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- Description:
- Wayne Nunheimer recalls his career at REO Motor Car Company/Diamond-Reo Trucks, Inc., in Lansing, MI, from 1945 to 1975. He talks about his father working for REO, the REO Clubhouse, the 1937 strike, the company in the post-war period, his job as a spot welder, lawnmower production, piecework and the beautiful REO Flying Cloud automobile. Nunheimer also recalls the mergers which led to the end of the company, ongoing legal battles in bankruptcy, and says how fortunate workers were to have union representation and what a positive influence the union was in the plant. The interviewers are Shirley Bradley and Lisa Fine. Recorded as part of the REO Memories oral history project.
- Date Issued:
- 1992-06-18T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Labor activist Max Gazen talks about being born in the Netherlands in 1897, coming to the U.S. at age nine, working in Grand Rapids, MI, and joining the merchant marine. He also talks about working for the Hotel and Restaurant Workers union, being a delegate to the Detroit Federation of Labor, his participation in the wave of sit-down strikes, helping to cook for the Flint sit-down strikers, union leaders, strikes and picket-lines, and racial discrimination.
- Date Issued:
- 1980-09-20T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Don Stevens, former Michigan State University trustee and AFL-CIO board member, reminisces about his childhood, family, farming, his early education, and his experiences with labor unions and union organizing. Stevens talks about his early work life, hearing about unions during the auto sit-down strikes in 1936 and 1937, listening to radio preachers condemn unions, and failed attempts to unionize a laundry where he worked and later success in organizing dairy and retail workers in the Grand Rapids area in the 1940s. Stevens also discusses CIO leadership during the war, union political efforts regarding health and safety, unemployment insurance, higher wages, and seniority rights and his own involvement in the growing union movement and labor organizing. Stevens is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor of Labor and Industrial Relations. Part one of four.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-02-08T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Michigan State University Professor Emeritus of Economics C. Patrick "Lash" Larrowe, talks about his family and childhood in Portland, OR, how his interest in working class issues and unionism grew and why he chose economics as a way of teaching about labor issues. Larrowe describes his early union experiences while in college, joining the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists, his service in World War Two, getting his first professorship at the University of Utah, and finally coming to work at the Labor and Industrial Relations Center at MSU. Larrowe discusses settling in at MSU and the people he worked with including, Jack Stieber, Charles Killingsworth, and MSU President John Hannah. He also explains the tensions between the Labor School and state conservatives and why the MSU faculty grievance system was created in the face of professors being terminated. Larrowe says he left the Labor School and moved to the Economics Department when his research and published material was threatened with censorship. Larrowe is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor of Labor and Industrial Relations.
- Date Issued:
- 1989-06-12T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Former steelworker and labor leader Tom Turner talks about his childhood and education in River Rouge and Ecorse, Mi and his involvement in organized labor and the civil rights movement. Turner also talks about discrimination and segregation in Detroit and in the workplace, his time as president of the Detroit NAACP and president of the Wayne County AFL-CIO, and the many labor leaders who inspired him. Turner says that black trade union leaders constantly and successfully pressured employers and organized labor to widen access for minorities to skilled trades and better paying jobs.
- Date Issued:
- 1982-03-11T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Don tells of being hired in 1962 at Flint Chevrolet, AC Spark Plug and describes his first years and Army service. He talks about his educational accomplishments and entering skilled trades in 1982. Don explains why he declined to go on management several times and why he has always respected the union. He comments on the Flint strikes, wildcats, the differences between Flint and Lansing, UAW-management relations differences, females in skilled trades, and the 1984 change to small cars in Lansing.
- Date Issued:
- 2005-12-19T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Floyd Loew, waiter and strike organizer, describes an altercation between the Waiters and Waitresses Union and members of the German American Bund when they tried to hire waitresses without going through the union. Loew also talks about how the union organized the hotels and convention halls in Detroit, strikes, sit-downs, and other labor actions, and integrating the union and organizing Black waiters and cooks as a way to prevent them from being used as scabs.
- Date Issued:
- 1980-09-20T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Mabel McQueen talks about her career at REO Motor Car Company/Diamond-Reo Trucks, Inc, in Lansing, MI, from 1953 to 1975. She describes her youth on the family farm, working at Motor Wheel through the war, her work as a secretary and bookkeeper, her supervisors, and her feelings about the union. McQueen says that many of her family members also worked at REO and that REO itself felt like one big family. She says that the bankruptcy was a terrible time and that it was heartbreaking watching friends and co-workers being fired and losing their pensions. The interviewers are Shirley Bradley and Lisa Fine. Recorded as part of the REO Memories oral history project.
- Date Issued:
- 1992-06-16T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- In the second of two oral history interviews, Olga "Jo" Beltrame and her husband Ed Beltrame discuss their careers as union organizers for the United Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee (later called the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union). They talk about organizing the meat processing plants in Detroit, efforts to integrate the workforce at local restaurants, people thinking that childcare centers for workers were "socialist", organizing drives at packing plants in the South, the House Un-American Activities Committee, and management's exploitation of female workers. The Beltrames also talk about the efforts to organize Wolverine Worldwide in Michigan and the very difficult time they had. The couple says that they retired from organizing in 1974 and that unionism bettered their lives and the lives of millions of workers around the world. The Beltrames are interviewed by John Revitte, Michigan State University professor of Labor and Industrial Relations. The second of two interviews.
- Date Issued:
- 1982-12-07T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Musician Don "Doop" Duprie presents, "Making it in Detroit : songs of working class life." Duprie's music runs the gamut from rock to country as he seeks to bring out the sense of loss, confusion, and rage that accompany the struggle to make it in the Motor City. In between songs, Duprie talks about his life in River Rouge, MI, the inspiration for his songs, labor unions, his time as a firefighter, and his views on the gentrification of Detroit. Duprie is introduced by Michigan State University Professor John P. Beck. Part of the "Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives" Brown Bag series sponsored by the MSU School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, the MSU Museum, and the MSU Libraries. Held in the MSU Main Library.
- Date Issued:
- 2015-09-24T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection