Subtitle:

UAW Workplace and Community Action

Series:

Interviews not in a series, part one

Topic:

Social Movements

Labor Movement

Biographical Note:

Director of the western region of the United Automobile Workers and advisor to Robert Kennedy.

Interviewer:

Connors, Thomas J.

Interviewee:

Schrade, Paul

Persons Present:

Schrade and Connors.

Place Conducted:

Schrade's home in Los Angeles, California.

Supporting Documents:

Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.

Interviewer Background and Preparation:

The interview was conducted by Thomas J. Connors, UCLA Oral History Program; B.A., anthropology, Brown University; M.A., American civilization, Brown University.Connors prepared for the interview by reading secondary works on the UAW; William C. Aston's manuscript history of UAW Local 887; and issues of the UAW Local 887 newspaper, the Propeller; and the UAW paper, Solidarity.

Processing of Interview:

Alex Cline, editor, edited the interview. He checked the verbatim transcript of the interview against the original tape recordings, edited for punctuation, paragraphing, and spelling, and verified proper names. Words and phrases inserted by the editor have been bracketed. In accordance with program policy, the editor has consistently bracketed in the current name of both the UAW and the IAM rather than indicating changes in organizational names over time.Schrade reviewed the transcript. He verified proper names and made minor corrections and additions.Teresa Barnett, principal editor, prepared the table of contents. Cline drafted the biographical summary. Steven J. Novak, senior editor, assembled the interview history. Rebecca Stone, oral history assistant, compiled the index.

Length:

15.4 hrs.

Language:

English

Copyright:

Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.

Audio:

Family background and childhood in Saratoga Springs, New York--Employed in an army depot during World War II--Religious background--Living near a racetrack--Works for chemist Oskar Baudisch--Family's German ancestry--The family business--Majors in chemistry at Clarkson College of Technology and at Yale University--Develops interest in politics and philosophy.

Leaves school and heads for California--Works in a lumber camp and does other odd jobs--Hired as a stock clerk at North American Aviation--Promoted to expeditor--Joins Local 887 of the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America-Congress of Industrial Organizations (UAW-CIO)--Becomes a committeeman for the union--­Union membership at North American--Schrade's identification with the working class—Wages in the aircraft industry--Schrade begins to align himself with the Walter P. Reuther caucus within the UAW.

Saratoga Springs mineral water—Living through the Depression--Eye operations as a child--New Yorker writer Frank Sullivan--More on Schrade's early involvement with the UAW--The Reuther caucus versus the Roland J. Thomas-George P. Addes caucus--The Communist Party's failure to support the rights of workers during World War II--Opposing the Communist Party's influence in local CIO councils--Supporting Harry S Truman in the 1948 presidential election--Government opposition to unions in the postwar years and American Federation of Labor (AFL) and CIO competition--Increasing influence of the Reuther caucus within Local 887.

Edits the Local 887 newspaper, the Propeller--Setting up activities to compete with North American's "Family Day"--Dealing with North American's hard-hitting postwar management--­Fighting the company's severe discipline procedures and trying to eliminate the merit review system--The UAW and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) work out a mutual support, no-raid pact--­Factions and alliances at the 1949 UAW convention--Death of Lewis Stowe--Jack Conway-- Working to bring wages in the aircraft industry in line with those in the automobile industry.

More on negotiations to equalize wages between aircraft and automobile workers--Panel appointed by Truman rules in favor of raising aircraft workers' wages--UAW leaders involved in the negotiations.

More on the process of eliminating the automobile-aircraft wage differential--Schrade and other union leaders' increasing involvement in the Democratic Party in the early fifties--Reuther's ascension to the presidency of the CIO--The AFL-CIO merger--Appointed chair of the grievance committee at the 1953 UAW convention-- The convention upholds the UAW international executive board's expulsion of five union members on grounds of their allegiance to the Communist Party--Schrade's membership in the American Civil Liberties Union leads him to rethink the question of communists within the union--Factions in the 1953 UAW elections--John Allard's decision to run for regional director.

Negotiating the 1953 contract with North American--Decision to go on strike--The UAW international aircraft department's lack of commitment to the strike--Day-to-day management of the strike--Ensuring that there was no violence on the picket line--Animosity between strikers and scabs once the strike had been called off--Reuther withdraws his support for Regional Director Cyril V. O'Halloran--The settlement after the strike and the 1954 elections.

More on animosities and divisions after the strike--More on the 1954 elections--Report to Reuther on divisions within the union--Jack Conway is assigned to conduct the 1954 negotiations with North American--The effect of the strike on the '54 negotiations--Working with Arthur Carstens of the UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations--Architects of union halls in Southern California--Minorities and women in the union--Working with Carstens and others to educate union leaders--Charles E. Bioletti is elected regional director.

Difficulties with Bioletti spur Schrade to work for Leonard F. Woodcock in UAW's national aircraft department in Detroit--The UAW pushes for guaranteed annual wages and supplemental unemployment benefits--More on the AFL-CIO merger--The AFL-CIO's support of capitalism and lack of commitment to mass organizing--The Democratic Party National Convention of 1956-- Woodcock's policy of working out pre-negotiation agreements with management without consulting the local membership--The UAW establishes a public review board to hear workers' appeals--The McClellan Committee and the Landrum-Griffin Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959.

Attempt to expel Paul Siren from the UAW because of his Communist Party affillations--Schrade transfers his support from Adlai E. Stevenson to John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential campaign--Generating support for Lyndon B.Johnson as Kennedy's running mate--Events Schrade was involved in while on Reuther's staff--Kennedy's emergence as a serious presidential contender in the late fifties--Schrade leaves Reuther's staff to run for UAW regional director, Region 6--Unanimously elected at the UAWs 1962 convention.

Reuther's refusal to support staff members and friends running for UAW offices--Changes in labor-management relations at North American Aviation during Schrade's absence--Members of the UAW who opposed Schrade in his campaign for the regional directorship--Schrade's involvement in various social movements while in Detroit--UAW organizing in Region 6--The AFL-CIO's efforts to organize farmworkers in California's Central Valley--The UAW and the IAM negotiate the issue of a union shop with Douglas Aircraft Company--­Panel appointed by President John F. Kennedy offers recommendations for a settlement.

Walter P. Reuther sends Schrade to central California to make contacts with the farmworkers movement--The National Labor Relations Act and the federal government's policies toward farmworkers in the 1930s and 1940s--The division between the National Farm Workers Association and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee-­Attempt to meet Cesar Chavez--Reuther leads a farmworker rally and march in Delano, California, in 1965--The United Farm Workers Union (UFW) wins the right to represent DiGiorgio Corporation workers--The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)'s reluctance to organize farmworkers--The 1966 march on Sacramento--More on the AFL-CIO's reluctance to organize farmworkers--The farmworker demonstration at the 1966 International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) convention--Teamster (International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen, and Helpers of America) opposition to the UFW.