UAW History Timeline
1935
— President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs National Labor Relations Act strengthening right of workers to organize unions and bargain collectively.
— AFL charters International Union, UAW.
— Aug. 26: First UAW convention opens in Detroit, with 200 delegates; AFL President William Green appoints Francis Dillon first UAW president.
— Committee for Industrial Organization is formed by AFL-affiliated unions seeking to organize workers in steel, rubber, auto and other mass-production industries.
— Social Security Act signed, creating income security for retirees.
1936
— Homer Martin elected second UAW president.
— Nov. 17: First major UAW sit-down strike starts, at Bendix Corp in South Bend, Ind. The company promises to negotiate.
— Dec. 10-24: Kelsey-Hayes Wheel Co. workers strike, winning a raise and UAW recognition.
— Dec. 30: UAW launches historic Flint, Mich., sit-down strike at GM. Strike ends Feb. 11, 1937, after GM agrees to negotiate with union.
1937
— March 8-25: Chrysler workers stage sit-downs at all nine Detroit plants to win UAW recognition.
— March-April: Sit-down strikes sweep plants around the country as drives for union recognition flourish in numerous industries.
— May 27: Battle of the Overpass. Ford Service Department thugs beat up UAW organizers Walter Reuther, J.J. Kennedy, Richard Frankensteen and Robert Kanter, among others, trying to stop them from handing out leaflets at plant gates.
1939
— R.J. Thomas elected third UAW president.
— July-August: UAW wins 30-day strategy strike led by skilled-trades workers at key GM facilities. A basis was established for the first national wage agreement in GM.
— UAW strikes Chrysler after company locks out workers at Dodge Main plant in Detroit. Union wins right to negotiate production standards.
1940
— UAW campaign to organize agricultural implement workers moves forward with major election victory at International Harvester, Fort Wayne, Ind.
1941
— After striking for 10 days, UAW wins union shop, dues checkoff and grievance procedure in first contract with Ford Motor Co. — UAW charters first white-collar local, the Amalgamated Chrysler Office Workers Local 889, composed of nurses, office and clerical workers in Detroit area.
— UAW recognized at North American Aviation.
— Dec. 8: UAW International Executive Board adopts a no-strike pledge after war breaks out between the United States and Japan.
1942
— Mass influx of women into the workforce replaces men called to military duty.
— Union wins doubling of paid vacation time for workers with five years’ seniority in negotiations with GM.
— UAW Vice President Walter Reuther proposes converting auto plants to arsenals for democracy to build 500 planes a day.
1943
— UAW urges peaceful integration of aircraft line at Packard Motor Car Co. after Ku Klux Klan tries to inflame white workers against blacks.
— UAW Aircraft (now Aerospace) Dept. instituted.
1944
— UAW’s first National Aircraft Conference plans for conversion from wartime to peacetime aircraft production.
— First UAW National Women’s Conference – UAW is the first union to hold one – calls for full employment and equal pay for women.
— First conference of UAW veterans. Union establishes Veterans Bureau and formulates program for returning GIs.
1945
— UAW strikes Ford of Canada Windsor Plant for 99 days, winning Rand Formula that requires all workers who benefit from the union contract to pay dues whether they join the union or not.
1945-46
— Union strikes General Motors for 113 days, demanding postwar wage increase. Contract provides 181¼2 cents an hour in wage increases, dues checkoff and other gains.
1946
— Walter Reuther elected fourth UAW president.
1947
— Union establishes Agricultural Implement Department.
— Six paid holidays in GM contract sets pattern for other companies.
— Taft-Hartley Act weakens unions by outlawing the closed shop, forbidding political contributions and making unions liable for breach of contracts. Taft-Hartley made it more difficult for unions to organize and bargain.
1948
— UAW wins first Annual Improvement Factor raise at GM, recognizing workers’ contributions to regular productivity increases, and first union contract containing an escalator clause tied to the cost-of- living index.
— First contract negotiated with Caterpillar Tractor.
1949
— First employer-paid and jointly administered pension program won at Ford Motor Co.
1950
— Chrysler workers win pensions following 104-day strike under slogan “Too Old to Work, Too Young to Die.” — UAW wins modified union shop at GM and first partially paid hospitalization and surgical program at GM.
— First pattern bargaining with Ford modeled on earlier GM agreement.
1953
— Office Workers Department established; renamed Technical, Office and Professional (TOP) Department in 1962.
1954-60
— Local 833 strike against Kohler. The company agrees to pay $4.5 million in back wages and pension credits as the price to settle all unfair labor practice charges still pending before the NLRB and the withdrawal of contempt charges against the company.
1955
— UAW wins first Supplemental Unemployment Benefits at Ford – a first in the industry – as part of an effort to win a guaranteed annual wage for workers.
— AFL and CIO merge to unify labor movement. Walter Reuther serves as vice president.
1957
— By establishing Public Review Board, UAW is first union to have an independent board of appeals to safeguard the democratic rights of its members.
1959
— Landrum- Griffin Act establishes strict financial reporting procedures for unions and the election of union officers.
1961
— At GM, union wins fully paid hospitalization and sick benefits; no discrimination on basis of race, creed, color or national origin.
1962
— Nelson Jack Edwards becomes first African-American member of UAW International Executive Board.
1963
— Nelson Jack Edwards becomes first African-American member of UAW International Executive Board.
1964
— Fully paid hospitalization, surgical and medical insurance won for Big Three retirees.
— With UAW support, Congress passes Civil Rights Act.
1965
— UAW supports Cesar Chavez and the Delano Grape boycott.
