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UAW President's Office: Walter P UAW President's Office: Walter P. Reuther Collection Papers, 1933-1970 (Predominantly, 1946-1970) 351 linear feet 3 scrapbooks 1 card file Accession Number 261 The papers of Walter P. Reuther were placed in the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs in several installments between 1967 and 1981. The papers received in 1967 were made available for research in 1968. The entire collection, incorporating the previously opened material, was opened for research in May of 1980. Walter P. Reuther was born in Wheeling, West Virginia on September 1, 1907, the son of an active unionist. He left high school at fifteen to become an apprentice toolmaker to help support his family. He moved to Detroit in 1926 and worked at the Briggs Manufacturing Company and the Ford Motor Company. During this period he completed his high school education and attended what is now Wayne State University for three years. In 1933 he was dismissed by Ford, possibly as a result of his organizing activities. At that point he and his brother, Victor, withdrew their savings and embarked on a bicycle trip through Europe. The trip took them to the Soviet Union, where they worked at an automobile plant in Gorki, returning to the United States via the Far East in 1935. In Detroit, Reuther became intensely involved in the newly-formed United Automobile Workers Union, founding and becoming the first president of the West Side Local 174, and at the 1936 convention he was elected to the International Executive Board. At the 1942 convention he was elected a vice president. He was a leader with his brothers, Victor and Roy, in the General Motors sit-down strikes of 1936 and 1937. During an organizing campaign in 1937, he was beaten by Ford "service men" in an incident that came to be known as the "Battle of the Overpass." Early the next year he was the victim of an attempted kidnapping, also attributed to Ford "service men." Reuther served as director of the General Motors Department of the UAW from 1939 to 1948. He also served as director of the Fair Practices and Anti-Discrimination Department, which was created in 1946 with William Oliver as co-director. UAW President Walter P. Reuther Collection Even before the United States' entry into World War II, Reuther conceived the idea of mass production of military planes using automobile plant facilities. Despite initial opposition by industry, the "Reuther Plan," as it was known, was implemented once the country entered the war. During the war, he served on the War Manpower Commission and with the Office of Production Management. At the war's end, Reuther demanded a wage increase in negotiations with General Motors, coupled with the stipulation that GM not pass the cost along to the consumer through increased prices which would erode the advantage gained for the workers and contribute to inflation. Reuther failed to commit GM to this principle despite a 113-day strike, but the confrontation established him as an innovative negotiator whose sights were set on broader goals than those of traditional unionists. At the the convention in March of 1946, after a bitter contest in which he took a strong anti-Communist position, Reuther was elected president of the UAW, an office he held until his death. Later that year, he was elected a vice president of the CIO. In 1948 he was again the victim of an physical attack. His assailant, who was never apprehended despite intense efforts by the UAW, severely damaged Reuther's right arm with a shotgun blast. In 1952 Reuther succeeded Philip Murray as president of the CIO, and he led in efforts to merge the CIO and the AFL, which came about in December of 1955. He then became a vice president of the AFL-CIO and president of the Industrial Union Department. Disagreements over social issues, organizing unorganized workers, international labor and foreign policy,the Vietnam War and other matters, in which Reuther urged a more activist stance, led to the withdrawal of the UAW from the AFL-CIO in 1968. In 1969 the UAW formed the Alliance for Labor Action with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in order to further some of the programs Reuther had advocated while in the AFL-CIO. Under Reuther's leadership, the UAW gained for its members, among other collective bargaining breakthroughs, the guaranteed annual wage, supplemental unemployment benefits, cost-of-living escalator and annual improvement factor provisions, pension plans, health insurance for workers and their families and profit-sharing plans. During his twenty-four-year administration, the UAW established its identity as a powerful, well organized union, successful in protecting the rights and interests of its members, yet responsive to its social responsibilities. Reuther saw that improved living conditions for workers could not be achieved solely at the bargaining table and, consequently, used his influence to further needed social reforms. Throughout his career he fought discrimination, and he was an active participant in the civil rights movement from its inception. In addition, he worked for improved housing, better