Automotive History
Automobile Workers and Labor Relations
General Motors plant workers assembling engine. Folder
"General Motors Corporation, Automobile Assembly."
Box 1, Jack Kausch papers.
Automobile Labor Board
- Automobile Labor Board records, 1934-1935.
- 5.5 linear ft.
U.S. automotive labor industry regulating body
Stenographic reports of hearings before the Board.
Downs, Tom
- Tom Downs papers, 1947-2007.
- 18 linear ft.
Legal advisor to the Michigan A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the Democratic State Central Committee; vice chairman of the Michigan Constitutional Convention, 1961-1962; and member of the Michigan Employment Security Commission, 1949-1965.
Correspondence, minutes, reports and newspaper clippings concerning the administrations of Michigan governors G. Mennen Williams and John B. Swainson, the problems of employment and unemployment, and the recount of the 1962 gubernatorial election in Minnesota won by Karl Rolvaag. Visual materials series includes photographs, 1961-62, and three videotapes (VHS) interviews, 1995, with UAW president Douglas Fraser and vice president Irving Bluestone regarding their activities within the UAW, and interview with state Democratic party official Adelaide Hart regarding her career. The series also includes audiotape cassettes and transcripts of the three interviews.
Employment Transition Program (University of Michigan)
- Employment Transition Program (University of Michigan) records. 1979-1998.
- 7 linear ft.
The Employment Transition Program (ETP) was an applied and experimental program focusing on employment relationships, particularly in the automobile industry. ETP was one of the initial grant-funded studies and came to serve as an umbrella title for several subsequent grants including studies involving the United Auto Workers and Ford Motor Company. ETP was established by Jeanne P. Gordus.
ETP records include grant proposals (funded and non-funded), training manuals, publications, and project development files relating to studies on unemployment and intervention training programs for displaced auto workers, including life education planning programs and life education advisors.
General Motors assembly line workers. Folder
"General Motors Corporation, Automobile Assembly."
Box 1, Jack Kausch papers. Click for larger.
Frank, Arlene J.
- The Women's Department of the United Auto Workers, 1977.
- 1 item
Student in the Women's Studies Program at the University of Michigan.
Student term paper.
Grant, Robert
- Robert Grant interview, July 30, 1963.
- 16 p.
Machinist with the early autombile companies.
Reminiscences and critical commentary on the activities of Henry Ford and James Couzens and the growth of the Ford Motor Company.
General Motors engine assembly line worker. Folder
"General Motors Corporation, Automobile Assembly."
Box 1, Jack Kausch papers. Click for larger.
Griffith, Gregory A.
- The Ford Motor Company bomber plant at Willow Run: A wartime experience, 1980.
- 30 pages
Unpublished manuscript.
Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations (University of Michigan-Wayne State University): Unionism in the Automobile Industry Project
- Unionism in the Automobile Industry Project interviews, 1959-1963.
- 130 vol.
Transcripts of interviews conducted with Michigan labor leaders by staff of University of Michigan and Wayne State University Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations.
United Auto Workers strike, Lansing, MI, 1937.
Ralph W. Lewis photograph collection.
Click to access Image Bank photo.
Concerns activities of the U.A.W., its organizing efforts, sit-down strikes of the 1930's, and policies of the Union during World War II. Include interviews with: George F. Addes, Louis H. Adkins, John W. Anderson, Kenneth F. Bannon, John Bartee, Charles K. Beckman, Jack A. Beni, Raymond H. Berndt, Mrs. Dorothy H. Bishop, Merlin D. Bishop, Stanley W. Brams, Norman W. Bully, George Burt, Ed Carey, Arthur R. Case, James M. Cleveland, Richard Coleman, Charles T. Conway, Jack T. Conway, Alexander Cook, James G. Couser, Harold A. Cranefield, Lawrence S. Davidow, Len DeCaux, Nick Digaetano, Joseph B. Ditzel, James F. Doherty, Tracy M. Doll, Dominic Dornetto, John Eldon, Frank Fagen, Jess Ferrazza, Joseph Ferris, Bert Foster, Everett Francis, Richard T. Frankensteen, Elmer Freitag, Mort Furay, Daniel M. Gallagher, Nat Ganley, Catherine Gelles, William L. Genske, Adolph F. Germer, Josephine Gomon, Murvel Grant, Pat Greathouse, Stanley J. Gregory, Carl Haessler, Fred V. Haggard, Edward Hall, Matthew B. Hammond, Richard E. Harris, Joseph Hattley, Arthur Hughes, William Humphreys, Jack R. Hurst, R. C. Ingram, Forrest L. Innes, Martin Jensen, Clayton E. Johnson, Lester Johnson, Robert Kanter, Harvey Kitzman, Tom Klasey, Leonard E. Klue, Theodore LaDuke, Russell Leach, Ed Lee, Al Leggat, Elizabeth McCracken, John K. McDaniel, John McGill, Frank Manfred, Michael J. Manning, Frank Marquart, Norman R. Matthews, Joseph Mattson, Russell J. Merrill, George Merrelli, Lewis H. Michener.