1966
— Olga Madar becomes first woman on UAW International Executive Board.
1968
— UAW leaves AFL-CIO over strategic differences on domestic and foreign policy.
1970
— First dental insurance won at International Harvester.
— April 22: First Earth Day is supported by UAW.
— May 9: Walter and May Reuther, bodyguard Bill Wolfman, architect Oscar Stonorov, and the pilot and co-pilot die in plane crash while on way to an inspection of the UAW’s Family Education Center near Onaway, Mich.
— May 22: Leonard Woodcock becomes UAW’s fifth president.
— UAW wins 30-and-out early retirement program at age 58 and other gains following 10-week strike against GM. — April 28: Occupational Safety and Health Act passed; Workers Memorial Day later established to remember those who died on the job.
— Prescription drug coverage won for Big Three retirees.
1972
— Wayne County Community College (Detroit) clerical workers become the first college/ university employees to join UAW.
1973
— Union- company national safety and health committees established by pattern-setting automobile and agricultural implement contracts.
— 30-and-out at any age negotiated for Big Three workers.
1975
— Walter P. Reuther Library dedicated at Wayne State University in Detroit, as part of its College of Labor, Urban and Metropolitan Affairs.
1977
— Douglas A. Fraser elected sixth UAW president.
— Volkswagen of America’s New Stanton, Pa., plant workers vote to join UAW.
1978
— To help fight the racist apartheid system in South Africa, the UAW announces it will withdraw funds from banks that participate in loans to that country.
1979
— Union successfully lobbies Congress to win federal loan guarantee to save Chrysler Corp. from bankruptcy.
— UAW resists concessions at GM and Ford, and at International Harvester after a 172-day strike at the agricultural implement maker.
1980
— Workers win representation on Chrysler Board of Directors, and UAW President Fraser takes seat.
1981
— UAW rejoins AFL-CIO to strengthen unity of the labor movement.
— Thousands of UAW members join 500,000 demonstrators at Solidarity Day in Washington.
1982
— UAW wins profit-sharing, Guaranteed Income Stream, moratorium on plant closings and company-funded training programs at GM and Ford.
1982-83
— 205-day strike defends workers against a barrage of takeaways attempted by Caterpillar.
1983
— Owen Bieber elected seventh UAW president.
— March on Washington by a half-million civil rights and labor activists on the 20th anniversary of the 1963 march led by Martin Luther King Jr.
1984
— GM contract sets new job security pattern: Eligible workers with one year or more seniority to be offered Jobs Bank instead of layoff. Martin Luther King Jr. birthday won as a paid holiday.
— UAW Canada region votes to leave UAW and later forms Canadian Auto Workers.
1985
— UAW reinstates Annual Improvement Factor in Chrysler contract following strike.
— More than 22,000 state of Michigan employees join UAW. — UAW landmark partnership with New United Motor Mfg. Inc. (NUMMI), a GM-Toyota joint venture, brings thousands of laid-off members back to work.
— UAW and GM Saturn agreement creates milestone of full worker participation in joint union-management decision-making.
1990
— Nelson Mandela receives UAW membership card while visiting members at the Ford Rouge complex following his release from prison in South Africa. He expressed appreciation for the union’s aid in fighting apartheid.
1992
— UAW-GM Child Development Center opens in Flint, Mich.
1993
— UAW supports and President Clinton signs the Family Medical Leave Act.
1995
— Stephen P. Yokich elected eighth UAW president.
1996
— College tuition assistance negotiated for children of Big Three workers.
1998
— Secretary- Treasurer Ruben Burks becomes first African-American to serve in the union’s second-highest office.
1999
— UAW wins Election Day as a paid holiday for Big Three workers.
— Bargaining for Families initiative leads to development of child care and other family programs in auto negotiations.
— More than 10,000 academic student employees across the University of California system vote for UAW representation.
— 2,600 workers at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio, join UAW.
2002
— Ron Gettelfinger elected ninth UAW president.
— Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn becomes first woman to serve in the union’s second-highest office.
— Strikes at four Johnson Controls facilities win contracts, recognition and a neutrality agreement covering 26 plants and 8,000 workers.
— While dozens of corporations avoid pension obligations, UAW wins $17.6 million award from Honeywell for severance, health and pension benefits for more than 500 retirees.
2003
— Freightliner workers at Gastonia and Cleveland, N.C., facilities vote for UAW representation. The 4,000 workers are the largest group of industrial workers to unionize in years.
— Puerto Rican Treasury Department workers join UAW bringing total UAW membership in Puerto Rico to about 20,000.
— Led by UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, the union wins five contract agreements in five days with GM, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, Visteon and Delphi, covering more than 777,000 active and retired workers and surviving spouses.
— UAW organizes 1,000 workers at Dana Elizabethtown, Ky., plant, the first under a neutrality agreement with Dana management.
2004
— Jan. 6: UAW lawsuit leads to restoration of full health benefits for 4,900 J.I. Case retirees and surviving spouses.
— March 8: More than 6,700 workers at five American Axle Mfg. facilities ratify contracts, after striking for little more than a day.
— Oct. 21: Nearly 1,400 ASDA workers in Puerto Rico – field and clerical workers and truck drivers – join the UAW, bringing the number of members there to about 20,000.
2005
— Three newly elected Republican governors void bargaining rights for state employees, including UAW Local 9212 members in Indiana.
— The UAW International Executive Board authorizes $500,000 donation to Oxfam, a hunger and poverty relief organization, to aid Asian tsunami victims.
