WALTER REUTHER: Working-Class Hero

Men with queasy stomachs had no place one afternoon last week on the overpass at the No. 4 gate of Henry Ford’s great River Rouge plant.” So began TIME’s account of the Battle of the Overpass, the confrontation that made May 26, 1937, a red-letter day in labor history and brought to national attention a young United Auto Workers official named Walter P. Reuther.

That morning Reuther and his colleagues suspected the day’s events could escalate into something historic as they prepared to hand out organizing leaflets (slogan: “Unionism, Not Fordism”) to the plant’s workers. Reuther had put on his Sunday suit, complete with vest, gold watch and chain. He had invited newspapermen, priests and local officials to be witnesses.

When Reuther and three other officials arrived at the gate, Ford company police charged at them and delivered a brutal, prolonged beating. Pictures of the battered victims were published across the U.S., a huge p.r. victory that would slowly but surely lead, several years later, to U.A.W. organization at the plant.

The pictures, ironically, capture the wrong image of Walter Reuther. While he arrived on the national scene as a scuffler with blood on his face, he would evolve into one of labor’s most dynamic and innovative leaders, as well as a humanitarian whose impact ranged well beyond his field. His achievements were guided by his oft expressed philosophy of human endeavor: “There is no greater calling than to serve your fellow men. There is no greater contribution than to help the weak. There is no greater satisfaction than to have done it well.” Reuther believed it wholeheartedly and, as they say, walked the talk.

He was nurtured to a devoted commitment to unionism. His father, a brewery-wagon driver and union leader in Wheeling, W.Va., had the family regularly discuss the role of unions, as well as social and economic issues. Like thousands of others who lived in poor regions such as West Virginia, Walter and two of his brothers, Roy and Victor, migrated to the Detroit area to find jobs in the auto industry. Not surprisingly, they became actively involved in the budding United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers Union.

Reuther was 29 in 1936, when he became president of Local 174. It was a tumultuous period in labor history, when the U.A.W. literally fought for survival. Reuther became one of the union’s generals, directing a series of sit-down strikes and other guerrilla tactics to try to organize auto plants. He soon gained national prominence and even entry into President Roosevelt’s White House. He and his wife May also became great friends of Eleanor Roosevelt’s. It’s not difficult to see why he was welcome. In 1940, a year before Pearl Harbor, he proposed converting available capacity in auto plants to military production. Echoing F.D.R.’s “Arsenal of Democracy” stance, he urged that the industry turn out “500 planes a day.” His plan was harshly criticized by the corporations, which were unwilling to give up any part of their profitable business. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the rapid conversion to military production validated Reuther’s vision.

At the 1946 U.A.W. convention, Reuther emerged as president in a closely fought race, on a platform against Soviet communist “outside interference” and for a new, more socially conscious approach to collective bargaining. He pledged to work for “a labor movement whose philosophy demands that it fight for the welfare of the public at large…We won the war. The task now is to win the peace.” Two years later, a would-be assassin, for reasons still unknown, fired shots through Reuther’s kitchen window, shattering his right arm.

During the postwar boom, Reuther campaigned for wage increases, winning a major victory in a 1948 settlement with General Motors that established the concept of an annual wage increase (annual improvement factor) tied to a quarterly cost of living allowance. The AIF-COLA formula has, over the years, been a pillar of progress in enhancing workers’ living standards and ensuring protection of the purchasing power of the earned dollar against the impact of inflation.

After his breakthroughs on wages, Reuther pressed for improved benefits. He had a penchant for slogans, and they often became rallying cries for the union’s programs. “Too Old to Work–Too Young to Die” was one, used to negotiate pension plans. “Thirty and Out” was aimed at a contract clause permitting retirement after 30 years of service, regardless of age. “We Live by the Year–We Should Be Paid by the Year” was behind the demand for a guaranteed annual wage. The ultimate bargaining victory was the Supplementary Unemployment Benefit, which now mandates a 95% replacement of wages in the event of layoffs.

Reuther kept pressing for new and better benefits, and over time, the union won the things that employees today take for granted. Year by year, workers gained, among others, comprehensive health-care programs, tuition-refund programs, life insurance, profit sharing, severance pay, prepaid legal-service plans, bereavement pay, jury-duty pay–plus improvements in vacations, holidays and rest time. The negotiation of decent working, health and safety conditions, coupled with a sound grievance procedure, added immeasurably to the personal sense of dignity and self-respect of the worker.

Reuther’s activism couldn’t be contained by the collective-bargaining arena. One of many social problems that spurred him to action was the despoiling of the Great Lakes, particularly Lake Erie, a dying body of water that has been substantially revived by the cleanup effort he supported. At home, he helped mobilize volunteers to restore Paint Creek, a stream running through his community. He became actively involved in developing low-cost housing units in Detroit’s inner city, including the Martin Luther King Jr. complex in downtown Detroit.

Long before medical costs became a national issue, Reuther was advocating universal health care. He organized the Committee of One Hundred to put the issue on the national agenda and set the stage for congressional action. At the same time, he helped establish one of the early HMOs, an association that eventually became the Health Alliance Plan, a major health-care provider in the metropolitan Detroit area. Whether testifying before Congress or elsewhere, Reuther threw his weight behind the public issues of the day. He called for a Citizens Crusade Against Poverty, federal aid to housing and education, the peaceful use of atomic energy and a national minimum wage.

Trade unions have a mixed record in civil rights–but not Reuther, who from early on was an ardent advocate. He organized the Citizens Committee for Equal Opportunity and worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. Reuther was one of the few non-African Americans invited to speak at the March on Washington in 1963. A favorite anecdote concerned his introduction to the crowd. Standing close to the podium were two elderly women. As he was introduced, one of the women was overheard asking her friend, “Who is Walter Reuther?” The response: “Walter Reuther? He’s the white Martin Luther King.”

In 1955, as president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, Reuther negotiated a historic merger with the American Federation of Labor, headed by George Meany. Reuther then headed up the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Union Department, but 13 years later, sharp differences over policy and programs led to the U.A.W.’s withdrawal from the organization–it would stay out until reaffiliating in 1981.

For Reuther, unionism was not confined simply to improving life at the workplace. He viewed the role of the union as a social movement aimed at uplifting the community within the guarantees of democratic values. After his untimely death, with May, in a plane crash in 1970, waves of downsizing devastated cities and created problems for labor that still exist today. You can just imagine him wading into the fight against wanton job destruction, done for the sake of propping up corporate balance sheets.

One of his favorite slogans was “Progress with the Community–Not at the Expense of the Community.” What is unmistakably clear is that Reuther, in his lifetime, fulfilled his own philosophy of human endeavor.

Irving Bluestone, retired U.A.W. vice president, is professor of labor studies at Wayne State University