Walter Philip Reuther (born September 1, 1907; died May 9, 1970) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. He helped build the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most important labor unions in American history. He believed that labor movements should not only focus on workers’ needs but also work to improve fairness and rights in society. He used the UAW’s power to support workers’ rights, civil rights, women’s rights, health care, education, housing, environmental protection, profit-sharing for employees, and efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. He supported a type of government called Swedish-style social democracy and believed in peaceful protests to bring about change. He helped create the AFL-CIO in 1955 with George Meany. He survived two attempts on his life, including one where a 12-gauge shotgun was fired through his kitchen window. He was the fourth and longest-serving president of the UAW, leading it from 1946 until his death in 1970.

As the leader of five million autoworkers, including retirees and their families, Reuther had a strong influence in the Democratic Party. In 1961, after the Bay of Pigs event, President John F. Kennedy sent Reuther to Cuba to negotiate a prisoner exchange with Fidel Castro. He played a key role in helping create the Peace Corps and supporting important laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare and Medicaid, and the Fair Housing Act. He met with President Lyndon B. Johnson weekly in 1964 and 1965 to discuss policies for the Great Society and War on Poverty. The Republican Party was cautious about Reuther. During the 1960 election, candidate Richard Nixon said that having a president who owed his election to someone like Reuther was harmful to the nation. Conservative politician Barry Goldwater claimed that Reuther was more dangerous to the country than the Soviet Union’s actions.

Reuther was a close ally of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. He marched with King in cities like Detroit, Selma, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Jackson. When King and others, including children, were jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, and King wrote his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Reuther arranged $160,000 to help release the protestors. He also helped organize and fund the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, speaking from the Lincoln Memorial steps before King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. He supported Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, asking Robert F. Kennedy to visit and support Chavez. He served on the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and helped start the group Americans for Democratic Action. A lifelong environmentalist, Reuther helped fund and organize the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. He died weeks later in a plane accident at age 62. Denis Hayes, the main organizer of the first Earth Day, said, "Without the UAW, the first Earth Day would have likely failed."

Time Magazine named Reuther one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. In 1995, President Bill Clinton honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, saying, "Walter Reuther was an American visionary so far ahead of his times that although he died a quarter of a century ago, our Nation has yet to catch up to his dreams."

Early life, education, and beliefs

Walter Reuther was born on September 1, 1907, in Wheeling, West Virginia, to Valentine and Anna Reuther, who were German-Americans. His father, Valentine, worked as a horse-drawn beer wagon driver and was a member of a group called the Socialist union. He moved to the United States from Germany when he was 11 years old. Walter had four older brothers and one younger sister: Ted, Roy, Victor, and Christine. Every Sunday, Valentine held debates with his sons to teach them how to think about important issues like unfair news reporting, child labor, women’s right to vote, and civil rights. Walter later said, “At my father’s knee we learned the philosophy of trade unionism. We got the struggles, the hopes and the aspirations of working people every day.” As a child, Walter and his brother Victor visited a jail with their father to meet Eugene V. Debs, who was imprisoned for opposing war during World War I.

The Reuther family lived simply and avoided wasting resources. To save money, Walter’s mother made underwear for her sons using old flour sacks. When Valentine lost vision in one eye due to an accident, Walter began doing small jobs at age nine to help support the family. He left high school during his junior year and worked in a local factory to help his family. He learned about poor worker safety when a heavy machine fell and injured his big toe.

From an early age, Walter and his brothers were taught about racism. They saw local children throwing rocks at Black people traveling through their town by train. Their father warned them never to treat others unfairly. The Reuther boys remembered this lesson and spent their lives fighting for fairness and equal rights.

In 1927, at age 19, Walter moved to Detroit and earned a job as a skilled tool and die maker at Ford Motor Company, a position that usually required 25 years of experience. His boss was surprised that Walter could read technical drawings and operate complex machinery, making him one of the highest-paid workers in the factory. While working at Ford, Walter completed high school and enrolled at Detroit City College, now known as Wayne State University. In 1932, he was fired for organizing a rally for Norman Thomas, a candidate for president from the Socialist Party. His official Ford record stated he quit, but Walter claimed he was fired for his growing involvement in socialist activities. Walter and his brother Victor decided to take a trip to Europe they had planned since childhood.

