Automobile industry workers

Abstract While a graduate history student at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Edward Savela conducted oral history interviews with retired Detroit-area auto workers on changes in the automobile industry as part of research for his master’s thesis. Collection consists of five interviews with retired UAW members chronicling their lengthy careers in the automobile industry in the Detroit metropolitan area. Transcripts and audio recordings available for each. Interviewees discuss apprenticeship...

Abstract Plant worker and graduate history student Richard Feldman interviewed UAW Local 900 members at Ford’s Michigan Truck Plant (many of whom had also worked at Wayne Assembly Plant) for his book, written with journalist Michael Betzold, End of the Line: Autoworkers and the American Dream, on the changing nature of the automobile industry, plant management and working conditions, union activities and status, and worker perspectives in the 1980s. Collection consists of 29...

Abstract This collection consists of the papers of Kenneth Forbes, a UAW leader in the Saginaw area. Forbes held different offices in the union including the President of Local 455 and was also active politically. His collection covers his active years in the union and his retirement and gives a glimpse into the life of the politics and challenges of an elected official in the UAW.

Abstract 'Bill' Williams was a prominent figure in CIO Local 76 (later UAW Local 560), Ford Motor Co. assembly plant in Richmond, CA., helping to organize workers and serve as an officer. His papers reflect events at the plant surrounding the jurisdictional rivalry between the AFL and the CIO and eventual designation as a UAW shop.

Abstract Howard Young began working for the UAW in 1960, as an Actuarial Consultant and later became the Director of the Social Security Department. Later in his UAW career, his main function was as Special Consultant to the President, but he also worked as a member of the Pension Research Council, Director of Social Security, Director of the Research, and Director of Information Systems. He worked for the UAW from 1960-1971 and again from 1974-1987. During that time he worked under four UAW presidents:...