|
Title: UAW President’s Office: Douglas A. Fraser Collection Type : Records Date : 1971-1985 Size : 79 linear feet ID #: 1116-uaw-pres OCLC: ©Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs HEFA.01d.update |
Ø Subjects |
Scope & Contents
Douglas Fraser was born in a working class district of Glasgow, Scotland on December 18, 1916. Six years later, his father, an electrician and trade union activist, brought the family to Detroit. After going to work as a metal finisher in Chrysler’s DeSoto plant in 1937, Mr. Fraser became active in UAW Local 227, and was elected president of the local in 1943.
In 1947, Mr. Fraser was appointed an international representative, assigned to the union’s Chrysler Department. A skilled negotiater, he quickly became known for his shrewd bargaining ability, and in 1951 joined President Walter Reuther’s staff. As an administrative assistant to the UAW president during the 1950s, he was involved in a number of major negotiations.
Douglas Fraser was elected co-director of UAW Region 1A in 1959, succeeding the late Edward Cote. UAW convention delegates elected him board member-at-large in 1962, and following the convention, he was appointed director of the Chrysler, Skilled Trades, and Technical, Office and Professional Departments. He was elected a vice-president in 1970 and president in 1977.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Mr. Fraser led the union’s negotiations with Chrysler, winning the historic early retirement program in 1964, U. S.-Canada wage parity in 1967, and the first international agreement for U. S. and Canadian autoworkers in 1970. After a successful nine-day strike against Chrysler in 1973, Fraser and then-President Leonard Woodcock negotiated a contract which included restrictions on compulsory overtime, a comprehensive health and safety program, an improved “30-and-out” early retirement plan, dental care, and accelerated arbitration.
In the 1979 negotiations, as president of the UAW, Fraser and his team achieved other breakthroughs: incremental increases in pension benefits for current and future retirees, a substantial increase in reduced work time, improvements in the cost-of-living allowance formula, and Chrysler agreement to union representation on its board of directors. In 1980, UAW President Douglas Fraser became the first American union official to sit on the board of a company his union bargains with.
Mr. Fraser has been active throughout his career in Democratic Party politics and a number of labor, economic development, human services, and civil rights groups. He has testified regularly before Congress on behalf of civil rights legislation, strengthening the social security system, equal rights for women, urban development programs, and national health insurance.
Douglas Fraser retired from the UAW in 1983 and joined the faculty of Wayne State University as University Professor of Labor Studies.
The UAW President Douglas A. Fraser Collection consists of correspondence, reports, minutes, speeches, publications and other material related to his responsibilities as UAW president, including contract negotiations, relations with locals and regions, issues affecting the automobile industry, like air quality and Japanese competition, and to his activities as an officer or member of numerous civic, political and governmental organizations.
Air--Pollution
Automobile industry and trade--Canada
Automobile industry and trade--Japan
Automobile industry and trade--United States
Automobile industry workers--Canada
Automobile industry workers--Health and safety
Atuomobile industry workers--Japan
Automobile industry workers--Pensions
Automobile industry workers--United States
Automobiles--Environmental aspects
Chrysler Corporation
Civil rights--Law and legislation
Collective bargaining--Automobile industry
Democratic Party--United States
Detroit (Mich.)--Economic development
Detroit (Mich.)--Social problems
Early retirement
Environmental policy--United States
Essex Wire strike, U. S., 1977
Ford Motor Company
General Motors Corporation
Industrial relations
International trade
ITT Industries strike, U. S., 1978
Plant shutdowns--Law and legislation
Progressive Alliance
Reuther, Walter P.
Solar energy
Strikes and lockouts--Automobile industry--United States
Supplemental unemployment benefits
Trade-unions--Automobile industry workers--Canada
Trade-unions--Atuomobile industry workers--United States
UAW Regions 1, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D
Walker Manufacturing Company
Ken Bannon
Owen Bieber
Irving Bluestone
Jimmy Carter
Nelson Jack Edwards
Don Ephlin
Henry Ford II
Carolyn Forrest
Martin Gerber
Pat Greathouse
Frank James
Edward M. Kennedy
Odessa Komer
Olga Madar
William Milliken
Emil Mazey
Dennis McDermott
Ralph Nader
Victor Reuther
Stephen Schlossberg
Horace Sheffield
Marc Stepp
Leonard Woodcock
Steve Yokich
Coleman A. Young
Transferred
Several photographs, awards, videotapes, items of memorabilia, and a reel of film documenting UAW-Chrysler Canada negotiations have been placed in the Archives Audiovisual Collection, and a number of local union bylaws, Walker Manufacturing Company contracts, and miscellaneous publications received with the collection may be found in the Archives Library.
79 storage boxes
Series I, Subject
and Correspondence Files, 1967-1983, Boxes 1-3, 12-79, To
Series Index
Series II, Affiliations, Speeches, Interviews and Testimony, 1977-1983, Boxes 4-11, To Series Index
PLEASE NOTE: Folders are computer-arranged alphabetically within each series in this finding aid, but may actually be dispersed throughout several boxes in the collection. Note carefully the box number for each folder heading.