After Henry Ford stopped producing the Model T in 1927, he sold the factory equipment to the Soviet Union. Workers who knew how to operate the machines were needed, and Walter and Victor were promised jobs teaching Soviet workers. With this promise, the brothers traveled across Europe by bicycle, then worked in an automobile plant in Gorky, Soviet Union, where the cold factories were often 30–40 degrees below zero. Walter often wrote letters to the Moscow Daily News criticizing the inefficient way the communists managed the plants.

After nearly two years in the Soviet Union, the brothers traveled through Turkey, Iran, British India, and China. They crossed the East China Sea and completed their trip by bicycling through Japan. Finally, after three years away, they returned to the United States by ship to San Francisco and went back to Detroit, where their brother Roy was already working to organize autoworkers. Walter later said the world tour taught him that “all people long for the same basic human goals of a job with some degree of security, greater opportunity for their children, and of course, freedom. We felt we could make a contribution by helping American workers build strong and democratic labor unions. That’s why we went into the labor movement.”

Before joining the Democratic Party, Walter was a member of the Socialist Party of America. Although he always denied it, some people, including J. Edgar Hoover, suspected he was once a member of the Communist Party. Walter said in 1938, “I am not and never have been a member of the Communist Party nor a supporter of its policies nor subject to its control or influence in any way.” However, some sources suggest he may have paid membership fees to the Communist Party for a short time in 1935–36 and attended a Communist Party meeting in 1939. Walter worked with Communists in the mid-1930s during a time when the Communist Party and other groups collaborated. His connections were with anti-Stalinist Socialists. Walter remained active in the Socialist Party and tried to be elected to the Detroit City Council in 1937 but failed because the AFL and Black voters opposed his ticket. A historian later found evidence that Walter was a member of the Communist Party for less than a year. Eventually, Walter joined the Democratic Party after being impressed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s efforts to address inequality.

United Automobile Workers (UAW)

After returning from Europe to Detroit, Walter Reuther traveled by hitchhiking to South Bend, Indiana, to attend the second annual convention as a representative of the new UAW. When he returned, he became president of Local 174, a newly formed union group on Detroit’s west side. With his brother Victor, he led the first successful strike against Kelsey Hayes, a company that made parts for Ford Motor Company. Workers complained the assembly line was moving too fast, and many were injured or killed trying to keep up. In December 1936, workers surprised management by staging a strike and sitting in the plant until Ford agreed to negotiate with Walter Reuther.

When Ford tried to remove machinery from the plant, thousands of supporters blocked the doors. Ford needed the parts badly, and after 10 days of striking, the company agreed to a deal. This was the first major UAW victory to unionize auto factories. Because of Walter Reuther’s efforts, women earned the same pay as men: 75 cents an hour. The assembly line speed was reduced, and workers could not be fired for joining the union. UAW Local 174’s membership grew from 200 to 35,000 in one year.

In 1936, General Motors (GM) was the world’s largest company and had many plants in Flint, Michigan, 60 miles north of Detroit. Walter Reuther’s brother, Roy, was already in Flint planning strategies and organizing workers to demand union rights. The strike began on December 31, 1936, when workers sat in GM plants and refused to leave. GM responded by turning off the heat inside.

To support Flint workers, Walter Reuther led a strike at Detroit’s Fleetwood Plant, where car bodies for GM’s Cadillac were made. Other strikes were also organized in Oakland, California; Pontiac, Michigan; and St. Louis, Missouri. Workers across the country joined the effort to support Flint strikers.

In Flint, police attacked workers with tear gas and bullets during the "Battle of Bulls Run." Over 100 officers injured 13 workers. Victor, Walter’s brother, helped encourage workers to resist by throwing door hinges from the factory roof and using fire hoses on police during a cold winter night. Victor and Genora Johnson, a leader of the Women’s Brigade, took turns speaking to workers from a car to keep them motivated.

