
.
ks
oc
bl
ne
gi
en
t
ou
g
in
rn
tu
ly
si
bu
n
me
al
ic
an
ch
me
been shown the lines of
w
o
H
“
d,
ke
as
d
an
t
en
id
es
pr
W
A
U
e
th
to
d
e
n
r
u
t
e
v
alive
ies
W
pr
A
U
e
”
h
?
T
s
y
e
u
g
es
th
r
ffon
és
n
du
io
t
ec
un
ll
co
g
to
in
go
u
are yo
to
ng
goi
you
are
ow
“H
d,
lie
rep
and
ive
cut
exe
d
For
the
to
dent turned
get them to buy Ford cars?”
|
PREPARING FOR A PUSH-BUTTON AGE
a
h
oug
thr
ty,
ili
sib
pon
res
er
loy
emp
of
ple
nci
pri
the
ing
ish
abl
est
In
scha
pur
n
tai
sus
and
t
men
loy
emp
e
iliz
stab
to
m,
gra
pro
e
wag
guaranteed
uw
ing power, the Union had found part of an answer to the questions posed
.
|
|
by automation.
Employer responsibility under the guaranteed wage program would
ss
proce
the
of
nor
gover
a
as
serve
g,
timin
on
ions
decis
nt
geme
mana
affect
of change and adjustment. Decentralization, accelerated by automation,
od
would
be less disruptive when
undertaken within the framework
CHRYSLER came a long way. Announcing the °55 contract to
the press and television crew are: I. to r.. UAW Vice-President _
Norman Matthews, John Leary, Chrysler vice-president, and UAW
Secretary-Treasurer Emil Mazey.
of the
|
|
guaranteed wage program.
The automobile industry had already embarked on a full-scale
program of automation. Existing job classifications and wage structures were already becoming obsolete. A need had arisen for broader seniority groupings. There would
arise a multitude of transfer and retraining problems. There would be
profound changes in the American and world economy within a decade.
Workers, both as wage earners and citizens, had a stake in the new
l
era
fed
the
,
war
ld
wor
ond
sec
the
of
t
draf
ced
for
the
er
technology. Und
government had undertaken a vast program of assistance to industrial
research, This government program had given the first great impetus to
the automation process. And the program had been financed by Ameri|
can taxpayers.
The wage earners had paid for the push buttons out of their own
pockets. The revolutions in materials handling, in marketing, transport,
distribution,
and
control
of machinery
that had
come
about
in recent
years were not private accomplishments of private enterprise. For good
or for ill, they were in the public domain. Their consequences would be
felt by the whole nation.
The auto workers’ Union had always believed in making progress
with the community, not at the expense of the community. Events of
the second industrial revolution had already demonstrated the common sense of that proposition.
Automation in Detroit could lead to unemployment in South Bend.
Automation in Ford and General Motors could lead to grave trouble in
Chrysler and the independents. The high initial expense of automatic
equipment posed a threat to small business. Decentralization would not
necessarily lead to less concentration of ownership and corporate control.
Indeed, the formation of new companies would be discouraged by the
high capital requirements.
PREPARING MEN AND WOMEN FOR JOBS
It was no longer just a question of throwing older workers on the
scrapheap, as in the old days. Now whole cities could become obsolete.
THE PATTERN spread through the rest of the automobile in_ dustry and on into agricultural implement. One of the first to follow the Big Three settlements was the UAW-American Motors pact
announced by UAW Vice-President Leonard Woodcock, right, and
Edward Cushman, AMC industrial relations director.
Retraining! Earlier retirement in cases of the displacement of older
workers, when retraining wasn’t practical. Changes in seniority group-
ings, job classifications, wage structure. These were not small personal
matters, for the isolated worker to tackle. They were not just matters for
his Union. They were community problems,
WORKER
AUTOMOBILE
UNITED
— Page 24
June,
1956
There were larger political questions involved. There was need for
a new congressional investigation of the concentration of economic power, along the lines of the earlier Temporary-National Economic Committee, a possible need for national chartering of corporations that were _
in effect national and only nominally policed by the states. There was
the whole question, in short, of making the second industrial revolution
|
a democratic revolution:
Labor was determined to confront and to help solve the problems
arising from automation because it was truly hopeful of automation’s ultimate promise: freedom from drudgery, new opportunities to learn new skills, vast new increases in material’ standards of
living, and a whole new world of leisure and human fulfillment.
The Union would continue to build on the foundations of the annual
wage laid in the 1955 contracts. Its next major bargaining demand would
be a shorter work week. The end of work was a wider, deeper, richer .
living, and there was no end to living.
