America at 250: Detroit labor union movement changes history for workers

FOX 2 - As the USA turns 250 years old, we're looking at the many ways Detroit and the state of Michigan have contributed to American culture.

The backstory:

Tonight we look at the labor movement and the United Auto Workers Union, founded in Detroit back in 1935.

Walter Reuther was president of the United Auto Workers from 1946 until he died in a plane crash in 1970. For him, the UAW was a movement and an instrument for social change.

"What is the great challenge free men must face?" he once said in a speech. "We have been working and fighting and struggling to build a better tomorrow."

And that fight happened here in Michigan.

Gavin Strassel is the UAW archivist at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University.

"Things really pick up in 1936 with the emergence of the Flint Sit-Down Strike," Strassel said. "Workers occupy the plant. They kick out management. They live at the plant, until management recognizes their demands."

Reuther was instrumental in organizing the strike against General Motors, demanding the right to unionize, better wages, and safe working conditions.

It's not without risk or violence. Workers inside armed themselves for self-defense against police and GM's private security guards. Improvised weapons used to protect themselves were called blackjacks.

"They're made from spare parts at the factory—things like extra strips of leather from the car seats," Strassel said. "They're full of bolts."

FOX 2: "The workers are making these to protect themselves?"

"Yes," Strassel said.

Outside, the Women's Emergency Brigade helps hold the line, wearing armbands and their signature red berets.

"They brought clubs with them, they brought pans because they were physically attacked, sometimes shot at," Strassel said. "They're putting their lives on the line."

It worked. The Flint Sit-Down Strike lasts 44 days but changes the future forever.

"It's an amazing moment in Michigan history," Strassel said. "Celebrating the end of the Flint Sit-Down Strike in early 1937. It was the first contract between a union and one of the Big Three, and it's one of those decisive moments that changes American history. And it happens here in Michigan."

Former TV 2 reporter Bill Gallagher revisited Reuther's legacy in reports from 1987.

"Walter Reuther has been called a visionary and was one of the most important labor leaders in our nation's history," Gallagher said in his report. "A plan is proposed to make armaments in Detroit's auto plants. Its author: Walter Reuther."

"So the arsenal of democracy and the auto industry can make its contribution to the present defense program," said Walter Reuther.

"Parts of Reuther's plan were eventually put into effect during the war, and Detroit's production proved critical for victory," reported Gallagher.

But it wasn't just Reuther's union leadership that made headlines.

Newsreel Narrator: "A shocked America hears that Walter Reuther, the fiery president of the CIO United Automobile Workers, is the victim of a would-be murderer."

Reuther survived the attempt on his life, and the UAW marched on.

"Walter Reuther and Martin Luther King Jr. were close allies in the fight for civil rights," reported Gallagher.

"We must work passionately and unrelentingly for first-class citizenship," said Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Equal rights and equal opportunities for all of our citizens," said Walter Reuther.

A partnership that took them both to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

It was there that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic speech, "I have a dream."

And Walter Reuther spoke as well.

FOX 2: "What do we have here?"

"These are photos related to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," said Strassel. "Not a lot of people know that a lot of the organizing and planning for that happened here in Michigan because the UAW was its largest financial supporter of it.

"They talked a lot about equality, about justice. But they put a lot of money toward that, too, which is something you need for a movement."

Walter Reuther: "No organization, either in the United States or in Canada, has done so much for so many in such a short period of human history, as has the UAW."

The current day UAW represents workers in almost every sector of the economy, not just for autoworkers. The union has more than 400,000 active members throughout the US, Canada and Puerto Rico – as well as 580,000 retired members.

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