Leon Bates (UAW Leader)
Encyclopedia
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...
union (UAW) from 1937 to 1964 when he retired, as an "International Representative" of the UAW. He was one the first African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
union organizer
Union organizer
A union organizer is a specific type of trade union member or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers....
s to work for the "UAW-CIO" (Congress of Industrial Organizations
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
).
Biography
Leon Bates was born in Carrollton, MissouriCarrollton, Missouri
Carrollton is a city in Carroll County, Missouri, United States. Carrollton won the 2005 All-America City Award given out annually by the National Civic League. The population was 4,122 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Carroll County. It has several restaurants including JB's...
to Werner Bates and Matilda (White) Bates.
He attended the "Lincoln Institute" now Lincoln University of Missouri at Jefferson City, Missouri for one year before moving to Detroit with relatives to seek work opportunities in the manufacturing plants during the boom years around World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. At the end of the war he remained in Detroit while his relatives returned to Carrollton. In Detroit he met and married Anna L. Perry; they had two children. In his own words he had many different jobs in the years between the World Wars, including cab driver, common laborer, and he even considered trying his hand at home-made liquor during Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
. However, his bootleg liquor-making thoughts were very short lived as he was convinced that every knock at the door would be the police. The Detroit Police Department
Detroit Police Department
The Detroit Police Department , established in 1865, is responsible for the city of Detroit, Michigan.-History:The Detroit Police Department was established in 1865 to serve the city's growing population and covers the city with 5 districts and two precincts. The Detroit Police Department was also...
had a very long and well-deserved reputation of police abuse and abusive tactics, and he had no desire to go to prison.
By 1935 Bates was working at the Briggs Manufacturing Company of Detroit, Michigan; a company founded in 1909 by Walter Briggs, Sr.. Walter Briggs, Sr. had worked his way up to Vice President of the B.F. Everitt Company (car body makers) in 1906. In 1909 he acquired the Everitt Company and incorporated it in to the newly formed Briggs Manufacturing Company. Briggs Manufacturing would later become one of the country's largest auto body manufacturers; supplying parts to Ford
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...
, 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....
, Packard
Packard
Packard was an American luxury-type automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana...
, Hudson Motors, Studebaker
Studebaker
Studebaker Corporation was a United States wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 under the name of the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the company was originally a producer of wagons for farmers, miners, and the...
and many others. Briggs Manufacturing became a division of the Chrysler Corporation in 1956.
Organizing
The 1920s and 1930s were difficult, but exciting times in America, especially for the labor movement. The coal miners, the Pullman PortersPullman Company
The Pullman Palace Car Company, founded by George Pullman, manufactured railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Pullman developed the sleeping car which carried his name into the 1980s...
, the Teamsters
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors....
were all making great strides in organizing workers, but paying a very high price for that success.
The United Mine Workers
United Mine Workers
The United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners and coal technicians. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada...
would be involved in one of the longest and bloodiest fights of their history in 1920 and 1921. The violence began on May 19, 1920 when simmering hostilities between mine workers trying to organize and the private detectives hired by the mine owners trying to keep the union out, boiled over in the tiny community of Matewan, West Virginia
Matewan, West Virginia
Matewan is a town in Mingo County, West Virginia, USA at the confluence of the Tug Fork River and Mate Creek. The population was 498 at the 2000 census...
in what has come to be known as the Battle of Matewan
Battle of Matewan
The Battle of Matewan was a shootout in the town of Matewan, West Virginia in Mingo County on May 19, 1920 between local miners and the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency....
. The violence culminated in the Battle of Blair Mountain
Battle of Blair Mountain
The Battle of Blair Mountain was one of the largest civil uprisings in United States history and the largest armed insurrection since the American Civil War...
where 10,000 to 15,000 armed miners confronted police, militia, and private detectives in August 1921. It finally took military intervention by the Federal government to restore peace to the area.
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was, in 1925, the first labor organization led by blacks to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor . It merged in 1978 with the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks , now known as the Transportation Communications International Union.The...
was organized by the predominantly Negro
Negro
The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not...
