A giant of labour passes away!

Lost in the well deserved torrent of publicity over the D-Day commemoration and the passing of Ronald Reagan, was another notable passing this weekend.

The last remaining Reuther brother, they being one of the founding families of the modern union movement, passed away on Thursday, at the age of 92. With the formation of the United Auto Workers, Victor Reuther joined his two brothers Walter and Roy to reshape the relationship between worker and boss.

If the passing of Ronald Reagan is a watershed moment for the Conservative agenda, then the death of the final Reuther is a touchstone for the Liberal and socially progressive viewpoint.

The three brothers, Walter, Roy and Victor left West Virginia for the teeming factories of Detroit in the 1930’s. Walter would rise to the presidency of the United Auto workers, leading the workers of America’s economic engine from 1946-1972. Walter would go on to become one of the strongest labour leaders in America, and his brothers were with him every exciting step of the way. It was through the efforts of the United Auto Workers that the playing field between worker and employer was levelled; many said it was during his reign that the worker truly shared in the boom of the American economy.

Victor joined a wheel assembly plant in Michigan in 1936, eventually rising to a strike captain at the assembly location. From the shop floor, he moved on to the Unions education department, 1955 found him in charge of all of the unions international relations. He is credited with writing one of the most comprehensive books on the struggle of the union movement to organize. His book “The Brothers Reuther” has long been held up as one of the definitive histories of the union movement in the turbulent forty years from the thirties to the seventies.

The Reuther brothers helped steer the fledgling United Auto Workers into a beacon of the union movement. But change would not arrive without a personal cost, the thirties and forties were times of much turmoil, war and changing social concerns formed a crucible for controversy. Organizing workers into a collective group at this time certainly had its share of trouble. The Reuthers’ survived assassination attempts during their formative union years. In 1949 Victor was attacked in his home, as a shotgun blast came through his window striking him in the face and chest.

If the intent of the attack was to scare off his organizing activities or to crush the spirit of his union it obviously failed. Through the years the UAW weathered strikes, showdowns and many controversies, but today it still stands and still sets the template for much of organized labour. While he may not have been the main player, he certainly did not shy away from the front lines.

The atmosphere of negotiation has changed quite a bit from the early days, when the delivery of a workers list of concerns or wishes were usually met by a battalion of Pinkertons. But in a world where workers can find their jobs eliminated over night, the UAW and its Canadian offshoot the CAW still are a force for worker and social justice.

Critics of the union movement will decry the win at all costs nature that the unions seem to employ from time to time. How the union may refuse to back down on a given issue, sometimes at the expense of its own membership. But a study of history will show how that belief came to be ingrained. While today’s union member can look at their salary and benefits with a sense of achievement, there was a time when those achievements were but a distant dream, if imagined at all.

The UAW contracts defined the economy of the booming 60’s and through the troubling 70’s. The union movement became a social conscience in a troubled era; equal rights for all, the pursuit of a greater good were some of the passions that were entwined with labour negotiations. The workforce of the Industrial heartlands of both the United States and Canada were changed immensely by the challenges that the Union offered up to the employer. The present salary structure, the job security such as it is these days and the benefits enjoyed by the members all have their seeds from the efforts of three brothers from Virginia in the thirties.

Conservatives and Liberals alike can agree the work of the Reuther brothers changed the North American economy. Both sides will have different interpretations of those changes and their eventual effect on the working of business, but no one can doubt that a major social shift happened during that time. And with the passing of the final Reuther brother, the last link to that pioneering time has gone.

His passing may not gain the same media play as the other events of this past few days, but his life certainly reflected a historic time in North America. It at least deserves a bit of a mention as he goes to his ultimate reward.