Therefore the Union went on, from crisis to crisis, from achievement
to achievement, laying the foundations of economic citizenship, elabo- |
rating a body of law for the industrial community, opening door after
door for the workers—who were not only workers but fathers, mothers,
sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters.
YEARS OF SOLID
TWENTY
PROGRESS
At the end of 1955, the two great branches of American labor merged’
their organizations. into one union. CIO surrendered its separate sovereignty and identity without regrets, aware of the great possibilities that
lay ahead for.a truly united labor movement, conscious of the
business on democracy’s agenda at home and abroad.
CIO had been in the vanguard for 20 years. Twenty years
of a man or an institution was not a long time. The passing
milestone was no occasion for any final summing up.
There was always the danger that with the passage of
would be a slowing down, a tendency to lose force, to lose a
of purpose, to suffer a sea change from momentum to inertia.
It was always good to take stock, to plunge beneath the
unfinished
|
in.the life
of a 20th
time there
clear sense
troubled
surface of the daily round to the deeper simplicities that moved us
when we were younger: that moved the men who made autos in the
winter of 1936-37. There was always the need to keep faith with the
simple human realities that fired men and policies when the Union
was young, when it was only an idea and a vision.
There was always a need to recapture the visions of an earlier day. So
. the auto
workers celebrated
their 20th anniversary
UAW
as a Union.
members were not merchants of nostalgia. They wanted to remember
the past only to refresh their memories of struggle and achievement and
carry these memories with them into the future. Their primary allegiance
a
____.... went to the unfinished, the possible, the growing, the unborn.
@
T
S
A
P
E
H
T
G
N
I
T
A
R
B
E
L
CE
g
in
go
re
we
ey
th
e
r
e
h
W
s.
er
rk
wo
to
au
th
wi
t
rs
fi
me
ca
gs
First thin
to
ed
nt
wa
ey
Th
.
en
be
d
ha
ey
th
e
er
wh
an
th
em
th
was more important to
teach back
a moment
e
th
t
le
en
th
d
an
st
pa
e
th
and salvage the best of
s.
er
ld
ou
sh
r
ei
th
on
nd
ha
ad
de
.a
be
to
it
nt
wa
past go. They didn’t
,
on
nt
n
we
io
Un
e
th
of
fe
g
li
in
st
,
la
er
ep
de
e
th
s,
ll
ha
d
an
s
~ In the shop
|
ruggle.
the continuing st
on
si
ci
l
de
ca
ti
li
po
g
on
wr
a
e
er
wh
on
ti
na
a
in
,
on
Political action went
ad
le
d
ul
wo
me
co
in
rm
fa
in
op
dr
a
e
er
wh
y,
affected the whole econom
|
s.
er
rk
wo
t
en
pm
ui
to unemployment among farm eq
one
At
on.
t
wen
nt
me
rt
pa
De
s
n’
me
Wo
s
on’
Uni
the
The work of
to
t
wan
I
t
ha
“W
ed,
ask
ker
wor
n
ma
wo
one
gs
tin
of the many mee
and
t
men
ain
ert
ent
of
t
cos
the
uct
ded
can
know is why businessmen
y
ser
nur
a
of
t
cos
the
uct
ded
’t
can
I
but
s,
urn
ret
tax
ir
the
on
whisky
school or a babysitter.”
an
g
in
nd
fi
in
ed
st
re
te
in
s
wa
n
io
Un
It was a good question. The
et
me
n
io
un
a
at
d
ke
as
be
d
ul
co
t
tha
on
ti
es
qu
answer. It was the kind of
me
co
to
t
mp
te
at
d
ze
ni
ga
or
an
d
an
ear
c
ti
ing and attract both a sympathe
|
s
f
.
on
ti
lu
so
a
th
wi
up
nd
ou
gr
the
g
in
or
pl
ex
nt
me
ve
mo
d
ze
li
bi
mo
of
nd
ki
a
The Union was
to
e
in
ch
ma
the
at
e
ip
gr
st
le
mp
si
m
the
ro
—f
et
sw
an
between question and
st
Ea
le
dd
Mi
the
in
e
ac
pe
ng
vi
er
es
pr
the highest and trickiest problem of
.
it
ra
St
a
s
o
m
r
o
F
e
th
r
o
S
S
E
C
O
S
R
P
U
O
U
N
I
T
N
O
C
N
A
O
EDUCATI
the
o
int
re
mo
d
an
re
mo
ng
vi
mo
,
als
loc
the
Education went on in
d
ha
m
ra
og
pr
n
io
at
uc
ed
e
Th
e.
