The Most Dangerous Man In Detroit: Walter Reuther And The Fate Of American LaborWalter Reuther, the most imaginative and powerful trade union leader of the past half-century, confronted the same problems facing millions of working Americans today: how to use the spectacular productivity of our economy to sustain and improve the standard of living and security of ordinary Americans. As Nelson Lichtenstein observes, Reuther, the president of the United Automobile Workers from 1946 to 1970, may not have had all the answers, but at least he was asking the right questions. The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit vividly recounts Reuther's remarkable ascent: his days as a skilled worker at Henry Ford's great River Rouge complex, his two-year odyssey in the Soviet Union's infant auto industry in the early 1930s, and his immersion in the violent labor upheavals of the late 1930s that gave rise to the CIO. Under Reuther, the autoworkers' standard of living doubled. |
Contents
LIFE AT THE ROUGE | 13 |
RADICAL CADRE AND NEW DEAL UNION | 47 |
THE WEST SIDE LOCAL | 74 |
Copyright | |
15 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
activists AFL-CIO April August Auto Worker Automobile autoworkers Brothers Reuther campaign caucus Chrysler City civil rights collective bargaining Committee Communist contract Cormier and Eaton corporation December delegates Democratic Detroit Free Press economic election factional factory February Flint Ford Frankensteen George Meany GM's interview Jack Conway John Johnson June Kelsey-Hayes Kennedy labor movement leaders leadership Leonard Woodcock Lewis liberal March Martin Michigan militant Motors Murray National negotiations November October officers organized Party percent Philip Murray plant political postwar production quoted R. J. Thomas radicals Rauh Reuther brothers Reutherite Roosevelt Rouge Roy Reuther sit-down social Socialist Soviet strike thousand tion trade union Treaty of Detroit UAW executive board UAW president UAW-IEB Collection UAW-IEB minutes UAW's unionists United Auto Worker University Press Victor Reuther vote wage Walter Reuther Washington West Side working-class WPR Collection York