Hello everybody at Local 2250. We’re here today with the 2023 national negotiators. We would like to thank you for when you were called, you led the charge to stand up and strike General Motors. This strike is about equal pay for equal work, job security, and most importantly, respect. Long hours, stagnant wages, lack of family time, lack of retirement security, double digit inflation have us all frustrated. Let’s talk about our storied history of the UAW. On November 9, 1947, at the 7th UAW Constitutional Convention, Walter Reuther spoke about our practical job. In this speech, he states: ...
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Fifty-two years ago on May 9, our union and the world lost a great leader – Walter Reuther. Walter, his wife May, architect Oskar Stonorov, bodyguard William Wolfman, and pilots George Evans and Joseph Karrafa perished in a plane crash in Pellston, Michigan. In our union, Reuther is a larger than life figure who inspires us to this day. In life, he challenged members and leaders to join together in solidarity to fight for a better world. He was innovative at the bargaining table, always thinking about how to create real economic security and equity for members. He was in ...
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Today we celebrate the 114th anniversary of the birth of UAW President Walter Reuther with a look back at his remarkable life and his lasting impact on the American labor movement:
Today marks the 51st anniversary of the tragic loss of UAW President Walter Reuther and his wife, May. Take a look back at Reuther’s life and his lasting impact on the American labor movement:
Now an International event, Earth Day has been celebrated since April 22, 1970 and its origins are here in the United States. In fact, this annual celebration wouldn’t exist without legendary UAW leader Walter Reuther. In 1970, environmental protection was gaining momentum as an urgent national issue. Nationwide environmental teach-ins were held in the spring and, with the help of activist Denis Hayes, who coined the name “Earth Day,” more than 20 million people marched in support of protecting the earth from environmental destruction. UAW President Walter Reuther took notice and pledged the UAW’s financial and membership support for the ...
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Walter P. Reuther is an icon and an American hero of the working class. For those of us at the UAW, there are almost no words powerful enough to describe what he means to this union and our members. And for me, as the current president of the UAW, I am so humbled and inspired by his vision, his life’s work, his tireless fight for human and civil rights and simply put, the example he set as an extraordinary human being. Today, we mark the 50th anniversary of the plane crash that tragically took the lives of UAW President Walter ...
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Upon Walter Reuther’s untimely death in 1970, tributes poured in from around the country. Elected officials, newspapers, and working Americans sent their heartfelt condolences at the loss of one of America’s great labor leaders. We’ve compiled some of the eulogies below as a reminder of the impact Reuther had, and continues to have, on the lives of so many Americans. “You didn’t have to carry a UAW card to be one of Walter Reuther’s constituents. You were part of Reuther’s constituency if you were poor, powerless, a consumer, an outdoorsman, if you were old, if you were sick, if ...
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May 9th marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the UAW’s longest-serving president, Walter Reuther. Throughout the week, we’ll be celebrating his life and remembering his legacy with photos and videos from the UAW archives. Follow along all week here on UAW.org as well as on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.
America’s Black History, which we celebrate this month, offers abundant examples across the centuries of how one person can make a difference, how one person can move an entire people forward. I am lucky enough to have witnessed the results of two such difference makers firsthand, both in my job and in my life. Two men who found each other in their individual fight for human rights, and in doing so, helped shape the future of our nation. So, this February, I would like to pay tribute to that relationship, to two heavyweight champions who fought together for America’s soul, ...
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Walter Reuther can be said to have done more for more American workers than any other leader in the labor movement. He spent his life ensuring American workers have a voice at the table with management, a voice still exercised today by workers in contract negotiations that will affect millions of working families. He was president of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) from 1946 to 1970. Born into a West Virginia union family in 1907, he learned at an early age the importance of unions, social justice and political action. He and his brother Victor joined the auto industry when ...
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