Pullman Porters in 1925. The "BSCP" suffered through a lengthy fight to achieve recognition by the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
(AFL) in 1935. BSCP signed its first collective bargaining agreement with the Pullman Company
Pullman Company
The Pullman Palace Car Company, founded by George Pullman, manufactured railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Pullman developed the sleeping car which carried his name into the 1980s...
in 1937.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, formerly known as "International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America", had been involved in an intense struggle to organize since 1901. Between 1901 and 1935 the Teamsters engaged in countless small and large bloody and deadly confrontations over the right to organize and collectively bargain for wages and working conditions. As their early name implies, the Teamsters took in the related workers in order to strengthen its bargaining position with owners and management.
UAW years
While at Briggs, Mr. Bates became involved with the organized laborTrade 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...
movement, he worked passionately for the organized labor cause at Briggs. By 1937 the UAW-CIO had organized and signed a collective bargaining agreement with the Briggs Manufacturing Company. Through that effort Leon Bates became one of the most outspoken union steward
Union steward
A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company, who represents and defends the interests of her/his fellow employees but who is also a labor union official...
s of UAW Local #212. In 1937 Briggs was the fourth largest employer of Negroes in the Detroit area with more than 1,300 or approximately 10% of its total payroll. The UAW-CIO was keenly aware of this fact; so their leadership made the decision to include the Negro workers in the organizing efforts. This decision ran contrary to the social, economic, and business norms of the day as the vast majority of labor unions were segregated at that time and simply would not accept Negro membership. The UAW-CIO was so concerned about the issue of Negro participation that the UAW-International Office sent out a letter encouraging each local to elect at least one Negro delegate to its 1937 convention. Leon Bates was one of two Negro delegates elected to represent Local #212 at the 1937 UAW convention. Even though the UAW had organized Briggs, not all of its employees were union members; in 1937 Local #212 renewed its efforts organise the remaining employees. Placing special emphasis on the Negro employees Local #212 formed a "Negro organizing committee" composed of the Negro union stewards. Each of them was tasked with recruitment in department and assigned areas without a steward. At the time Chief Steward Leon Bates, had 81 men [Negro men] assigned to his department on his shift, all but two were members of Local #212.
1937 was a big year for the UAW. They had organized 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....
and 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...
and they were having a significant amount of success with organizing the smaller parts suppliers and manufacturers, i.e., Midland Steel Products
Midland Steel Products
Midland Steel Products was an American vehicle frame manufacturer located in Cleveland, Ohio that was in business from 1893 to 2003. MSP was the last such American company. At the time of their closing, they employed 250 workers, down from their highest labor force total of 1500 in the 1970s. The...
, Kelsey-Hayes, Bohn Aluminum, Fisher Body
Fisher Body
Fisher Body is an automobile coachbuilder founded by the Fisher brothers in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan; it is now an operating division of General Motors Company...
, and Timken Axle.
The UAW had been working on organizing 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...
employees for some time, then came May 26, 1937 and the UAW's clash with the Ford Motor Company security guards sometimes known as the "Ford Service Department", led by Harry Bennett
Harry Bennett
Harry Bennett , a former boxer and ex-Navy sailor, was an executive at Ford Motor Company during the 1930s and 1940s. He was best known as the head of Ford’s Service Department, or Internal Security. While working for Ford, his union busting tactics, of which The Battle of the Overpass was a prime...
. This violent confrontation has come to be known as the Battle of the Overpass. Just before the afternoon shift change the UAW organizers were posing for press photographers when they were suddenly and viciously attacked by Ford security guards at gate #4 of the Ford River Rouge Complex. The violence was a publicity nightmare for Ford. Henry Ford
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...
had repeatedly stated that he would never sign an agreement with any union. Ford had gone out of his way to undermine the UAW's efforts at his plant. When token donations to Detroit charities and churches were not enough, Ford turned to Harry Bennett and the Ford Service Department with its union busting
Union busting
Union busting is a wide range of activities undertaken by employers, their proxies, and governments, which attempt to prevent the formation or expansion of trade unions...
tactics. Henry Ford also quietly gave money to Negro charities and churches, occasionally showing up at Negro church functions. Henry Ford used these occasions to enlist the help of Negro ministers to influence the Negro community of Detroit against the unions.
