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1997 Newsletter

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1997 Newsletter eut efLibrary Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs University Archives Fall1997 Fraser Center for Workplace Issues Debuts The Walter P. Reuther Library is honored to join Wayne State University's College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs (CULMA) and others in announcing the creation of the Douglas A. Fraser Center for Workplace Issues at a dinner celebration November 12th. The event also signals the start of a fund-raising campaign to support the endowed center which will pay tribute to the Douglas Fraser former UAW president's lifelong commitment to justice workplace relations and leadership skills for personnel at and equity in the American all levels. These and other programs will focus on an workplace and his service to array of core issues within the workplace, such as Wayne State University and the collective bargaining, ethical behavior, the impact of larger community. technology, labor-management cooperation, employment A national advisory board security, and family needs. composed of civic leaders and representatives of labor, management, and academe will direct the work of the Fraser Reuther Library Web Site Center, conceived as a forum for employers, workers, and Calling all Internet surfers! If you haven't checked scholars to discuss a multi- out our Web site yet, you should. The Reuther plicity of issues affecting the Library Web site has been up and running for modern workplace. CULMA, a almost two years and it just keeps getting better. non-traditional college whose Tune in and you'll find important information on approach is interdisciplinary our services and programs, feature stories on topics and issue-oriented, provides the in labor, urban, and Wayne State University history, perfect venue for formulating subject area reference tools, and a complete list of and implementing policies and collections. Especially useful are e-mail links to all practical programs relating to staff members and a "Hot Links" page that provides the workplace as a social, quick access to most labor archives in North political, and economic setting. America and to the home pages of our major union The Center will be involved donors. The Reuther Library Web site is continu- in a number of activities, Wayne StateUniversity ally enhancing its offerings, so set your favorite including technical assistance; Web browser for www.reuther. wayne.edu and College of Urban, Labor and research and publication; enjoy! Metropolitan Affairs workshops, seminars, and conferences; and training in Douglas Fraser Walter Reutherrecognized his That struggle negotiating skills and made required him Exhibit Opens him an administrative assistant. and his union Later be was elected co- to become part director of Region 1A. of the debate To mark the occasion of the Given the reins of the on a wide Fraser Center announcement, Chrysler Department with his range of issues the Reuther Library will open a election to the UAW interna- not tradition- major exhibit tracing the life tional executive board in 1962, ally the and career of Douglas Fraser. Fraser helped negotiate a preserve of the Respected by his adversaries as number of historic contract labor move- a man of honesty and integrity, gains, including early retire- ment, like Doug Fraser's lack of preten- ment, S.-Canada wage health care, sion, natural camaraderie, and parity, restrictions on compul- social welfare, energetic advocacy on their sory overtime, a comprehen- civil rights, behalf have endeared him to the ) sive health and safety program, housing, rank and file as well. Heart and accelerated arbitration, pension education, and soul a union man, his work was benefit increases, and improve- the environ- and is his life. ments in the. cost of living ment. He also understood that Doug Fraser (second from allowance. He was to solve workers' problems, the left) and Chrylser negotiating elected a vice- union must move outside the team discussing strategy with De Soto Workers UA W president, Walter president in 1970 bargaining room into the Reuther (right), 1958 and president in political arena where interna- 1977, as the Ameri- tional trade and national can auto industry economic policies are decided. was losing market Doug Fraser retired from the share to the Japanese UAW in 1983 and joined the FRASER f and the union was faculty of Wayne State Univer- losing membership. sity with what he describes, in G G Secretory-Treasure r ... ED. (RED GRANT An early adherent typically self-effacing fashion, Trustee . D f7 ' D - of the UAW's as the "concocted" title of u Guide ... u Fraser University Professor of Labor N - N nonetheless quickly Studies. A member of the UAW N N adopted the prag- executive board that gave p L E E A matic style of his unanimous approval to the p ARE - THE 0 L of E hero and mentor, funding of the original building E R THE ARE THE s Walter Reuther, who housing the