Douglas Fraser
Encyclopedia
Douglas Andrew Fraser was an American
union
leader. He was president of the United Auto Workers
from 1977 to 1983, and an adjunct professor of labor relations at Wayne State University
for many years. He is best remembered for helping to save Chrysler
from bankruptcy
in 1979 by heavily lobbying Congress
for a financial bailout
.
, when he was a young boy. In 1922, his mother—with Douglas and his sister and brother—sailed to New York City
aboard the and were inspected at Ellis Island on April 23, 1923. They travelled to their new home in Detroit via train.
He was deeply influenced by the Great Depression
. His father was out of work for extensive periods, and Fraser admitted the poverty and social disorder he witnessed changed his life.
factories, where he became active in the union in 1936. He was twice fired for his union beliefs and activities, and participated sitdown strike
s at Chrysler. Fraser was elected president of UAW Local 227 in 1943, and served in the U.S. Army during World War II
.
After the war, Fraser quickly rose through the ranks in the UAW. He was appointed an international representative in 1947. During a difficult 104-day strike at Chrysler in 1950, he deeply impressed UAW staff with his negotiating skill. He joined the personal staff of UAW President Walter Reuther
in 1951, where he was a personal administrative assistant to the president. In 1959, he was elected co-director of UAW Region 1A, and a member-at-large of the international UAW board of directors in 1962. Reuther soon thereafter appointed him director of the UAW's Chrysler, Skilled Trades, and Technical, Office and Professional Departments. He was elected a vice-president of the international union in 1970.
As a key member of Reuther's staff, Fraser was involved in a number of successful collective bargaining agreements. early retirement program in 1964, and wage parity for U.S. and Canadian members in 1967. Reuther died in a plane crash during the 1970 contract talks, leading many to speculate that Fraser might be tapped to lead the union. But after a deeply divided vote of the UAW executive council voted 13-to-12 against him, Fraser withdrew his name and Leonard Woodcock
became union president. Fraser led a nine-day strike against Chrysler which began on September 14, 1973, the first against the automaker in decades. The collective bargaining agreement hammered out five days later (and ratified on September 23) contained restrictions on mandatory overtime, a comprehensive health and safety program, significant improvement to the early retirement plan, and a new dental care benefit. A new streamlined arbitration process was also negotiated, which reduced the time for resolving grievances.
He is best known for his role in negotiating a greater voice for the union in corporate governance with Chrysler during the company's 1979 bankruptcy crisis and subsequent government-sponsored bailout. Fraser mobilized UAW members and heavily lobbied Congress in a move that proved critical to convincing the government to provide $1.2 billion in federally guaranteed loans that enabled Chrysler to avoid bankruptcy. He used Reuther's "equality of sacrifice" formula to convince UAW members that major concessions were needed to save the company. Fraser then negotiated wage cuts of $3 an hour and waived restrictions on layoffs which allowed Chrysler to shed nearly 50,000 jobs (or about half its workforce). In an unprecedented move, Chrysler Corporation named Fraser to its Board of Directors, on which he served from 1980 to 1984. He was the first labor leader to sit on the board of directors of an important American company.
Fraser negotiated another round of concessionary contracts in 1982. The early 1980s recession
hit the Ford Motor Company
particularly hard. To help save the company, Fraser negotiated significant wage and benefit cuts. The same wage concessions were given to General Motors
, as Fraser sought to keep wages uniform across the industry in order to avoid giving one company a cost advantage over another.
Some deeply criticized Fraser's 1979 negotiations, however. They argue that the Chrysler agreement set off a wave of concessionary bargaining among automobile manufacturers which then spread into steel, mining, trucking, meatpacking, airlines and rubber. These critics claim that a 30-year truce between labor and management broke down after 1979, leading auto manufacturers to abandon pattern bargaining
and seek an end to job protections and cost-of-living increases.
, he was an unabashed liberal
.
Fraser was also socially progressive. He was a vocal supporter of the civil rights movement
. He strongly supported busing to achieve desegregation
in the public schools, even though most UAW members did not. Despite resistance from both staff and members, he began initiatives within the UAW and the auto industry to recruit more minorities and women. He also pushed for national health insurance
.
for many years, teaching labor relations and labor history
. A major research and study center, the Douglas A. Fraser Center for Workplace Issues, was named for him.
Fraser received The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence for his significant contributions to life in America.