Michigan Governor Frank Murphy sent 2,000 National Guard members to Flint not to remove workers but to keep peace. After a clever move, workers took control of the plant that made Chevrolet engines. After 44 days, GM agreed to recognize the workers’ right to unionize and signed its first agreement with the UAW.

The Flint sit-down strike became known as the "Lexington and Valley Forge of American industrial unionism." Roy Reuther later said, "When workers left the plants, I never saw a night like that. It felt like a country gaining independence, with families reunited and children happy to see their fathers again."

In 1950, Walter Reuther signed the "Treaty of Detroit" with Charlie Wilson, CEO of GM. This agreement, which lasted five years, gave workers better pay, health care, and pensions in exchange for a promise not to strike. At the time, Fortune Magazine said the treaty made workers "middle-class members of a middle-class society."

Next, the UAW focused on Chrysler. In March 1937, 60,000 Chrysler workers went on strike. When police attacked pickets, over 150,000 people gathered in Detroit’s Cadillac Square to protest with Walter Reuther and others. After four weeks, Chrysler agreed to its first union agreement with the UAW.

Henry Ford refused to allow unionization at his company. His main enforcer, Harry Bennett, led a 3,000-member security force that attacked workers who supported unions. In 1932, workers at Ford’s River Rouge Complex protested the fast assembly lines and were shot by Bennett’s men; five died, and hundreds were injured.

In April 1937, Walter Reuther and three UAW leaders handed out leaflets titled "Unionism, not Fordism" near Ford’s River Rouge Complex. As they climbed stairs to a bridge, they were attacked by Bennett’s men and severely beaten. Reuther was knocked to the ground, kicked, and thrown down three flights of stairs. Union women who arrived with leaflets were also attacked.

Photographers covering the event were hit, and their cameras were taken. One camera was hidden in a car and later used to report the "Battle of the Overpass" nationally. The beating of union organizers turned public opinion against Ford. Time Magazine published photos of the attack, and Ford stopped advertising in Time, Life, and Fortune.

It took four more years, but in 1941, Henry Ford signed his first agreement with the UAW. Later, Ford told Walter Reuther, "It was one of the smartest things Harry Bennett did by getting the UAW into this plant. Now you’re on our side, and we can fight General Motors and Wall Street together."

In the 1950s, Walter Reuther and Henry Ford II, CEO of Ford, visited a modern engine plant in Cleveland. Ford pointed to automated machines and asked, "Walter, how will you get these robots to pay union dues?" Reuther replied, "Henry, how will you get them to buy your cars?"

In 1940, during World War II, the U.S. needed more fighter planes to help allies fight Hitler. Production was slow, and the Allies needed faster results. Reuther proposed using unused auto industry capacity to create a large plane production unit. This plan helped speed up production and support the war effort.

Ideas, activism, and political stances

In 1950, Walter Reuther wrote an article called "A Proposal for a Total Peace Offensive." In it, he suggested that the United States create a group to send young Americans worldwide to help with humanitarian and development work. During the 1950s, Reuther gave speeches about this idea.

In August 1960, after the 1960 Democratic National Convention, Walter Reuther visited John F. Kennedy at his home in Hyannisport, Massachusetts. He talked with Kennedy about plans for a future government. There, Reuther convinced Kennedy to create a government organization that would later become the Peace Corps. Earlier that summer, Reuther had helped the United Auto Workers (UAW) create a policy plan that included sending young people to developing countries as part of a "youth peace corps." At Reuther’s urging, Kennedy announced the idea for this group on October 14, 1960, during a late-night speech at the University of Michigan.

Reuther strongly supported the Civil Rights Movement. He joined Martin Luther King, Jr. in marches in Selma, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Jackson, Alabama. When King and others were arrested in Birmingham, Reuther arranged $160,000 to help pay for their release. He also helped organize and fund the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. He spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial shortly before King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Reuther served on the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Under his leadership, the UAW donated $75,000 in 1954 to support the NAACP’s work in the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. In 1957, Reuther asked his local unions to support the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington, D.C. On the 25th anniversary of the UAW, King wrote to Reuther, praising his efforts.

