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The UAW was founded in May 1935 in Detroit, Michigan under the auspices of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) after years of agitation within the AFL for organizing unions within major industries. The AFL had focused on organizing small craft unions since its founding in 1881 by Samuel Gompers, but at its 1935 convention, a caucus of industrial unions led by John L. Lewis formed the Committee of Industrial Organizations , the original CIO, within the AFL. Within one year, the AFL suspended the unions in the CIO, and these, including the UAW, formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
The UAW was one of the first major unions that was willing to organize African-American workers, which increased its ability to garner enough support to win recognition through election -- despite the racial prejudice of many workers. The UAW rapidly found success in organizing with the sit-down strike -- first in a General Motors plant in Atlanta, Georgia in 1936Events January-February January 15 The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio, for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company. January 20 Death of George V of the United Kingdom. His son Edward VIII succeedes him as King of th, and more famously in the Flint sit-down strikeThe Flint Sit-Down Strike changed the United Automobile Workers from a collection of isolated locals on the fringes of the industry into a major union and led to the unionization of the United States automobile industry. The UAW had only been formed in 19 that began on December 30, 1936. That strike ended in February 1937 after MichiganMichigan is a state in the United States. The name is derived from Lake Michigan, which in turn is believed to come from the Chippewa Indian word meicigama meaning "great water. Bounded by four of the Great Lakes, Michigan has the longest state shoreline's governor Frank MurphyWilliam Francis (Frank) Murphy ( April 13, 1890 July 19, 1949) was an American public servant. He served as Mayor of Detroit, Governor of Michigan, the last Governor-General of the Philippines and the first High Commissioner of the Philippines, United Sta played the role of mediator, negotiating recognition of the UAW by General Motors. The next month, auto workers at ChryslerDaimlerChrysler AG ( NYSE:DCX), with headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany and Auburn Hills, Michigan, is a prominent automobile and truck manufacturer, formed in 1998 by the buyout of the Chrysler Corporation (USA) by Daimler-Benz (Germany). The merger whic won recognition of the UAW as their representative in a sit-down strike.
The UAW's next target was the Ford Motor Company. Henry FordThis article is about the founder of the Ford Motor Company; for articles on other people named Henry Ford, see Henry Ford (disambiguation). Henry Ford ( July 30, 1863 April 7, 1947) was the founder of the Ford Motor Company and one of the first to apply had promised that "The UAW would organize Ford over my dead body." Ford selected Harry Bennett to keep the union out of the company, and the "Ford Service Department" was set up as a sort of internal security, intimidation, and espionage unit within the company, and quickly gained a reputation of being willing to use force against union organizers and sympathizers. It took until 19411941 is also the title of a Steven Spielberg movie made in 1979 see 1941 (film). Events January January 6 Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address. January 10 Lend-Lease is introduced into the United St for Ford to agree to a collective bargaining agreement with the UAW. By the end of the year, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor dramatically changed the nature of the UAW's organizing.
The UAW's Executive Board voted to make a "no strike" pledge to ensure that the war effort would not be hindered by strikes, and that pledge was later reaffirmed by the membership.
After the war, Walter Reuther won the race to be president of the UAW, and served for almost 25 years -- from 1946 until his death in an small airplane accident in 1970 -- leading the union during one of the most prosperous periods for workers in U.S. history. In the 1960s, the UAW used its strategy of negotiating a contract with one major auto maker and applying it to the other to secure a number of new benefits for auto workers, including fully paid hospitalization and sick leave benefits at General Motors, profit sharing in American Motors. The UAW also grew to include workers in other major industries such as the aerospace and agricultural-implement industries.
During this time, UAW members became one of the best paid groups of industrial workers in the country -- many buying second homes in the country, boats, and earning enough to move to the suburbs and send their children to college. However, by the end of this period, changes in the global economy and competition from European and Japanese automobile makers had already started to significantly reduce the profits of the major auto makers and set the stage for the drastic changes in the 1970s.
The situation for the automotive industry and UAW members worsened dramatically with the 1973 oil embargo. This started years of layoffs and wage reductions, and the UAW found itself in the position of giving up many of the benefits it had won for workers over the decades. By the early 1980s, the state of Michigan had been devastated economically by the losses in jobs and income within the state's largest industry. This peaked with the near-bankruptcy of Chrysler in 1979. Cities such as Flint, Lansing, and to a lesser extent Detroit began to lose population and businesses (as was dramatically shown in Michael Moore's movie Roger & Me.)
In the 1990s, the UAW began to focus on new areas of organizing both geographically -- in places like Puerto Rico -- and in terms of occupations, with new initiatives among university staff and employees of non-profit organizations. And in the 2000s the UAW is also taking on the organization of graduate students under the slogan "Uniting Academic Workers". Universities with UAW grad student representation include the public schools the University of California, University of Massachusetts, University of Washington, and private New York University.