Mending Our History
Local 174 restores classic artwork
The history of the workers’ movement looks a little raggedy these days.
That’s not a commentary on organized labor, but it is an accurate description of the condition of a 1937 painting that celebrates the birth of the UAW. This 8 1/2-by-20-foot mural style artwork hangs in the Local 174 hall in Romulus, Mich.
Fortunately, a committee of Local 174 union officers, members and retirees is raising funds to restore it.
“There’s a tear where somebody supposedly leaned back in his chair and punctured a hole in the canvas. Then there’s the exposure to smoke and dust and just general wear and tear,” explained Jim Burton, financial secretary at the Lear Detroit unit of Local 174.
The artwork depicting the Battle of the Overpass, the Flint Sitdown and an integrated bargaining committee of men and women standing up to a corporate boss once decorated Walter Reuther’s home base at the old west side local on Michigan Avenue in Detroit.
The renovation will cost $14,000 and committee members don’t know how long it will take to raise the funds.
“This is the history of our union. It’s the
shoulders we stand on,” says restoration committee member,
Jim Rehberg, steward at Quaker Chemical in Detroit. “This
mural gives us the idea of what it took to get where we are,
the idea of where we are today and the idea of what we have
to do.”
Donations to the restoration are being accepted at: New
West Side Local 174 Mural Restoration Project, c/o Renee
Scamp, Financial Secretary, New West Side Local 174, 29841
Van Born Road, Romulus, MI 48174.