In the early 1930s, as a student at what is now Wayne State University, Reuther challenged racism. When a local hotel refused to let Black students use its swimming pool, he organized a protest. The hotel closed its pool to all students after the protest. In 2013, President Barack Obama said in an interview with The New York Times, "Reuther was a leader who stood for justice."

The Walk to Freedom was a large march on June 23, 1963, in Detroit, Michigan. It aimed to protest racism, segregation, and the mistreatment of civil rights activists in the South and discrimination faced by African Americans in the North. It was seen as a practice for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which happened two months later. About 125,000 people attended, making it the largest civil rights demonstration in U.S. history at that time. Reuther helped organize the event and provided space at the UAW’s headquarters, Solidarity House, for King to plan the march. Reuther and King marched down Woodward Avenue and spoke at Cobo Hall. King gave the first version of his "I Have a Dream" speech there, which he had written in part at Solidarity House.

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place on August 28, 1963, in Washington, D.C. It aimed to support the civil and economic rights of African Americans. Reuther helped organize the march with the Big Six and other leaders. Originally, the march was planned near the Capitol Building, but Reuther persuaded organizers to move it to the Lincoln Memorial. He believed this location would be less threatening to Congress and more appropriate near Abraham Lincoln’s statue. Reuther paid for a $19,000 sound system so people on the National Mall could hear speeches and music. The UAW provided bus transportation for 5,000 members and thousands of signs for marchers. Signs included messages like "Equal Rights and Jobs NOW" and "UAW Supports Freedom March."

Reuther was the most prominent white organizer scheduled to speak. He urged Americans to pressure politicians to address racial injustices. He said, "You can’t escape the problem. There are two ways to solve it: either by reason or riots." He added, "The civil war this will trigger won’t be fought at Gettysburg. It will be fought in your backyard, in your plant, where your kids are growing up."

After the march, civil rights leaders met with President Kennedy to discuss civil rights laws. Reuther told Kennedy how he explained the issue to business leaders in Detroit.

On March 9, 1965, two days after Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, where civil rights marchers were attacked by police, Reuther sent a telegram to President Johnson. It said, "We must act immediately to protect the rights of all people."

Following the death of Unitarian Universalist minister James Reeb, a memorial service was held at Brown’s Chapel AME Church in Selma on March 15. Reuther, King, and others spoke at the event. A photo of King, Reuther, and others appeared on the cover of Life magazine on March 26, 1965. After the service, leaders and attendees marched from the church to the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma.

In December 1965, Reuther visited Cesar Chavez and striking grape growers in Delano, California. His brother, Roy, had visited the farmworkers earlier and encouraged Walter to support Chavez. At the time, Chavez’s work was not well known, but Reuther’s visit gained national attention. During the trip, Reuther marched with Chavez and spoke to a union hall, saying, "This is not your strike, this is our strike!" He pledged the UAW would give $7,500 monthly to the United Farm Workers’ strike fund.

After returning to Detroit, Reuther asked Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was on the Senate Labor Committee, to visit Chavez in Delano. Kennedy agreed and became a major supporter of the farmworkers’ movement.

Assassination attempts

In April 1938, two men wearing masks tried to kidnap Walter Reuther during a party he was hosting. One guest ran away and told the police, which led to the men’s arrest. During the trial, the defense claimed that Reuther created the event to gain attention. The connection between the attackers and Harry Bennett, a man who opposed unions, was not shared with the jury.

On April 20, 1948, Walter Reuther narrowly escaped a shooting when a double-barrel shotgun fired through his kitchen window as he was eating a late-night snack. The shot rang out at 9:48 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. As the gun fired, Reuther turned toward his wife and was hit in his right arm instead of his chest or heart. Four bullets broke his right arm into 150 pieces of bone. Another bullet went through his back and came out of his stomach. The attacker ran away in a bright red four-door car, police said. Reuther did not lose consciousness and yelled at his attacker while being treated by his neighbor, a doctor, as he lay on the kitchen floor. He said, “Those dirty sons of bitches! They have to shoot a man in the back. They won’t come out in the open and fight.” Doctors tried to save his life, but he became sick with malaria and hepatitis from blood transfusions. After months of treatment, he regained some use of his right arm but had to practice writing and shaking hands with his left hand for the rest of his life. When Attorney General Tom Clark asked J. Edgar Hoover to investigate the shooting, Hoover refused and said, “I’m not going to send in the FBI every time some nigger woman gets raped.” The shooting was never solved.

