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.
John Sweeney is president of the American Federal of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). As president of SEIU in the 1980’s he expanded 925 from a local in Boston to District 925, a union with a national jurisdiction.
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…
Jola Stone attended art school and worked in the engineering and drafting departments of Consumers Power in Grand Rapids, MI before a friend referred her to an opening at MichCon (now DTE). Stone was the first women hired into the drafting…
Joseph Billups was one of the earliest black members of UAW Ford Local 600. In this interview Billups discusses pre-UAW auto unionism, black and left-wing activities, and Detroit during the Depression. Also included are discussions on the Ford Hunger…