UAW Archivist

If you want to hear more from Rep. Tlaib, come to March On! 2026. It’s a free event, labor history, awesome live music, community, silent auction, free food/drinks, and Rashida will be speaking!

A dignified retirement is a human right.

Line of UAW members marching with picket signs from UAW Local 600 at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull in Detroit, in front of Tiger Stadium. Signs say "Union Jobs at Union Wages" and "Full Employment at Union Wages."

"Union Jobs at Union Wages"
Members of @uaw.org Local 600 demonstrate in front of old Tiger Stadium in Detroit. From the UAW's archives at the @kittyreuther.bsky.social.

Letterhead for offices of the “Eye Opener” radio program out of UAW headquarters.

Map of stations that broadcast “Eye Opener” at the bottom of a letter from Guy Nunn.

Cartoon face that was the “eye Opener” logo.

Huge fan of the “Eye Opener” logo and art! Eye Opener was a @uaw.org produced radio program hosted by Guy Nunn, featuring news and discussions about labor issues. It was a counter to typical pro-corporate viewpoints in the press. From the UAW Radio Dept Records at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social. 📻😏

Volkswagen workers in Tennessee make history with first UAW contract.
#UnionStrong

Send me a message in the lead up to the gift-giving season, then!

Dogs, cats...maybe a camel at some point. All saved by Walter, and then managed by previous @reutherlibrary.bsky.social archivists from before my time at Wayne State.

I don't think so, though I can scan them at a pretty high resolution.

Sure, but they have to make a scene based on this photo of him and May reading The New Republic.

The #TransitCat of the day is in the Walter P Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Photo of a cat standing on two legs.

Photo of a cat lying down.

Say "meow" to this labor union cat, possibly owned by then @uaw.org President Walter P. Reuther. From the archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.

Announcing the 1949 apple CHROME SKIN, HYDROSOMATIC CORE DEIPNOSOPHISTIC CRUNCH. The UAW-CIO is also negotiating for pensions for you when you get too old to work and are still too young to die. And for health and security provisions to protect you from the cost of illness. Three important demands to meet three very human needs: The need for freedom from fear of unemployment. The need for freedom from the fear of old age. The need for freedom from the fear of the cost of illness. For your sake and your family's sake, support your union. UAW-CIO EDUCATION DEPT. Publication No. 184 Additional copies $2 per thousand 99 Printed in USA.

"If the corporations made apples they would cover them with chrome. They would give the core and the eating part of the apples fancy names. They would make the apples so big and unwieldy to handle you would rupture yourself holding them up to eat. But thank the Lord, God made apples and not the cor-porations. But the corporations do make autos, and refrigerators and parts and airplanes and agricultural implements. They also make depressions. They make depressions by raising their prices so high the workers cannot afford to buy back what they produce. Right now the President's Economic Council says purchasing power must be increased so people can keep on buying so factories will keep operating and you and I can keep working. When the country produces 200 billion dollars of goods and services we need 200 billion dollars of purchasing power. Right now purchasing power is shrinking because prices are higher than wages. The answer to that is to push purchasing power up. The UAW-CIO is now negotiating for a wage increase that will give you the purchasing power you had in June 1946, the month before the inflation."

"Announcing the 1949 apple. Chrome skin, hydrosomatic core, deipnosophistic crunch"
🍎🍏 Postwar-era pamphlet from the @uaw.org Education Dept on the rising prices for consumers and the UAW's work to increase people's purchasing power. From the archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.

REFLECT YOUR VIEWS THRU YOUR UNION- AT YOUR NEXT UNION MEETING TIME PLACE. SUBJECT

Spidermen meme

“Reflect Your Views Thru Your Union”
Poster from @uaw.org Ammunition magazine. Circa 1949 from the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.

Letterhead for Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen correspondence.

Cool union logo I came across processing the @uaw.org Radio Dept. Records at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social … Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.

illustration of a horse in profile from the shoulders up, with its mouth open and teeth showing. text below his jaw reads "it's plain Horse Sense!" Circa 1950s. From the AFSCME Organizing Department records at the Reuther Library, Wayne State University.

This horse, from an @afscme.bsky.social @dc37nyc.bsky.social organizing pamphlet, is wishing you a Happy Lunar New Year! #YearOfTheHorse

Program for 19th anniversary Americans for Democratic Change Roosevelt Day Dinner. Festers sketch of smiling FDR.

