http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070902/NEWS05/709020579/1007/NEWSSeptember 2, 2007
BY BILL McGRAW
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Saturday was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Walter Reuther, who became one of the nation's most important labor leaders.
GAINS
Reuther was president of the United Auto Workers for 24 years. Under his leadership, UAW members -- and, eventually, other unionized workers -- received unprecedented wage and benefit increases.
The average pay of an autoworker nearly doubled between the late 1940s and 1960, and Reuther bargained for health care coverage, cost-of-living raises, pensions, vacations and even supplemental unemployment benefits, which sustained laid-off workers. The extent of such benefits are challenged today as the American auto industry fights to stay competitive.
A BETTER LIFE
Reuther's vision extended far beyond the bargaining table. He believed the union should be a progressive force worldwide. "The labor movement is about changing society," he said. "What good is a dollar an hour more in wages if your neighborhood is burning down?"
A friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Reuther had the UAW play a major role in financing King's cause. Long before corporate America demonstrated a commitment to black advancement, Reuther marched with King and his followers across the South, and he was one of the few non-African Americans to address the crowd at the famous March on Washington in 1963.
Reuther also was a confidant of President Lyndon B. Johnson. He encouraged Johnson to propose civil rights legislation and launch the War on Poverty.
TARGET
Reuther paid a price for his positions. In 1938, associates foiled a kidnapping attempt. In 1948, a gunman, standing outside his west-side Detroit home, shot him as Reuther stood in his kitchen. His recovery took a year, and he contracted hepatitis and malaria from blood transfusions. snip
Reuther served as UAW president until he died in a plane crash in 1970. His memory and his work live on around Detroit, particularly in the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University, the internationally known archives of labor and urban affairs.
From the OP: My wife and I landed at the same small airport near Black Lake, Michigan in 1974 while visiting there that the plane that Walter Reuther and his wife May were killed at in 1970. Some still think that foul play was involved with their deaths.
http://www.uaw.org/about/where/onaway.html