Thirteen months after the attack, Walter’s brother Victor was nearly killed by a similar shooting. A double-barrel shotgun fired through Victor’s living room window and hit him in the face, throat, and chest. Victor lost his right eye and had to have it removed. He said, “The attack on me was a way of serving notice to Walter. ‘We didn’t get you yet, but we’re still around.’” This shooting was also never solved.

After both attacks, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote: “It seems unthinkable that the police have never been able to discover who shot Walter Reuther and because of that, in all probability, the same person perhaps has felt he could get away with shooting another brother. … [W]e have a right to protect men who are working in the interests of their fellow men.”

Death

On May 9, 1970, Walter Reuther, his wife May, architect Oscar Stonorov, Reuther's bodyguard William Wolfman, pilot George O. Evans, and co-pilot Joseph U. Karaffa died when their chartered Learjet 23 crashed in flames at 9:33 p.m. Eastern Time. The plane had arrived from Detroit in rain and fog and was on final approach to Pellston Regional Airport in Pellston, Michigan, near the UAW's recreational and educational facility in Black Lake, Michigan. The National Transportation Safety Board found that the plane's altimeter was missing parts, some incorrect parts were installed, and one of its parts had been installed upside down. This led some to speculate that Reuther may have been murdered. Reuther had previously survived two attempted assassinations and a similar near-crash in a small plane in 1969.

Journalist Michael Parenti wrote, "Reuther's demise appears as part of a truncation of liberal and radical leadership that included the deaths of four national figures: President John Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Senator Robert Kennedy."

Reuther's funeral was held on May 15, 1970, at Ford Auditorium in Detroit, Michigan. An estimated 3,400 people attended. Among others, Coretta Scott King eulogized.

Personal life

Walter and May Reuther married on March 13, 1936, after meeting on a streetcar in Detroit six weeks earlier. They had two daughters, Linda, born in 1942, and Elisabeth, born in 1947.

Walter lived a simple life. He did not smoke or drink alcohol because he believed these habits reduced a person’s energy. For lunch, he always ate the same thing: a sandwich and a cup of tea. He woke up early each day. Author William Manchester described Walter as a “true ascetic,” meaning he lived with strict discipline and avoided luxury.

To relax, Walter enjoyed hiking, fishing, and playing tennis. He liked listening to German Lieder, classical music, spiritual songs, and union songs. Though some people thought he was serious and had no sense of humor, his friend Irving Bluestone said, “That wasn’t true at all. He was easy to work with and had a good sense of humor. He could laugh at himself. Sometimes, when he was excited, he used strong language, just like others might.”

Walter loved spending time outdoors. He built a fish ladder to help trout swim under their bridge and planted a Japanese garden for May to enjoy from their bedroom window. At their home on Paint Creek, outside Rochester, Michigan, he and his daughter Lisa created an arboretum with over 50 types of trees. He was skilled at woodworking and made much of the furniture for their home. After an assassination attempt in 1948, which broke his arm into many pieces, he recovered by squeezing a hard rubber ball and rebuilding their home, which had started as a one-room cottage. He said, “I got a good house and a good hand, all for the same money.”

May supported Walter throughout his career. She was a teacher and helped organize a teachers’ union. Early in her career, she earned $60 a week and gave most of it to help auto workers join the newly formed UAW. Later, she became Walter’s full-time secretary, earning $15 a week. She worked with charities and community programs. She marched with Walter in civil rights efforts in Selma and other places. She hosted Eleanor Roosevelt at their home and was president of the PTA at their daughter’s school. After the 1948 attack, May focused on giving their two daughters a normal life, though bodyguards and attack dogs lived with the family for the rest of their lives.