Douglas Fraser died on Saturday, February 23, 2008, from complications due to emphysema
at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
leader. He was president of the United Auto Workers
United Auto Workers
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers , is a labor union which represents workers in the United States and Puerto Rico, and formerly in Canada. Founded as part of the Congress of Industrial...
from 1977 to 1983, and an adjunct professor of labor relations at Wayne State University
Wayne State University
Wayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...
for many years. He is best remembered for helping to save Chrysler
Chrysler
Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....
from bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
in 1979 by heavily lobbying Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
for a financial bailout
Bail out (finance)
In economics, a bailout is an act of loaning or giving capital to an entity that is in danger of failing, in an attempt to save it from bankruptcy, insolvency, or total liquidation and ruin; or to allow a failing entity to fail gracefully without spreading contagion.-Overview:A bailout could be...
.
Early life
Fraser was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1916. Fraser's father, Samuel, was an electrician and an active and vocal trade unionist. The family was so poor that his father, who worked at a brewery, would sometimes fuel the family stove with stolen whiskey. Samuel Fraser moved to Detroit, MichiganDetroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, when he was a young boy. In 1922, his mother—with Douglas and his sister and brother—sailed to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
aboard the and were inspected at Ellis Island on April 23, 1923. They travelled to their new home in Detroit via train.
He was deeply influenced by the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. His father was out of work for extensive periods, and Fraser admitted the poverty and social disorder he witnessed changed his life.
Early union career
He dropped out of high school when he was 18, worked in a machine shop, and took several jobs in the auto industry. Fraser eventually found work as a metal finisher in one of Chrysler's DeSotoDeSoto (automobile)
The DeSoto was a brand of automobile based in the United States, manufactured and marketed by the Chrysler Corporation from 1928 to 1961. The DeSoto logo featured a stylized image of Hernando de Soto...
factories, where he became active in the union in 1936. He was twice fired for his union beliefs and activities, and participated sitdown strike
Sitdown strike
A sit-down strike is a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at a factory or other centralized location, take possession of the workplace by "sitting down" at their stations, effectively preventing their employers from replacing them with strikebreakers...
s at Chrysler. Fraser was elected president of UAW Local 227 in 1943, and served in the U.S. Army during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
After the war, Fraser quickly rose through the ranks in the UAW. He was appointed an international representative in 1947. During a difficult 104-day strike at Chrysler in 1950, he deeply impressed UAW staff with his negotiating skill. He joined the personal staff of UAW President Walter Reuther
Walter Reuther
Walter Philip Reuther was an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic Party in the mid 20th century...
in 1951, where he was a personal administrative assistant to the president. In 1959, he was elected co-director of UAW Region 1A, and a member-at-large of the international UAW board of directors in 1962. Reuther soon thereafter appointed him director of the UAW's Chrysler, Skilled Trades, and Technical, Office and Professional Departments. He was elected a vice-president of the international union in 1970.
As a key member of Reuther's staff, Fraser was involved in a number of successful collective bargaining agreements. early retirement program in 1964, and wage parity for U.S. and Canadian members in 1967. Reuther died in a plane crash during the 1970 contract talks, leading many to speculate that Fraser might be tapped to lead the union. But after a deeply divided vote of the UAW executive council voted 13-to-12 against him, Fraser withdrew his name and Leonard Woodcock
Leonard Woodcock
Leonard Freel Woodcock was an American labor union leader and diplomat.He was the president of the United Automobile Workers from 1970 to 1977 and the first US ambassador to the People's Republic of China....
became union president. Fraser led a nine-day strike against Chrysler which began on September 14, 1973, the first against the automaker in decades. The collective bargaining agreement hammered out five days later (and ratified on September 23) contained restrictions on mandatory overtime, a comprehensive health and safety program, significant improvement to the early retirement plan, and a new dental care benefit. A new streamlined arbitration process was also negotiated, which reduced the time for resolving grievances.
UAW presidency
Fraser was president of the United Auto Workers from 1977 to 1983. He was elected president after Woodcock reached the mandatory retirement age of 65.He is best known for his role in negotiating a greater voice for the union in corporate governance with Chrysler during the company's 1979 bankruptcy crisis and subsequent government-sponsored bailout. Fraser mobilized UAW members and heavily lobbied Congress in a move that proved critical to convincing the government to provide $1.2 billion in federally guaranteed loans that enabled Chrysler to avoid bankruptcy. He used Reuther's "equality of sacrifice" formula to convince UAW members that major concessions were needed to save the company. Fraser then negotiated wage cuts of $3 an hour and waived restrictions on layoffs which allowed Chrysler to shed nearly 50,000 jobs (or about half its workforce). In an unprecedented move, Chrysler Corporation named Fraser to its Board of Directors, on which he served from 1980 to 1984. He was the first labor leader to sit on the board of directors of an important American company.