Happy Presidents Day! Perfect timing, coming across this program for the 1957 Roosevelt Day Dinner while processing the @uaw.org Radio Dept. Records here at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social. Eye-catching art by Jack Maschhoff, creator of the UAW wheel logo!

Photo of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and UAW President Walter Reuther.

Photo of UAW members with President Barack Obama.

UAW members with President Jimmy Carter.

President Joe Biden visiting a UAW picket line during the 2023 Big Three Stand Up Strike.

Wishing everyone a very happy Presidents' Day 🎆🎇

📸 @reutherlibrary.bsky.social

Cartoon of Walter Ruther as cupid, shooting an arrow marked "Reuther's power bid" through the brim of the cap of George Meany. Between them are two large hearts, one labeled "AFL" and the other "CIO." Caption reads, "Oops."

Cartoon of George Meany receiving a Valentine's Day card from Walter Reuther that says, "You're old fashioned and crotchety, you're not up to snuff, you're just an old meany and I've had enough." From the Philadelphia Daily News.

Across newspaper editorial cartoons of the 1950-60s, Valentine's Day💘 was the perfect contrast to Walter Reuther & George Meany's contentious working relationship in the @aflcio.org.
Original artwork from @uaw.org President Reuther's archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social. #valentinesday

Photos of women conducting a sit-down strike in a JC Penny's. 1937.

It wasn't just industrial workers. I came across these photos this summer at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social. These are Penny's counter workers holding a sit-down strike in their pre-JC Penny's, occupying the department store in 1937. Complete with roller skating, jump rope, and a very good dog.

The Flint Sit-down Strike might have been the most consequential labor dispute of its time, but it wasn't the only sit-down, not even the first one. This page from Photo-History magazine offers glimpses of the variety of sit-downs that took place around 1937. From the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.

Man pets dog while he hangs out of a factor window in the Flint Sit-down Strike. From a newspaper article titled, "Up from Yesterday..."

A very good dog visiting its person while he participates in the Flint Sit-down Strike, circa 1937. Gets me every time, but especially today on White Shirt Day. Printed in a commemorative issue of @uaw.org Solidarity, 1962. From the archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social. 🐕

Today's the anniversary of the end of the Flint Sit-down strike, when workers occupied GM factories in Flint and forced the automaker to recognize the @uaw.org. Visit the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social to see the historical archives that document arguably the most important strike in American history!

Booklet, “in GM Forward in ‘55.” From the UAW CIO.

Booklet, “in GM Forward in ‘55.” From the UAW CIO. Pages remembering the Flint Sit-down Strike.

Booklet, “in GM Forward in ‘55.” From the UAW CIO. Language of the original UAW GM contract from 1937.

Remembering the Flint Sit-down Strike, from a booklet about the @uaw.org’s 1955 program for GM workers. Less than 20 years in the rear view mirror, it was clear the sit-down strike was a transformative moment for American workers. From the UAW archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.

UAW Local 1975 members on strike on campus at Eastern Michigan University.

Very proud to announce the opening of the @uaw.org Local 1975 records here at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social. This collection comes from the union local representing clerical workers at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.
Learn more: archives.wayne.edu/repositories...

Photo of Roscoe Van Zandt, the only Black worker officially acknowledged to have sat down inside the plants during the Flint GM sit down strike in 1937.

Photo of Roscoe Van Zandt holding a U.S. flag and fellow Flint GM sit-down strikers outside an auto plant after workers won their union on February 11, 1937.

Roscoe Van Zandt, a janitor at Chevrolet Plant Four, was the only Black worker officially acknowledged to have sat down inside the plants during the Flint GM sit-down strike.

So this is what they meant when they said “For the union makes us strong.”

For those of you wondering how to pronounce "Ypsilanti"," please consult this jam by former @uaw.org member Lee Osler.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_vy...

UAW Local 1975 members on strike on campus at Eastern Michigan University.

Very proud to announce the opening of the @uaw.org Local 1975 records here at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social. This collection comes from the union local representing clerical workers at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.
Learn more: archives.wayne.edu/repositories...

Site of a labor strike by @uaw.org Local 1975!