For their part, the UAW took some time to heal their wounds and refine their tactics, then they returned to the Ford organizing efforts.
John L. Lewis
John Llewellyn Lewis was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960...
president of the United Mine Workers
United Mine Workers
The United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners and coal technicians. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada...
and president of CIO put the full support of the CIO behind the UAW's efforts. The CIO sent Michael Widman to Detroit to head-up the overall organizing drive. The UAW had previously appealed to the Negro workers, but now their efforts were being stepped up. For their part the UAW knew that if they were going to be successful they needed to organize and recognize every man in the plant that they could. At this point the UAW brought in seven Negro organizers, Leon Bates and John Conyers Sr. were the first hired. UAW president R. J. Thomas
R. J. Thomas
Roland Jay Thomas , aka R.J. Thomas, was born in East Palestine, Ohio. He grew up in eastern Ohio and attended Wooster College for two years. The need to help support his family caused him to leave college and go to work...
picked Local #212 president Emil Mazey to be the director of the UAW Negro organizing effort. From the UAW's prospective, Mazey was a logical and a safe choice. Mazey had come to prominence for his organizing work at Briggs during the sit-down strikes. Mazey was respected and trusted by the many Negro workers of Briggs and the Negro stewards. In 1937 Mazey had unseated Local #212's first president Homer Martin an avowed racist. Mazey ended the exclusion of negro workers at union social events and hired a Negro secretary over the objections of the White secretaries in the Local #212 office. Local #212 and had fought to eliminate racial pay differentials for equal work. Still the Negro organizers were not happy that a white man had been put in charge of the "Negro effort" and complained bitterly first to the UAW - Interracial Department and then directly to the UAW Executive Board. In response Walter Hardin (a Negro) was quickly transferred in from a Chicago assignment to be the coordinator.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
, Urban League, Michigan Democratic Party and the national Democratic Party
Democratic 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...
.
The Ford organizing drive ended June 20, 1941 when 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...
signed a collective bargaining agreement with the UAW-CIO. This was six months before the United States entered 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 Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
attacked the U.S. Navy Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. With the agreements settled between the UAW and the "Big Three Automakers", the UAW-CIO Negro organizers found themselves squarely in the middle of a new battle. The United States was gearing up for the largest military effort in history, a two front war, when the conflict came to head on the home front in the form of "hate strikes" and "Jim Crow
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
" policies. At Packard
Packard
Packard was an American luxury-type automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana...
Motors, White workers had refused to work with Negro workers, after the plant managers refused to reassign the newly promoted and reassigned Negro workers citing the Fair Employment Practices Committee rules and the War Labor Board policies, in protest; the White workers walked off the job. As a result the Negro organizers found themselves in the unusual position of advocating for their union at the same time fighting to reform their union. Pushed by the Negro organizers, the UAW urged the U.S. Government to sanction the companies for the labor policies and practices. The UAW also enforced its own sanctions on its members; declaring the strikes improper and against union rules and policies, the UAW international ordered the employees back to work, or they would remove the local union leadership, and the UAW would support the termination of any and every participant of the strike who refused to return to work immediately.
In the summer of 1941 the dust was far from settling on many labor issues in and around the Detroit area, and the UAW leadership was becoming better organized and business savvy. Leon Bates accepted a new assignment in Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
. Even though Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, Dodge
Dodge
Dodge is a United States-based brand of automobiles, minivans, and sport utility vehicles, manufactured and marketed by Chrysler Group LLC in more than 60 different countries and territories worldwide....
, Packard
Packard
Packard was an American luxury-type automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana...
, Hudson
Hudson Motor Car Company
The Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson and other brand automobiles in Detroit, Michigan, from 1909 to 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form American Motors. The Hudson name was continued through the 1957 model year, after which it was dropped.- Company strategy...
, and many other manufacturers had signed collective bargaining agreements many areas had yet to fully form local unions, ratify the agreements, or cease Jim Crow policies and practices. Even though the UAW-CIO had an official non-discrimination policy and position; many locals had segregated divisions and some plants had altogether separate locals which were segregated. This was the situation in many Indianapolis plants when Leon Bates arrived as a staff representative of the UAW's International Office. One of his first and toughest assignments was the International Harvester
International Harvester
International Harvester Company was a United States agricultural machinery, construction equipment, vehicle, commercial truck, and household and commercial products manufacturer. In 1902, J.P...
