Collective biography of Arvid Wiitaniemi, 1871-1961, compiled chiefly by various family members. Topics include his birth in Finland in 1871; coming to the U.S. in 1887; his two marriages; family life; working in the sandstone quarry in Jacobsville;…
Topics include his father's leaving Finland, working at the mine in Ishpeming, family life and boarders, beginning his engineering career, and teaching at Suomi College.
Conducted by Jack W. Skeels between 1959 and 1963 as part of a University of Michigan - Wayne State University Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations project to document the early years of the United Automobile Workers union. All interviews…
Arthur Osman is the Former president of the District 65 Distributive Workers of America. In this interview Osman recalls the conditions in the dry goods industry in New York in the early 1930’s, the AFL-CIO split in later 30’s, and the organizing of…
Topics include his parents' emigration from Finland; lumber camps; copper mines and mining; school in Calumet, Mich.; the 1913 strike; Western Federation of Miners; Socialists in the mines; Finnish newspapers; World War I; farm life in Oskar, Mich.;…
Interviews conducted by Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin for their book, Talking Union, a history of the organization and early years of UAW Local 600., the local representing workers at Ford’s Rouge plant.
Arthur McPhaul is the former Executive Secretary of the Civil Rights Congress of Michigan. In this interview McPhaul describes his experiences with the Ford Organizing Drive, the Civil Rights Federation, National Negro Congress, and Civil Rights…