R. J. Thomas
R. J. Thomas | |
|---|---|
 Thomas in 1942 | |
| 3rd President of the United Auto Workers | |
| In office January 20, 1939[1] – March 27, 1946 | |
| Preceded by | Homer Martin |
| Succeeded by | Walter Reuther |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Roland Jay Thomas June 9, 1900 East Palestine, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | April 18, 1967 (aged 66) Muskegon, Michigan, U.S. |
| Spouse |
Mildred Wettergren (m. 1937) |
| Children | 1 (Frank) |
| Education | College of Wooster |
Roland Jay Thomas (June 9, 1900 – April 18, 1967) was an American leader of organized labor who served as the third president of the United Auto Workers from 1939 to 1946.
Early life
[edit]Thomas was born in East Palestine, Ohio, on June 9, 1900. He attended the College of Wooster for two years before moving to Detroit in 1923, where he worked in several automobile plants.[2]
United Automobile Workers
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Thomas became active in efforts to organize the automobile industry and was the president of Chrysler Local 7 when it affiliated with the United Auto Workers (UAW) in 1936. He was a leader of the 1937 Chrysler sit-down strike and that same year was elected a vice president of the UAW.[2][3]
He assumed the presidency in 1938 after the president, Homer Martin was ousted, and he was president until 1946.[4] During this period, the UAW developed into a dynamic, stable union. In 1945, he attended the World Trade Union Conference in London alongside many renowned trade unionists. Thomas lost the presidency to Walter Reuther in 1946 by a margin of 124 out of almost 9,000 votes cast, but was elected first vice president.[3][2]
Within the UAW, Thomas had led a Communist Party USA-affiliated faction that supported the Soviet Union, while Reuther led a liberal and progressive faction that opposed the Soviet Union.[5] During World War II and until 1946, communists had outnumbered liberals in the UAW Executive Committee; but by 1947, as U.S.-Soviet tensions grew, workers' support of the communists waned. A series of bitter internal disputes led to Thomas losing the office of the vice presidency in the following year's election, with most of the leading Communists replaced, in what became known as "the biggest setback of all time for the Communists in the American Labor Movement."[3]
After his defeat in 1947, Thomas was named assistant to Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) president Philip Murray. With the merger of the American Federation of Labor and CIO in 1955, he served under George Meany until his retirement in 1964 due to ill health.[2]
Personal life
[edit]He was married to Mildred Wettergren on August 7, 1937, and they had one child, Frank. Thomas died in Muskegon, Michigan, on April 18, 1967.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ Bernstein 1969, p. 507.
- ^ a b c d e "UAW Office of the President: R. J. Thomas Collection" (PDF). Wayne State University. June 1980. Retrieved March 28, 2025.
- ^ a b c Reuther Dickmeyer, Elisabeth (2004). Putting the world together: my father Walter Reuther, the liberal warrior. Lake Orion, Michigan: LivingForce Pub. pp. 52–53. ISBN 9780975379219. OCLC 57172289.
- ^ Benedict, Daniel (1992). "Good-Bye to Homer Martin". Labour / Le Travail. 29: (117–155) 117. doi:10.2307/25143571. ISSN 0700-3862. JSTOR 25143571.
- ^ Boyle, Kevin (1995). The UAW and the heyday of American liberalism, 1945–1968. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. pp. 28-29. ISBN 9780801485381. OCLC 32626436.
Further reading
[edit]- Barnard, John, American Vanguard: A History of the United Auto Workers, 1935–1970 (2004) passim.
- Bernstein, Irving (1969). A History of the American Worker: Turbulent Years. Houghton Mifflin.
- Fink, Gary M. Biographical Dictionary of American Labor Leaders (Greenwood Press, 1974). p. 352.
- Kraus, Henry. Heroes of Unwritten Story: The UAW, 1934–1939 (University of Illinois Press, 1993).
- Halpern, Martin. "The 1939 UAW convention: Turning point for communist power in the auto union?" Labor History 33.2 (1992): 190-216.
- Howe, Irving, and B. J. Widick. "The UAW and Its Leaders." The Virginia Quarterly Review 25.1 (1949): 34-47 online
- Lichtenstein, Nelson. Walter Reuther: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit (1995). A major scholarly biography; online
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