Foundry, on Brookville Road, on Indianapolis's far East Side. At the time International Harvester maintained a Jim Crow system of management at its Indianapolis Foundry with two Locals (Local #226 and #998). Officially the division was because of skill and job classification i.e., local #998 was the local that Mold Makers, Millwrights, Electricians, Pipefitters, Machine Operators, etc. belonged to. Local #226 consisted of Laborers, Loaders, and Helpers which were considered Negro jobs. During the war, and through the civil rights era Leon Bates worked on behalf of the UAW cause, and for job equality; often these were not the same thing.
One of Mr. Bates' duties was to regularly visit the surrounding local unions; to assist with organizing efforts, "elected official" union training, grievance resolution, and discrimination investigation. He had to drive many miles through many small unfriendly towns; long before the modern interstate highway system at the height of the Jim Crow era in the United States. He had to drive for extended periods with nowhere to rest, sometimes sleeping in his car because hotels would not allow Negroes to stay in their establishments. When he arrived in a town with no accommodations for Negroes; he would then find a semi friendly Gas Station where he would be allowed to "freshen-up" in a rest room; in order to present a professional appearance to the company management and local union members. Sometimes when he would visit small communities he would be welcomed by local Negro families and Negro churches, who gratefully provide him with a home cooked meal and a place to rest.
Although he was an UAW Representative, Mr. Bates was known to give harsh verbal reprimands to UAW members who were not pulling their own weight on the job, and trying to hide behind union membership for protection. Mr Bates also served in the capacity of Director of the International Harvester Council which served as the committee that represented all the Locals whose members worked for the that company. He also served at the time of retirement, as Director of the Skilled Trades Council. This Council represented all Skilled Trades members. These Councils also had duties that included them as members of the Bargaining Committee which bargained for the National Contract for their respected members.
Retirement
In 1964 Leon Bates retired from the UAW as an International Representative of the UAW. He and his wife Anna moved permanently from Indianapolis to their lake front vacation home in the small community of Idlewild, MichiganIdlewild, Michigan
Idlewild is a vacation and retirement community in Yates Township located in a small rural northwestern part of the U.S. state of Michigan near the southeastern border of Lake County...
. His retirement was an active one, he was appointed UAW Region 3 Representative for Retirees, and immediately got himself elected Yates Township, Lake County, Michigan Supervisor and County Board Member. He was the first African American elected to the Lake County, Michigan Board of Commissioners. He continued to work in Democratic Party Politics at both the state and national levels traveling to events and functions across the region and country. At the time of his death in 1972 he was running for reelection (and favored to win his third term) as Township Supervisor, when he fell from his boat and drowned in Lake Idlewild.
His funeral was attended by both State and National Democratic Party Officials, UAW Officials, he was eulogized by then UAW President 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....
and UAW Secretary - Treasurer Emil Mazey.
UAW Local #226's Union Hall in Indianapolis, is named "Reuther - Bates Hall" in memory of 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...
and Leon Bates.
Leon Bates is buried in the Yates Township Cemetery in Idlewild, Michigan.
Leon Bates was an extraordinary man, besides having an imposing physical presence. He left a lasting impression on the people he met, so much so, that more than 35 years after his death people who knew him, out of respect and fond memories of him, still refer to him as Mr. Bates.
See also
- Timeline of labor issues and eventsTimeline of labor issues and eventsTimeline of organized labor history1790s - 1800s - 1810s - 1820s - 1830s - 1840s - 1850s - 1860s - 1870s - 1880s - 1890s - 1900s - 1910s - 1920s - 1930s - 1940s - 1950s - 1960s - 1970s - 1980s-1790s:1797 -1800s:1806...
- List of strikes
External links
- Walter Reuther Library UAW Collection http://www.reuther.wayne.edu/ward/uaw.html
- Michigan Democratic Party Official Web site http://www.michigandems.com/
- Detroit News retrospective
- Detroit News "Richard Frankensteen, the UAW's 'other guy'
- "Memorial Day Massacre of 1937." Illinois Labor History Society. no date.