John Conyers, Sr. - Forefather of the UAW - Detroit & GM

I remember when he told me of how his father was beaten and bloodied trying to form the union by GM in Detroit.

Since this his legacy has been omitted from the history books, I believe we shall have a few fun projects coming up.

John Conyers, Sr.

Published: January 4, 1986

John Conyers, Sr.
Forefather of the UAW

DETROIT, Jan. 3— John Conyers Sr., a retired union official who was the father of Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, died Wednesday at his Detroit home. He was 80 years old. Mr. Conyers had been an international representative for the United Automobile Workers.

In addition to his son John, Mr. Conyers is survived by his wife, Lucille, and another son, Nathan.

Black history, labor history intertwined in Detroit

March 1, 2010 11:58 AM CDT  BY JOHN RUMMEL

DETROIT – Between the two World Wars, the groundwork was laid in this city’s Black community that culminated in the 1941 organizing of the world’s most powerful corporation: the Ford Motor Company.

That piece of  Detroit’s rich labor and civil rights history was brought to life by professors Beth Bates and Quill Pettway in a Department of Africana Studies Black History Month celebration at Wayne State University here.

Bates’ research has focused on political, social, and economic developments within the 20th century African American community. Pettway is both a student and maker of history. He was helped organize the huge Ford Rouge plant and continued working there for 27 years before becoming a professor. Now almost 90, he continues to teach math at Wayne County Community College.

The two traced the origins of Detroit’s Black population. Escaping what for many was life as a Southern sharecropper, Black migration north took place at record levels in the early part of the last century. From 1916 to1917, Black migration to Detroit averaged 1,000 a month. “Simply put, they came looking for a better life, better education, security and to escape lynching” said Pettway.

By the early 1920s, 45 percent of Black men in Detroit worked at Ford.

Bates said those jobs at Ford gave hope to Blacks, but Henry Ford “extracted more than his pound of flesh in speed-ups.”  She quoted the late autoworker Dave Moore who said “there was nothing liberal in the bastard – Ford’s strategy was simply different than GM or Chrysler,” where cleaning rest rooms and mopping floors was the best Blacks could expect.

Interwoven in Ford’s strategy was a paternalistic philosophy. Bates said Ford imagined Blacks might be “the perfect workers for his open shop movement, what he called his American Plan.” However, Bates said, Blacks also had their own American Plan, one that grew more incompatible with Henry Ford as time went by. Contrary to what many scholars have written, it was Black workers who paved the way for unionization at Ford, she said.

Throughout the 1930s the old AFL autoworkers union missed opportunities to support the Black community in their fight for civil rights and against police brutality, and did not work to develop a broader-based union organizing drive.  “Black workers not initially signing union cards had less to do with allegiance to Ford than wanting to be treated as equals” by the union, said Bates.

She credited the role played by the Communist Party and other radicals in organizations like the unemployed councils and the International Labor Defense (which led the fight to save the Scottsboro Boys) because they facilitated a “cross-fertilization” and politicalization within the Black community, between workers at Ford and community members, on issues like racism, civil rights and jobs.

“By 1935, Black Detroiters considered Communists friends you could count on,” said Bates.

Unlike the old AFL union, the CIO’s United Auto Workers had a policy of racial equality that gave it an advantage, Pettway said.

He noted the role played by white Ford worker and lead union organizer Bill McKie. McKie’s job in Ford’s maintenance department allowed him to circulate amongst different workers. The fact that McKie was a known Communist did not hurt his ability to organize.  He was “second to none, highly respected by everyone. Elected as a trustee his first year,” said Pettway.

The CIO saw to it that a broad base of union support was built within the Black community and on three occasion organized rallies with Paul Robeson.

Pettway said the last rally, in Detroit’s downtown Cadillac Square, drew 60,000 people. “Regardless of race, creed or color, they came to hear Robeson, Walter Reuther, former City Council President Erma Henderson,” among others.

On May 21, 1941, Ford workers overwhelmingly voted for the union.

The vote shook the automotive industry and shaped it for decades to come.

During discussion, retired UAW activist General Baker pointed to the “high level of solidarity” still seen within UAW Ford Local 600. At its peak there were 17,000 Black workers and even today, most top UAW national leaders come out of Local 600 he said.

Pettway said “the unity needed to organize Ford was the same unity that elected Barack Obama.  This is what is necessary to move forward.”

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Conyers Receives the Owen Bieber Award at UAW Constitutional Convention

(DETROIT) – Today, the United Auto Workers (UAW) held their 36th Constitutional Convention at Cobo Center to approve organizational changes and elect new union leadership. At the convention, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) delivered opening remarks and was honored with the Owen Bieber Social Activist Award for his years of public service dedicated to advancing labor rights. The award is named for former UAW leader, Owen Bieber, who served as President from 1983 to 1995. After receiving the award, Representative Conyers issued the following statement:

U.S. Representative
John Conyers, Jr.

"I am honored to have helped open the 36^th United Auto Workers Constitutional Convention and to receive such a significant award. I am grateful for the UAW’s recognition, but more importantly I am thankful for their decades of tireless commitment to America’s workers and their families,” said Conyers.

“From an early age, my father - who worked as a UAW organizer - instilled in me the values of labor and standing up for workers’ rights. I was just a young boy when my father fought to organize the Ford plant and suffered at the hands of their security forces at the Battle of the Overpass. From my very first days in Congress, I carried these memories with me and was inspired by my father’s teachings. Our fight for justice must continue to extend to the workplace, to afford all workers a sense of dignity and fairness.

“The UAW is proud to have helped build the great city of Detroit, and with it the American middle class. The economic downturn of the last several years presented a fresh challenge to organized labor, but the fundamental promise of collective bargaining remains the same. Through a renewed commitment to full employment, we can once again restore the American economy and build a better future for everyone.”

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UAW Flick Comes to Capitol

It’s been a few years since the movie theaters at Union Station closed, leaving Capitol Hill bereft of places to catch a flick. And while Landmark Theatres or AMC might have no use for the area, you can still catch the occasional movie at venues on the Capitol campus.

Case in point: tonight’s screening of “Brothers On the Line,” a documentary about brothers Walter, Roy and Victor Reuther, who helped shape the United Auto Workers in the mid-20th century.

Rep. John Conyers is urging Members and staff to watch a
documentary on the United Auto Workers at the Rayburn House
Office Building tonight. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

The gentleman from Detroit, Rep. John Conyers (D), is encouraging Members and staff to attend the screening in the Rayburn House Office Building tonight. “‘Brothers On the Line’ weaves a dramatic tale of one family’s quest to compel American democracy to live up to its promise of equality, resulting in a timely blueprint of successful social action,” Conyers writes in his “Dear Colleague” invite.

In the movie, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), among others, including Conyers, attests to the political influence of the Reuthers as well as the cultural ramifications of the labor movement in a time of social and economic upheaval.

The film by Sasha Reuther, the grandson of Victor, screened Tuesday evening at the Landmark E Street Cinema as part of Filmfest DC.

No word on whether the presumptive GOP presidential nominee and Detroit native Mitt Romney — whose father, George, ran American Motors Corp. during the time of the Reuthers’ stewardship of UAW — has been invited.

“It obviously takes a historical perspective, but considering the Occupy movement, the recall movement in Wisconsin — there’s rumblings, and this film really touches a chord,” Sasha Reuther tells HOH.

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