Honors and awards

• In 1955, the National Religion and Labor Foundation gave Reuther the Social Justice Award.
• In 1968, Reuther received the Eugene V. Debs Award for his work in Industrial Unionism.
• In 1958, the National Committee for Israel Labor presented Reuther with the Histadrut Humanitarian Award.
• In 1968, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel gave Reuther the Weizmann Award in the Sciences and Humanities. The institute also created the Walter P. Reuther Chair of Research in the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy.
• Reuther received honorary degrees from, including other universities, Harvard University, University of Michigan, Oakland University, Tuskegee University, and University of Rhode Island.
• The Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., holds three portraits and one sculpture of Reuther.
• Reuther was featured on the covers of Time Magazine twice, Newsweek three times, Der Spiegel once, The New York Times Magazine once, and Life magazine once.

Legacy

Time Magazine listed Walter Reuther as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. In 1995, President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom after he died. Clinton said, "Walter Reuther was an American visionary so far ahead of his times that although he died a quarter of a century ago, our Nation has yet to catch up to his dreams." Murray Kempton, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, wrote, "Walter Reuther is the only man I have ever met who could reminisce about the future." A. H. Raskin, labor editor of The New York Times, wrote, "If the speed of a man's mind could be measured in the same way as the speed of his legs, Walter Reuther would be an Olympic champion." George Romney, Governor of Michigan, once said, "Walter Reuther is the most dangerous man in Detroit because no one is more skillful in bringing about the revolution without seeming to disrupt the existing forms of society."

• Reuther appears in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.
• Reuther was inducted into the Department of Labor's Hall of Honor.
• The Walter P. Reuther Humanitarian Award was created in 1999 by Wayne State University.
• The Reuther-Chavez Award was created in 2002 by Americans for Democratic Action "to recognize important activist, scholarly and journalistic contributions on behalf of workers' rights, especially the right to unionize and bargain collectively."
• The Walter P. Reuther Memorial was dedicated October 12, 2006, at Heritage Port in Wheeling, West Virginia. The seven-foot bronze statue of Walter Reuther was created by sculptor Alan Cottrill of Zanesville, Ohio. Inscribed on the granite pedestal it stands upon are the words of Reuther himself: “There is no greater calling than to serve your fellow man. There is no greater contribution than to help the weak. There is no greater satisfaction than to have done it well.”
• Reuther's home near Rochester, Michigan, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

In 1999, Wayne State University, in collaboration with the UAW and the Reuther family, created the Walter P. Reuther Humanitarian Award to honor individuals who embody the spirit, vision, and values of Reuther. The recipients of the award include civil rights activist Rosa Parks, Congressman John Dingell, civil rights activist Joseph Lowery, UAW president Douglas Fraser, and civil rights activist and Congressman John Lewis.

• Walter P. Reuther Library, the largest labor archives in North America, located on the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan
• Walter P. Reuther Freeway (I-696), stretching from the eastern to western suburbs of Detroit
• Walter and May Reuther Family Education Center, Black Lake, Michigan
• Walter Reuther Psychiatric Hospital, Westland, Michigan
• Reuther Middle School, Rochester Hills, Michigan
• Walter Reuther Central High School, Kenosha, Wisconsin
• Reuther Way, street connecting GM plant to Interstate 90/39, Janesville, Wisconsin
• The Walter Reuther Center for youngsters, Holon, Israel

• Reuther is portrayed in Robert Schenkkan's Broadway play All the Way, which won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Play. The play was subsequently adapted into a television drama by HBO in 2016 in which Reuther is portrayed by Spencer Garrett.
• Greg Pliska and Charley Morey are presently creating a musical about Reuther's life titled "A Most Dangerous Man," the date of which it will be released is unknown.
• Thomas Pynchon's novel V. alludes to Reuther as follows: "Zeitsuss the boss secretly wanted to be a union organizer. … His job was civil service but someday he would be Walter Reuther." (p. 112 in the Vintage 2000 edition)

Archival records

The records related to Walter P. Reuther are mainly stored at the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs. A significant part of the collection is the UAW President's Office: Walter P. Reuther Records, which includes information about his work as President of the UAW. The collection contains letters, writings, photographs, official messages, and other types of documents. People who want to learn more or use these materials are advised to contact the Reuther Library. A guide to these records is available here.