Pat Greathouse: Internationalist, innovator
Long before “globalization” became a household word, former UAW Vice President Pat Greathouse was one of the first U.S. labor leaders to foresee the powerful influence of multinational corporations and urge the development of fair trade between nations.
He died June 16 at age 89.
Greathouse played an active role in developing and strengthening the world labor movement through the International Metalworkers’ Federation. For many years he warned of world domination of the U.S. auto industry and urged programs to invest capital and build products in the countries where large numbers of autos and trucks are sold.
“While he was truly an internationalist in his perspective, Pat Greathouse was also a brilliant innovator at the bargaining table. As director of the union’s Agricultural Implement and Heavy Truck departments, he pioneered many of the programs that have become standard throughout UAW contracts,” said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger.
Greathouse introduced pattern bargaining and won the first dental plan for UAW members, 52 weeks of disability pay and the first Christmas holiday shutdown.
He convinced companies to recognize alcoholism as an illness and treat workers with that disease rather than firing them.
A charter member of UAW Local 551, which represents workers at the Ford Assembly plant in Chicago, Greathouse served as committeeman and was appointed as an international representative in 1943 at age 28.
At 32 he was elected to the International Executive Board as director of Region 4, encompassing Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. In 1956 Greathouse was elected a UAW vice president.
At Greathouse’s memorial service, Region 4 Director Dennis Williams said, “While we mourn the loss of a great labor leader, we celebrate his legacy every day that we hold leadership conferences or educational workshops at the center that bears his name.”
Greathouse directed the UAW Ottawa Union Center in Ottawa, Ill., which opened
in 1949, 21 years before the opening of the Walter and May Reuther UAW Family
Education Center in northern Michigan. After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated
in 1963, the Ottawa center was renamed the UAW JFK Union Center.
Greathouse retired in 1980 and it was renamed the UAW Pat Greathouse Education
Center in 1994.
Greathouse is survived by his wife, Marguerite; sons, Michael, Allen and Pat Jr.; daughters, Donna (Lavin) and Karen (Zavicar); 12 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. Burial was in Hillside Cemetery, Belleville, Mich.
