Scope & Contents

UAW Local 3 was the bargaining unit for workers at the Dodge Main Plant in Hamtramck, Michigan from 1935 to January 1980, when the Hamtramck Assembly was demolished. Its 26,000 members made it the largest single plant local in the country in 1937. The roots of UAW Local 3 lie in the company union Works Councils and AFL Federal Labor Union #18277, both of which functioned in the plant from 1933-1935. In 1935, FLU #18277 became the AFL-United Automobile Workers Union (UAW) and the ineffective company-sponsored Works Council was transformed into the independent Automotive Industrial Workers' Association (AIWA) by early UAW leaders and Dodge Main workers Richard Frankensteen, John Zaremba, and C. Pat Quinn, with the support of Royal Oak radio priest, Father Charles Coughlin. After the infant UAW affiliated with the emerging Committee of Industrial Organizations at the second UAW Convention in 1936, the AIWA merged with the UAW-CIO making it the sole bargaining unit at the massive Dodge Main facility.

Local 3 was involved in many important activities in the UAW. It served as the initial base of support for UAW vice-president Richard Frankensteen in the early intra-union factionalism of the UAW. During the UAW's formative years, Local 3 was famous in the Detroit area for its active flying squadron unit. It was also the birthplace of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM). DRUM was organized by dissident African-American unionists and spread to other auto plants during its peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The records of UAW Local 3 consist of executive board and regular business meeting minutes, materials relating to the day-to-day operations of the President's, Recording Secretary's, and Education Committee's Offices, union education programs, DRUM, and a rather extensive collection of grievance files. They are organized alphabetically by subject and then chronologically.

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Subjects

Afro-American automobile industry workers--Michigan

Alien labor--Michigan

Chrysler Corporation

Chrysler Dodge Main Plant (Hamtramck, Mich.)

Chrysler Strike, 1950

Collective bargaining--Automobile industry--Michigan

Detroit (Mich.)--Politics and government

Discrimination in employment--Michigan

Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM)

Grievance arbitration--United States

Hamtramck (Mich.)--Politics and government

Michigan CIO Council

Trade unions--Elections

Trade unions and education--Michigan

UAW Local 3 Flying Squadron

Wayne County CIO Council

Women automobile industry workers

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Transferred

A few photographs and items of memorabilia received with the collection have been transferred to the Archives Audiovisual Department.

Related Collections

Additional material relating to UAW Local 3 can be found in the papers of Richard Frankensteen and John Zaremba. The Richard Frankensteen oral history also contains information relating to the formation of UAW Local 3

UAW HOLDINGS

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104 Storage Boxes

Series I, President's Office Files, 1950-1975, Boxes 1-23, To Series

Series II, Recording-Secretary's Office Files, 1950-1975, Boxes 24-34, To Series

Series III, Education Committee Files, 1937-1957, Boxes 35-38, To Series

Series IV, Executive Board, 1936-1975, Boxes 39-42, To Series

Series V, Grievance Files, 1950-1975, Boxes 43-104, To Series

To Containers [Large File]

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Finding Aid end