lif
ly
dai
s
n’
io
un
mainstream of the local
l
na
io
at
rn
te
In
e
Th
ve.
dri
ge
wa
ed
te
been geared closely with the guaran
an
ar
Gu
s
ge
Wa
or
k
or
“W
m,
fil
a
ed
Education Department had produc
i
teed.”
en
be
d
ha
n
pla
ge
wa
ed
te
an
ar
gu
s
n’
io
Un
the
The final development of
Chi
in
ce
en
er
nf
Co
n
io
at
uc
Ed
l
na
io
at
rn
te
In
th
first presented at the Six
ng
ni
ai
tr
e
iv
ns
te
in
an
d
re
so
on
sp
n
io
Un
the
,
ce
en
er
nf
cago. After the co
n
io
un
al
loc
d
an
s
er
mb
me
ff
sta
for
n
pla
the
of
es
pl
ci
in
pr
program in the
:
leaders.
s
ker
wor
o
aut
the
e
aus
bec
on,
t
wen
m
gra
pro
ces
cti
The fair pra
e
mor
is
y
rit
ida
sol
that
,
got
for
mes
eti
som
but
had painfully learned,
pihap
of
t
sui
pur
the
and
rty,
libe
,
life
that
than a word in a song and
ness is every American’s right.
to
w
no
g
in
rn
tu
,
on
nt
we
,
37
19
in
n
gu
be
The recreation program, first
ns
ze
ti
ci
d
re
ti
re
d
an
or
ni
se
s
n'
io
Un
e
the good and vital work of giving th
y.
it
un
mm
co
r
de
wi
d
an
n
io
Un
e
th
to
a sense of belonging
er
ng
lo
a
ng
yi
jo
en
re
we
ey
Th
.
er
mb
nu
in
Pensioners were growing
life.
The UAW
was
spending more
than $50,000
in the Detroit area
HISTORY
for this worker
meant
a new life, a chance
to retire
_ on a well-deserved pension. He sat down on the curb to read about
the 1950 settlement at GM. The whole history of the Union has
meant
more security, more ofthe
good things of life for millions.
alone keeping in touch with retired members, arranging parties, meetings,
counselling service; maintaining three drop-in centers five days a week
as Clubs for the veterans of the plants.
Room for the drop-in centers had been donated by local unions. They
had comfortable chairs, card tables, TV sets, pool tables, books furnished
by the public library.
:
RETIRED WORKER PROGRAM GROWS
s.
area
were five roup
There on-g
_ There were films and_discussi
met,
ings each month, a picnic in summer, a Christmas party in winter. There
were monthly birthday parties. There were talks with Social Security and
health insurance experts, and with heart specialists.
Pensioners were as active as they wanted to be. They served on house
committees, on the city-wide steering committee, and on a visiting com- mittee to call on sick colleagues.
The Union had remembered them and honored them. They had
not been cast out into the shadows. They were the honored elders of
an industry and a Union that they had built with their own hands.
A strike in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, had entered its third year. UAW
members of Local 833 of the Kohler plumbingware company in that
city were also honored in the Union because in continuing their own just
struggle they were a reminder to all workers everywhere that no good
and needful thing had ever been won easily, and never would be.
The Union went on. It went on because it was an act of faith that
even in an age of automation—especially in an age of automation—people are important and are here to stay.
The Union went on because it was the orgaiized embodiment of the
_workers’ will to assert their humanity against the encroachment of the
machine, to tame the machine to the uses of human life. ©
OUR UNION IS ALL OF US
The Union is an instrument of the men and women in the plants.
Its power and
their. awareness
or the package
The UAW
its purposes are determined by their will, their courage,
that there.is more at.stake than the pennies in the pot
on the table.
in the spring of 1956 is nothing more and nothing less
than the men and women who belong to it and to whom it belongs;
just as in 1936 it had been the men who said they wouldn't be driven and
spied on and tossed on the scrapheap when the line had used them up.
If the auto workers of 1956 reach higher and see farther, it is
‘ because they stand’on the shoulders of the men who had strug_ gled in the past; the men who huddled before the coke fires in front
of many gates; the women who ladled soup and kept families together; those who passed leaflets, those who bargained; those who
|
had dared to wear union buttons i the plants.
The Union is the young men going in, the old men coming out, and
all the men
provinces.
and women
3
between, in all the cities, in all the states and
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The Union is a memory and a vision. The memory carried forward
into the vision, in an endlessly moving line of courage, of will, and of
hope. »
It is a- great Union. It is a great Union because it grows and grows,
yet never gets too big to be human.
a ee
- Item sets