education, medical care, consumer rights and environmental causes. He was 2 UAW President Walter P. Reuther Collection also intensely interested in international affairs. He devoted considerable effort to working for peace and a strong United Nations organization, and he sought to create a structure of international labor organizations independent of Communist control. He advocated union participation in the political process through political. action committees, and under him, the UAW played a leading role in working for candidates sympathetic to their objectives. He also devoted much time to appearances before congressional committees to urge legislation favorable to labor and the social issues he championed. He served on numerous governmental panels studying such issues as atomic energy and technological change. He also worked energetically to better conditions in Detroit and Michigan, and in his last years, strove to effect urban reconciliation and remedy the causes of the 1967 Detroit riot. Because of the prominent public role that he played, Reuther participated in an extraordinary number of organizations and was a friend and confidant of many of the most prominent individuals in the country in various spheres. He was recognized as an effective orator and he maintained a busy schedule of speaking appearances. During his lifetime he was the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees. His career was cut short when he and his wife, May, who had shared in his beliefs and his work from the time of their marriage in 1936, were killed in the crash of a small plane while on their way to the UAW educational center at Black Lake, Michigan. They are survived by two daughters, Linda and Lisa. The papers of Walter Reuther reflect his career with the UAW from its beginning, although the documentation for the pre-presidential period is less complete. In addition to UAW material, there are extensive files relating to his work as an officer of the CIO, the AFL-CIO and the ALA. In addition, there is considerable material relating to international labor organizations, international affairs, other labor unions, organizations of various kinds and his work in the area of public affairs. 3 UAW President Walter P. Reuther Collection Important subjects covered in this collection are: Alliance for Labor Action American Motors AFL AFL-CIO Atomic energy Automation Chrysler Corporation Civil rights Communism CIO Defense Detroit urban affairs Education Environmental conservation Equal employment opportunity Ford Motor Company General Motors Corporation Guaranteed annual wage Health plans Housing International affairs International Confederation of Free Trade Unions International Metalworkers' Federation Jurisdictional disputes Korean War production New Detroit Organizing workers Peace Pensions Racial integration Skilled trades Strikes Supplemental unemployment benefits Technological change Tractors for Freedom Unemployment UAW factionalism United Nations Wage stabilization Women workers World War II production 4 UAW President Walter P. Reuther Collection Among the important correspondents are: Addes, George F. Stonorov, Oskar Bannon, Ken Strachan, D. Alan Bevan, Aneurin Thomas, Norman Bluestone, Irving Thomas, R. J. Bowles, Chester Truman, Harry S. Burt, George Weinberg, Nat Carey, James B. Wilkins, Roy Cavanagh, Jerome P. Winn, Frank Cisler, Walker L. Wirtz, W. Willard Conway, Jack Woodcock, Leonard Cushman, Edward L. Zwerdling, A. L. Dodds, William Douglas, Paul H. Edwards, George, Jr. Erlander, Tage Flemming, Arthur S. Fraser, Douglas Gerber, Martin Gettlinger, Larry Goldberg, Arthur J. Golden, Clinton S. Goodman, Leo Graedl, Adolphe Greathouse, Pat Haywood, Allan S. Higgins, Msgr. George G. Humphrey, Hubert E. Johnson, Lyndon B. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Robert Mazey, Emil McClellan, John L Meany, George Montgomery, Donald E. Morris, Ken Randolph, A. Philip Rauh, Joseph L., Jr. Reuther, Victor Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, James Schnitzler, William F. Scholle, August Schrade, Paul Sinclair, Upton Stevenson, Adlai E. 5 UAW President Walter P. Reuther Collection In addition to this collection, other UAW collections at the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs contain considerable information about Walter Reuther, notably those from departments headed by his brothers Victor and Roy, the UAW General Motors Department Collection, the UAW Secretary-Treasurer Collections of George Addes and Emil Mazey, the UAW Local 174 Collection and the UAW Fair Practices and Anti-Discrimination Collection. Non-UAW collections providing information on Reuther are the Norbert Wiener Collection, the Citizens' Crusade Against Poverty Collection, the CIO Executive Board Minutes and Proceedings Collection and the CIO Washington Office Collection. The Archives also holds oral histories of May, Roy and Victor Reuther and many other UAW members and officials, which contain passages relating to the career of Walter Reuther. Among the many published biographies of Reuther are The Brothers Reuther by Victor Reuther, Reuther by Frank Cormier and William J.
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