Fraser negotiated another round of concessionary contracts in 1982. The early 1980s recession
Early 1980s recession
The early 1980s recession describes the severe global economic recession affecting much of the developed world in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The United States and Japan exited recession relatively early, but high unemployment would continue to affect other OECD nations through at least 1985...
hit the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
particularly hard. To help save the company, Fraser negotiated significant wage and benefit cuts. The same wage concessions were given to General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
, as Fraser sought to keep wages uniform across the industry in order to avoid giving one company a cost advantage over another.
Some deeply criticized Fraser's 1979 negotiations, however. They argue that the Chrysler agreement set off a wave of concessionary bargaining among automobile manufacturers which then spread into steel, mining, trucking, meatpacking, airlines and rubber. These critics claim that a 30-year truce between labor and management broke down after 1979, leading auto manufacturers to abandon pattern bargaining
Pattern bargaining
Pattern bargaining is a process in labour relations, where a trade union gains a new and superior entitlement from one employer, and then uses that agreement as a precedent to demand the same entitlement or a superior one from other employers....
and seek an end to job protections and cost-of-living increases.
Social activism
Fraser was active in politics his entire life. A DemocratDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, he was an unabashed liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
.
Fraser was also socially progressive. He was a vocal supporter of the civil rights movement
African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
The African-American Civil Rights Movement refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South...
. He strongly supported busing to achieve desegregation
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
in the public schools, even though most UAW members did not. Despite resistance from both staff and members, he began initiatives within the UAW and the auto industry to recruit more minorities and women. He also pushed for national health insurance
National health insurance
National health insurance is health insurance that insures a national population for the costs of health care and usually is instituted as a program of healthcare reform. It is enforced by law. It may be administered by the public sector, the private sector, or a combination of both...
.
Retirement and death
Fraser retired as UAW president in 1983. He was an adjunct professor at Wayne State UniversityWayne State University
Wayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...
for many years, teaching labor relations and labor history
Labor history (discipline)
Labor history is a broad field of study concerned with the development of the labor movement and the working class. The central concerns of labor historians include the development of labor unions, strikes, lockouts and protest movements, industrial relations, and the progress of working class and...
. A major research and study center, the Douglas A. Fraser Center for Workplace Issues, was named for him.
Fraser received The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence for his significant contributions to life in America.
Douglas Fraser died on Saturday, February 23, 2008, from complications due to emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan
Southfield, Michigan
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which 0.04% is water. The main branch of the River Rouge runs through Southfield. The city is bounded to the south by Eight Mile Road, its western border is Inkster Road, and to the east it is bounded by Greenfield Road...
.
Quotes
- "The Chrysler workers saved the Chrysler Corporation."
- "Size alone I don't think is the only measurement for a labor union. It's vitality. Your resources are more limited, but it's how you spend those resources. If you spend them on communications and organization and political activity, you can be a very viable force with a much smaller number than we had in the past."
- "I believe leaders of the business community, with few exceptions, have chosen to wage a one-sided class war today in our country—a war against working people, the unemployed, the poor, the minorities, the very young and the very old, and even many in the middle class of our society."
- "I would rather sit with the rural poor, the desperate children of urban blight, the victims of racism, and working people seeking a better life than with those whose religion is the status quo, whose goal is profit and whose hearts are cold."
- "That’s not an adequate answer. ... Business is about making money, but labor leaders are supposed to be about helping workers." (in response to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney's assertion that "There is no more corruption in unions than there is in business or in Congress.")
External links
- Douglas Fraser: A Union Legacy Exhibition. Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs. Wayne State University.
- http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/Fraser/fraser-con0.html"The Labor Movement, Protectionism, and the International Economy: Conversation with Douglas A. Fraser, Former President of the United Automobile Workers." With Harry Kreisler, Executive Director, Institute of International Studies, and Raymond E. Miles, Dean, School of Business Administration. University of California at Berkeley. February 12, 1985.]
- UAW President’s Office: Douglas A. Fraser Collection. Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs. Wayne State University.