Ford Motor Company's Rouge Plant, 1956. Folder
"Ford Motor Co." Box 8, Michigan Bell Telephone
Company photograph collection.
Click to access Image Bank photo.
McCord, Carey Pratt
- Carey P. McCord papers, 1913-1978.
- 5.5 linear ft.
Industrial hygienist, consultant and lecturer in environmental and industrial health in the School of Public Health of the University of Michigan.
Logs of daily activities, 1936-1961, correspondence relating to consulting projects, speech and lecture material, and research files on lead poisoning and the effects of air conditioning on workers; history of occupational health at the University of Michigan, 1873-1970, history of the American Academy of Occupational Medicine, 1946-1956; study of automobile body industry in Detroit, 1936; and related photographs.
Early factory assembly line.
Folder "GM Corporation, the
Changing Nature of the Auto
Body." Box 1, Jack Kausch
papers. Click for larger.
Second Baptist Church (Detroit, Mich.)
- Second Baptist Church records, 1911-1989
- 14 microfilm reels, 1 folder
Oldest Black church in Michigan.
Annual reports, financial records, histories, minutes of advisory board meetings, pastoral correspondence, annual and quarterly publications, and weekly bulletins; include files of pastors Robert L. Bradby, Sr. and Allan A. Banks, Jr. detailing in part their efforts in finding employment for members of Detroit's black community, especially with the Ford Motor Company; and photographs.
Assembly line workers attach tires to GM vehicles,
ca. 1922. Folder "Automobiles and related" Box 15,
Frank Angelo papers. Click to enlarge.
Shafer, Hartley Clifton
- Hartley Clifton Shafer papers, 1968-1970 and undated.
- .25 linear ft.
Resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Reminiscences of his experiences working as a machinist in the early automobile industry in Detroit and as an inspector during World War I; also notes on the Shafer family and photographs
Tessmer, Raymond.
- Proceedings of the trial of the People vs. Raymond Tessmer, 1939.
- 0.2 linear feet.
Raymond Tessmer, member of the United Auto Workers and supporter of former union president Homer Martin. Tessmer was accused of criminal libel by Maurice Sugar, the union's general counsel under president R. J. Thomas. Tessmer was represented by Larry Davidow, a union attorney identified with Martin. The case revolved around issues of Communism in the UAW. The trial took place in Detroit Recorder's Court, before Judge Thomas M. Cotter.
Trial transcript. The transcript is incomplete, ending at p. 236 and lacking a portion of the judge's charge to the jury.
A photocopy of the transcript is available for research use. The original is in the vault. This original transcript has apparently been retyped from another copy with different page divisions.
UAW-Ford University
- UAW-Ford University records, 1995-2001.
- 1.5 linear ft.
An outgrowth of education counseling programs developed by the University of Michigan School of Social Work aimed at UAW members in Ford plants, UAW-Ford University offers a university-style approach to workplace education and training through distance education and internet technologies. Program includes involvement with Dearborn campus.
Records detail the development of plant-based educational counseling and training programs, negotiations with UAW and Ford, plant-level studies, reports, and samples of educational resources and course content, including seven CD-ROMs containing multi-media course material.
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Developed by Rachael Dreyer, Graduate Reference Assistant, July 2009.