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- Description:
- Layton Aves, a production worker and UAW organizer at REO Motor Cars/Diamond-Reo Trucks, Inc., claims that in the 1940s only Ku Klux Klan members were allowed to join the union and work at the Lansing, MI plant. Aves says the UAW cooperated with the Klan in order to increase its strength and ability to organize workers and that union-management relations in the plant were often filled with animosity. Aves also talks about his duties at REO, where he worked from 1941 to 1975, life in the plant, his experiences with line speed-ups, piece counts, and time study, and the lives of his grandfather, father and mother, who all worked beside him the the REO factory. The interviewers are Shirley Bradley and Lisa Fine. Recorded as part of the REO Memories oral history project.
- Date Issued:
- 1995-08-08T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Jim talks about being hired in June 1962 as a clerk at Pontiac then moving to supervision and eventually area manager. Jim talks about his first day at Fisher in Lansing. He shares his perceptions about labor and management, General Motors, the community, best and worst memories, and his style of managing. Jim talks about Lansing workers and their work ethic, working with the local UAW president on the line, and relations with Local 602 and Local 652.
- Date Issued:
- 2005-10-19T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Lansing autoworker Gary Watson, president of UAW Local 652, discusses his career at the General Motors Oldsmobile Main Plant in Lansing, MI. He talks about being born near Lansing, starting at the GM Fisher Body plant in 1957, moving to Oldsmobile after a series of layoffs and recalls, becoming a journeyman tinsmith and active in the union, efforts to desegregate the skilled trades, and bringing women into the trades. Watson also talks about being a local president, training new committee people, teaching existing members about unionism and the UAW, how his local and the international UAW function, how decisions are made, and why the union conducts political action efforts, and community projects. Watson is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor of Labor and Industrial Relations.
- Date Issued:
- 1993-04-30T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Bill Braman, retired regional representative of the Allied Industrial Workers (AIW) union, talks about his youth and coming to Lansing in 1961 and starting at Motor Wheel in 1965. He says he quickly became involved in the union and became president of his local in 1970 and recalls strikes in 1971 and 1974, the split with the UAW, and getting to know UAW leader Walter Reuther and AIW leader Lester Washburn. Braman also talks about Lansing politics, becoming President of the Greater Lansing Labor Council, and retiring from the AIW 1996. Braman is interviewed by Labor and Industrial Relations professor John Revitte.
- Date Issued:
- 2002-08-28T00:00:00Z
- 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, talks about strife in the CIO and the division between different locals, Water Reuther backing Gus Scholle for leadership of the Michigan CIO and the left-right fight within the CIO. He discusses efforts by the University of Michigan to establish a labor program and says that General Motors and Michigan Bell put "spys" into the classes and demanded that the program be "killed," which led to the establishment of the CIO education facility in Port Huron Stevens also recalls John Hannah's interest in establishing a labor program at MSU as the Republican majority in the state declined and Hannah's defense of the program before the Michigan Senate. He says that Hannah also called a special trustee meeting in 1963 in an attempt to bar two left-wing speakers from campus, and later wanted to expel antiwar demonstration leaders. Stevens is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor of Labor and Industrial Relations. Part two of four.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-02-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Jim talks about being hired in June 1962 as a clerk at Pontiac then moving to supervision and eventually area manager. Jim talks about his first day at Fisher in Lansing. He shares his perceptions about labor and management, General Motors, the community, best and worst memories, and his style of managing. Jim talks about Lansing workers and their work ethic, working with the local UAW president on the line, and relations with Local 602 and Local 652.
- Date Issued:
- 2005-10-19T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Lansing autoworker Gary Watson, president of UAW Local 652, discusses his career at the General Motors Oldsmobile Main Plant in Lansing, MI. He talks about being born near Lansing, starting at the GM Fisher Body plant in 1957, moving to Oldsmobile after a series of layoffs and recalls, becoming a journeyman tinsmith and active in the union, efforts to desegregate the skilled trades, and bringing women into the trades. Watson also talks about being a local president, training new committee people, teaching existing members about unionism and the UAW, how his local and the international UAW function, how decisions are made, and why the union conducts political action efforts, and community projects. Watson is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor of Labor and Industrial Relations.
- Date Issued:
- 1993-04-30T00:00:00Z
- 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, talks about strife in the CIO and the division between different locals, Water Reuther backing Gus Scholle for leadership of the Michigan CIO and the left-right fight within the CIO. He discusses efforts by the University of Michigan to establish a labor program and says that General Motors and Michigan Bell put "spys" into the classes and demanded that the program be "killed," which led to the establishment of the CIO education facility in Port Huron Stevens also recalls John Hannah's interest in establishing a labor program at MSU as the Republican majority in the state declined and Hannah's defense of the program before the Michigan Senate. He says that Hannah also called a special trustee meeting in 1963 in an attempt to bar two left-wing speakers from campus, and later wanted to expel antiwar demonstration leaders. Stevens is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor of Labor and Industrial Relations. Part two of four.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-02-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Bill Braman, retired regional representative of the Allied Industrial Workers (AIW) union, talks about his youth and coming to Lansing in 1961 and starting at Motor Wheel in 1965. He says he quickly became involved in the union and became president of his local in 1970 and recalls strikes in 1971 and 1974, the split with the UAW, and getting to know UAW leader Walter Reuther and AIW leader Lester Washburn. Braman also talks about Lansing politics, becoming President of the Greater Lansing Labor Council, and retiring from the AIW 1996. Braman is interviewed by Labor and Industrial Relations professor John Revitte.
- Date Issued:
- 2002-08-28T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Layton Aves, a production worker and UAW organizer at REO Motor Cars/Diamond-Reo Trucks, Inc., claims that in the 1940s only Ku Klux Klan members were allowed to join the union and work at the Lansing, MI plant. Aves says the UAW cooperated with the Klan in order to increase its strength and ability to organize workers and that union-management relations in the plant were often filled with animosity. Aves also talks about his duties at REO, where he worked from 1941 to 1975, life in the plant, his experiences with line speed-ups, piece counts, and time study, and the lives of his grandfather, father and mother, who all worked beside him the the REO factory. The interviewers are Shirley Bradley and Lisa Fine. Recorded as part of the REO Memories oral history project.
- Date Issued:
- 1995-08-08T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection