Photo by DLReuther, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Earlier this month, Michigan State University Press published a biography I have written about my father entitled, Roy Reuther and the UAW: Fighting for Workers and Civil Rights. Through the sweep of his tumultuous life, we witness triumphs and tragedies in the labor and civil rights movements that still resonate today.
The book begins with the memorial service for my father on January 13, 1968. The political director of the United Auto Workers (UAW), Roy was the brother of famed labor leader Walter Reuther. Six hundred persons attended Roy’s memorial service, including 20 Senators and Representatives and two former Michigan governors. U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy also came, and broke down in tears. Two judges on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals gave moving eulogies about Roy’s contributions and character. President Johnson and Vice President Humphrey sent condolence letters paying tribute to him.
In telling the story of Roy’s life, the book depicts the rise of the UAW from the 1930s through the 1960s, as it became the most important industrial union in the country and a leading force for progressive politics and civil rights. Over the course of the book, we see Roy fighting for the right of workers to organize unions, and then struggling to pass civil and voting rights legislation and to expand registration and voting in elections.
While much has been written about Walter Reuther, Roy’s older brother and president of the UAW from 1946 to 1970, little has been written about Roy and his important role in the UAW and other social justice movements. As Judge George Edwards said in his eulogy, “He is indeed one of a limited number of men about whom it might truthfully be said, that without him the American labor movement as we know it today might never have come to exist.”
As the book unfolds, Roy participates in seminal victories for workers and social justice. He was one of the leaders of the Flint sit-down strike in 1937 in which workers occupied three General Motors factories. During the strike, Roy was assaulted by company foremen, and witnessed police attacking workers in the occupied plants. After striking for 44 days, the workers ultimately forced GM to recognize the United Auto Workers (UAW) as the collective bargaining representative for the workers. This strike gave rise to the UAW as the leading industrial union in the United States.
Photo by Sheldon Dick, Wikimedia Commons
The biography goes on to chronicle Roy’s involvement in the factional struggles within the UAW, as well as the “Tool and Die” strike in 1939, during which the UAW won recognition as the sole representative for workers at General Motors. After Roy’s brothers Walter and Victor were severely wounded by would-be assassins, Roy and his family (including the author) had to live with oppressive security measures.
In 1949, Roy was appointed to lead the UAW’s Citizenship Department, effectively becoming the union’s political director. Throughout the 1950s, he threw himself into the task of building the union’s political organization, encouraging the membership to register and vote and to support progressive candidates for office. In 1960, Bobby Kennedy asked Roy to head up the registration and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts for JFK’s general election campaign. Concentrating his efforts in working class and minority communities in key swing states, Roy helped JFK prevail in that election. In 1963, Roy served on a presidential commission that recommended reforms to make it easier for individuals to register and vote. He later headed up registration and GOTV efforts for the AFL-CIO in the 1962 and 1964 elections.
Roy also was deeply involved in the struggles for civil and voting rights legislation. In 1959, he clashed with LBJ’s top aide, Bobby Baker, over efforts to reform the filibuster rule to make it easier to pass civil rights legislation. In 1961, at a banquet celebrating the UAW’s 25th anniversary, he listened to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. explain the shared tactics and interests of the labor and civil rights movements. Roy went on to participate in the major civil rights marches in Detroit, Washington, D.C., Selma, Montgomery, and Jackson. He threw himself into the lobbying efforts to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He also was present at the memorial services for martyrs of the movement, including Medgar Evers, James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo.
Roy was the first national labor leader to go to Delano to support Cesar Chavez and the strike by farmworkers against the table grape growers. Moved by their struggle, he convinced Walter and the UAW to support their cause. In 1967, after Texas Rangers had beaten picketing farmworkers in Starr County, Texas, at the request of Cesar Chavez, Roy flew down to the Rio Grande Valley to support their cause. He toured the colonias and saw first-hand the deplorable conditions in which the farmworkers lived. Later, he gave an impassioned speech to a rally of the striking farmworkers from the top of a union sound car.
Sadly, in January, 1968, Roy died from a heart attack at the young age of 58. Much has changed in our nation since then. The deindustrialization of America has continued, with the UAW’s membership declining from 1.6 million to just 400,000.
But many of the battles described in this biography of Roy Reuther are continuing in America today. We are still battling over the right of workers to organize, and the deleterious effects of racism in our country. We are still fighting over efforts to reform the filibuster, and to stop voter suppression measures. Accordingly, this book provides important context for the current efforts by workers to organize at Amazon, Starbucks and the foreign transplant auto factories. But it also provides vital context for the Black Lives Matter movement and protests against police killings of African Americans.
I believe the story of my father’s life provides several important lessons for these continuing struggles. It shows that dedicated and brave individuals can overcome enormous odds to win great victories for social justice. The sit-down strikers in Flint prevailed against GM, then the most powerful company in the country. The civil rights activists in the sixties triumphed over an entrenched system of apartheid.
Photo by DLReuther, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Roy’s life also shows the important linkages between the labor and civil rights movements. In his speech to the UAW’s 25th anniversary banquet, Dr. King drew a direct connection between the sit-down strikes in Flint and the sit-ins at lunch counters across the South saying, “We are proudly borrowing your techniques.” He went on to say, “It is axiomatic that what labor needs, Negroes need, and simple logic therefore puts us side by side in the struggle for all elements in the decent standard of living.”
As we go forward to confront the many challenges facing us today – challenges made more difficult by the reactionary policies of the current administration – I believe it is more important than ever that we continue to seek out alliances between the labor movement and social justice movements. We are stronger if we stand together. If we link arms and stand shoulder to shoulder, I believe we can stop the current onslaught, and once again begin to forge a path forward for progressive policies in our country.
Roy Reuther and the UAW: Fighting for Workers and Civil Rights is available through Michigan State University Press.
