UAW presidency
The organizer becomes a beloved labor leader
On May 18, 1977, delegates to the 25th UAW Constitutional Convention chose Doug Fraser as their next president – and the former DeSoto factory worker was off and running.
“In his first 30 days,” reported Solidarity magazine in June 1977, “he led a delegation to press President Carter for health security legislation, testified before Congress on energy and health bills, faced reporters on ‘Meet the Press,’ and addressed several union meetings.”
At his first press conference at Solidarity House, Doug endorsed the push by consumer advocates to build safer cars, with air bags and automatic seat belts. “I think the autoworkers,” he said, “are free to take a position on any social question.”
Indeed. Doug led the UAW during six turbulent years, characterized by a crisis in domestic auto manufacturing, a surge in imported vehicles, high inflation, high energy prices, and the growth of a right-wing political movement which supported Big Business attacks against working families.
Doug helped UAW members fight back by creating progressive coalitions to link the struggles of working people with related movements for social change.
Doug led UAW members in marching for the Equal Rights Amendment, lobbied with Coretta Scott King for the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act, called for a freeze on car prices, and withdrew UAW funds from banks that provided loans to South Africa, still struggling under the weight of apartheid.
“We in the UAW don’t believe that the hard-earned dues money of our 1.5 million members should wind up being used directly or indirectly to aid a country that practices such racist, repressive and undemocratic policies,” said Doug.
In July 1978, furious at a big business campaign to scuttle a modest program of labor law reform, Doug resigned from the Labor-Management Group, a top-level forum for union and industry leaders. In a scathing letter of resignation, Doug accused business elites of waging a “one-sided class war” against workers, the unemployed, the poor and minorities.
Doug then took the initiative to organize the Progressive Alliance, bringing together more than 100 labor unions, environmental groups, women’s organizations and consumer groups, including the Friends of the Earth, the National Organization for Women, the NAACP, the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and many others.
The Alliance rallied liberals and leftists around a program of full employment, alternative energy, expanded rights for women, health and safety in the workplace, and firm protections for consumers.
Saving Chrysler
In 1979 UAW members and families faced a crisis that required every conceivable ounce of Doug’s skills as a bargainer, organizer and coalition-builder. Beset by years of bad management decisions, the Chrysler Corp. was on the verge of bankruptcy.
With the lights about to go out on more than 100,000 UAW jobs – and tens of thousands more in supplier plants – the union organized a massive grassroots lobbying effort, which successfully convinced Congress to provide $1.2 billion in federal loan guarantees. The deal never cost taxpayers a penny because Chrysler paid back its loans. But Chrysler workers made real sacrifices, contributing over $1.7 billion in concessions to keep the company afloat.
A great American company was saved, along with tens of thousands of jobs and the communities that depend on them. Ever afterward, Doug made sure everyone knew who deserved the real credit.
“It was Chrysler workers,” he said, “who saved the Chrysler Corporation!”
Stopping GM’s ‘Southern strategy’
Also in 1979, the UAW was successful in stopping GM’s “Southern strategy” of shifting work to nonunion plants in the South. Workers at GM’s Oklahoma City plant voted by more than 2-to-1 in favor of becoming part of the UAW, and the union soon organized all the facilities GM had opened in Southern states.
In 1980 Doug traveled to Japan, urging auto companies there to open plants in the United States. “If you’re going to sell cars in the United States,” he said, “you should build cars in the United States.” Japanese companies eventually followed his advice, leading to a major presence of foreign nameplate operations on U.S. soil.
In 1981, after UAW convention delegates voted in favor of the move, Doug led the UAW back into the AFL-CIO. The reaffiliation came just in time for UAW members to participate in Solidarity Day, a giant demonstration in Washington, D.C., against Ronald Reagan’s anti-labor policies – including the firing of striking air traffic controllers – and his unfair budget cuts, which fell mostly on poor and working Americans.
Back to bargaining
In 1982, with GM and Ford facing financial difficulties, Doug led the UAW in an early round of auto talks. Union bargainers agreed to contract modifications, but also won limits on outsourcing and new job security agreements at GM and Ford.
Chrysler workers, meanwhile, began the long march back to parity, closing half the gap between their wages and their counterparts at Ford and GM.
To address the crisis in auto manufacturing, the union initiated a major push for domestic content legislation, which would have required cars built in the United States to include a fixed portion of parts made in the United States. The bill would have protected as many as 1 million U.S. manufacturing jobs.
Doug continued the UAW’s fight against apartheid in South Africa, and also lent union support to the struggling Solidarity movement in Poland. And a short item in Solidarity magazine in May 1982 notes that the UAW had joined a successful effort to pressure Brazil’s military dictators to free an imprisoned labor leader known as Lula – Luis Inacia da Silva.
Lula, a metalworker who is also head of the Brazilian Workers’ Party, is now the president of Brazil.
Passing the torch
In 1983 Doug stepped down – reluctantly – as UAW president. “Owen will have to pry the gavel from my hands,” he told Automotive News. “I just don’t want to go.”
He wasn’t the only one. Many union members were reluctant to see a beloved union leader leave his post. But like many before him, Fraser turned his responsibilities over to a new generation of leaders, and saw UAW members continue as strong defenders of workers’ rights, and strong partners for social and political change.