Archives of Labor viewed workers as and Urban Affairs, "Professor" UAWW Local227 election flyer, 1944 consumers fueling Fraser's office in that building's Fraser and longtime friend the economy that Woodcock Wing makes him a and colleague, UA W vice- employed them. member of the Reuther Library president and GM director, Born the son of an electrician During his presidency, he family. Irving Bluestone, at a in a working class district of continued to whittle away at demonstration outside GM Glasgow, Scotland in 1916, managerial prerogatives and headquarters during 1979 Doug came to Detroit with his fashioned programs like trade contract talks family at the age of six. He assistance allowances for job dropped out of high school at retraining to help workers 17, after a serious bout with adjust to competition and save rheumatic fever. A few years their jobs. In return for later he got a job at Chrysler's contract concessions, Chrysler DeSoto plant as a "dingman," gave him a seat on its board of smoothing out wrinkled sheet directors in 1980, the first time metal, and he joined the a union leader sat on the board fledgling UAW Over the next of a major corporation. forty years, he worked his way Fraser early on imbibed his up the union ranks, first as father's socialist politics and president of DeSoto Local 227 moral outrage at the indignities and then on the staff of the suffered by workers and, like Chrysler Department, where, Reuther, engaged the UAW in during the long 1950 strike, the struggle for social justice. Pa e 2 government wiretapping, and From the Director ... affirmative action. The project, jointly sponsored It has been several years since the Last issue of by the Law School, CULMA, the Reuther Library newsletter appeared. During that and the Reuther Library, en- time, much has been accomplished-5o much, in fact, compasses not only the estab- that space permits only a brief mention of some major lishment of a national archive of initiatives. African-American legal history, Certainly, joining the technological revolution in but also the preparation of information services ranked high on our List of instructional materials and priorities. The first step in our automation effort was exhibits for educational out- to ensure access of the entire staff to computers, and reach, an oral history compo- to Link those computers to each other and to the nent, a visiting lectureship, and Judge Damon Keith incredible resources of the Internet. As part of our a research grant program. continuing effort to incorporate computers into the To learn more about the everyday work of serving our patrons, we spent a year Damon J. Keith Collection and Judge Keith, creating an automated shelf List of our holdings and Law Collection visit the Damon J. Keith Law recently installed a computerized log to track Collection Web site at reference requests. Established www.reuther. wayne.edu/ We have also made substantial progress in damonkeith.html. cataloging our manuscript collections, oral histories, books, and serials for retrieval via the national on- The seeds of the Damon J. line catalogs, making remote access possible. And a Keith Law Collection were three-year project to reduce the backlog of planted at a November, 1993 unprocessed collections dramatically increased the reception announcing the start .~ of a national campaign to raise a 1on amount of textual and audiovisual material available Nt to researchers. funds to support the collection (OWorks Recognizing that conserving the past is labor and its programs. Supporters .r::. intensive, we have sought and received the invaluable used the occasion to articulate help of the Service Employees International Union Wayne State University Emeri- I- and the American Federation of Teachers in providing tus Professor of Law, Edward J. professional archivists to care for their collections. Littlejohn's dream of a central The Reuther Library, in Finally, we have continued to enrich the holdings of repository documenting the partnership with the Detroit the archives. Perhaps the most notable recent substantial historical accom- Public Library and the Detroit acquisition is the Detroit News photographic plishments of African-Ameri- Historical Museum, hosted a negative collection, consisting of several hundred can lawyers, judges, and other series of six public "conversa- thousand images of Detroit over the last century. individuals and organizations tions on American pluralism Our expanded outreach effort includes this prominent in the legal struggle and identity" this past winter, newsletter and the Reuther Library Web site, profiled for racial justice. With the designed to explore how our on the front page. We are also undertaking a series of search for a project director attitudes about work both define major exhibitions, both in the Reuther Library currently under way, that dream and are shaped by the diversity Gallery and at other sites. This summer, we installed edges closer to reality.
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