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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:
- 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:
- Ken Germanson, Allied Industrial Workers international union staff member, AIW newspaper editor, and president of the Wisconsin Labor History Society (WLHS), talks with Labor and Industrial Relations Professor Emeritus John Revitte via telephone. Germanson talks about the founding of the United Auto Workers labor union and the life of labor activist Gabe Jewell and his participation in organizing the UAW. Germanson also talks about the rise of Homer Martin to the UAW presidency, General Motors recognition of the UAW, AFL leader John L. Lewis, and the UAW splitting into two competing caucuses. Germanson says that Jewell called the Reuther faction "Detroit radicals", quotes Jewell as saying Martin had become too impressed with himself and power mad, that there were Communist units in several UAW locals, and that Lansing, MI labor leader Lester Washburn was "a nice guy but weak". Part 4 of 7.
- Date Issued:
- 2015-11-24T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- African American autoworker Horace Sheffield talks about his union activism in the UAW, his role in preventing a race war in Detroit in 1940s, and his role in organizing Ford. Sheffield also talks about his association with UAW leaders, serving on the union staff, working to integrate the union leadership, and forming the Trade Union Leadership Council (TULC).
- Date Issued:
- 1982-02-18T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Darrell Tennis, labor activist and political consultant, talks about his career advocating for Michigan organized labor. Tennis reflects on working for a number of labor unions before finally opening his own consulting firm in Lansing. Tennis also talks about lobbying in the state, the influence of the United Auto Workers in the AFL-CIO, tensions between unions as state workers were organized, the administrations of Governor William Milliken and John Engler, and the creation of the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration. He says that he expects continued attempts to privatize public services in the state, that electing more Democrats to office does not insure a pro-labor legislature and that a fundamental problem in Michigan politics is the "gerrymandering" of voting districts. Tennis is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor emeritus of Labor and Industrial Relations.
- Date Issued:
- 2008-12-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Keith Groty, former MSU Assistant Vice President of Personnel and Employee Relations, talks about his involvement with the university's Faculty Grievance Procedure (FGP). Groty says that he supported the FGP because he saw it as a mechanism for heading off faculty unionization, but that he really didn't have a role in the development of the FGP or the position of Faculty Grievance Official (FGO). Groty also says that MSU's FGP has worked through the years because it found an appropriate balance between the administration's power and faculty concerns. He talks about the failed faculty attempts at unionization and says that the main issue at MSU was always the disparity in faculty pay. Groty is interviewed by Robert Banks, former Associate Vice President for Academic Human Resources and professor emeritus of the James Madison College at MSU, and John Revitte, MSU professor emeritus of Labor and Industrial Relations. Via telephone.
- Date Issued:
- 2018-06-11T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Charles Killingsworth discusses the establishment of the Michigan State University Labor and Industrial Relations Center in 1956, which later became the School of Labor and Industrial Relations (SLIR). Killingsworth, who came to MSU in 1947 to teach economics, says that he was asked by MSU President John Hannah to start and head the SLIR. He gives details on the school's beginnings, and explains why it was considered important by the university to provide an extension service to labor and business with accompanying research and scholarship. He also discusses faculty he hired through the years, the school's relationship with labor organizations, how the school expanded to offer graduate degrees and why he left the directorship to focus on teaching and arbitration, Ends abruptly. Killingsworth is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor of Labor and Industrial Relations.
- Date Issued:
- 1991-10-24T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Walter Campbell, former Regional Director for the Allied Industrial Workers (AIW) Region 7 in west Michigan and former Secretary-Treasurer of the Michigan State AFL-CIO, talks about the beginnings of the United Way, a coalition of charitable organizations pooling their efforts in fundraising and support. Campbell describes how community fund raising began in cities in Michigan and how labor unions became involved in the 1930s and 1940s. Campbell says that in 1947 Walter Reuther and Henry Ford II cooperated to create the United Way of Michigan which served to streamline giving and emphasized the positive role unions can play in their communities. He also talks about his work life and his involvement in organized labor. Campbell is interviewed by John Revitte, Michigan State University professor of Labor and Industrial Relations.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-03-07T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Walt Campbell, former Regional Director for the Allied Industrial Workers (AIW) Region 7 in west Michigan and former Secretary-Treasurer for the Michigan State AFL-CIO, talks about Michigan labor history, and the Michigan AFL-CIO, the organization's leadership in the 1950s and 1960s. Campbell also talks about the merger of the AFL and CIO in 1955, his rise to a leadership position in the Michgian AFL-CIO, the UAW leaving the AFL-CIO, and politics and variousl pieces of labor legislation. Campbell is interviewed by John Revitte, Michigan State University Professor of Labor and Industrial Relations.
- Date Issued:
- 1985-03-27T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Ken Germanson, Allied Industrial Workers international union staff member, AIW newspaper editor, and president of the Wisconsin Labor History Society (WLHS), talks with Michigan State University Labor and Industrial Relations Professor Emeritus John Revitte via telephone. They discuss pending labor conferences at which they they hope to present, the founding of WLHS, AIW members and leaders they know and the varied attitudes among workers about unions. They also talk about the division among labor activists and anti-war activists in the late 1960s and early 70s and how that played to management's advantage, early socialists and how some of them were racist while others were pro-civil rights and other possible topics they might discuss in the future, including health and safety, collective bargaining, pensions and plant closings.
- Date Issued:
- 2018-04-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection