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uawarchivist.bsky.social
UAW Archivist
@uawarchivist.bsky.social
The UAW Archivist at the Walter P. Reuther Library (@reutherlibrary), the UAW's official repository. Open to the public, learn more at http://reuther.wayne.edu. Proud Wayne Academic Union member.
Respect for Jasper. Of all the fact-checkers I’ve dealt with from the press, the New Yorker’s are the most thorough and dogged.
Last week, Condé Nast fired four staffers, including Jasper Lo, a senior fact checker at The New Yorker, in an act of illegal union-busting. Join us tomorrow at 6pm to demand that the company reverse this unjust and unlawful decision.
November 21, 2025 at 11:53 AM
This 1974 cover of @uaw.org Ammunition made me realize we are at the very end of the best season of the year here in Michigan. Enjoy those remaining fall colors while you got ‘em, folks. From the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.🍂
November 18, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by UAW Archivist
Gloria McCabe, @afscme.bsky.social Council 97 member, had an unusual commute to work w/ the AZ Department of Economic Security. 4X a year, she and colleagues traveled all day by horse into the #GrandCanyon to the most remote Native American reservation in the US. #NativeAmericanHeritage #Arizona
November 18, 2025 at 3:07 PM
"Space Shuttle: It's Meaning to Labor & the United Auto Workers"
Pamphlet from @uaw.org advocating NASA to develop a reusable space shuttle system and why it should be union-built. From the UAW Aerospace Dept Records at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social. 🚀👩‍🚀
November 18, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Pamphlets on "right-to-work" repeal, social safety net, and raising the min. wage, from America's leading civil rights leaders. Includes MLK, Bayard Rustin, and more. Made by the A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1960s.
From @uaw.org President Walter Reuther's archive at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.
November 14, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Agricultural implement workers from @uaw.org Local 1301 on strike. Chicago area, circa 1950s. From the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.
November 11, 2025 at 6:43 PM
This was my favorite radio program growing up, I even still have cassettes of old shows I taped on my boombox. So proud to be a supporter of @wdet.bsky.social!
November 11, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by UAW Archivist
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the #EdmundFitzgerald on #LakeSuperior. This documentary from @clickondetroit.com uses the WDIV archives at @reutherlibrary.bsky.social and features our AV department's #Steenbeck (film viewing machine): www.clickondetroit.com/features/202...
Watch: The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, 50 years later (full extended cut documentary)
It’s been 50 years since the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
www.clickondetroit.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Pamphlet for the Brookwood Labor Players chautauqua program, a traveling show teaching about labor solidarity. Performances included plays, songs, and "novelty numbers" about labor. In fact, many early @uaw.org leaders were Brookwood alum. From the archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.
November 11, 2025 at 2:26 PM
If you want to win the city-wide bar trivia tourney, take it to the next level and get an archivist. My grad school bar trivia team of future archivists had a future Jeopardy! super champion and another who qualified for the show. As a profession, we are somehow nerdier than librarians.
Anyone looking for a ringer for their bar trivia team, get a librarian.
November 6, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by UAW Archivist
Bad AI supplanting human expertise is an issue that transcends any one field, but man—not many people on earth whose knowledge and dedication deserves respect like LIBRARIANS.
The long-running ideological war on libraries, education, and government workers is not separate from AI boosterism. It is the same ideological war on human knowledge and expertise. In some cases AI is being used to directly supercharge this effort:

www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...
AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge
"Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another."
www.404media.co
November 6, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Bilingual newspaper from @uaw.org Local 51 as the union organized the many Polish immigrant autoworkers who had settled in the Detroit area. 1941. From the archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.
November 5, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Another reason to support @detcityfc.com? DCFC payers are unionized with USL Local 7211!
November 5, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Don't judge a book by its cover...Who would guess these cutesy scrapbooks contain dramatic history of the early @uaw.org? From the John Eldon Papers at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social, they're scrapbooks of news clippings about 1930s autoworker organizing. 📰🐶
archives.wayne.edu/repositories...
November 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Also, it's Halloween and the last day of American archives month!
BIG WEEK for @uawarchivist.bsky.social:

1) given improper credit by me
2) given proper credit by the union
uaw.org UAW @uaw.org · 24d
Enlisting the assistance of Gavin Strassel, @uawarchivist.bsky.social for the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social at Wayne State University proved to be the detective they needed.
October 31, 2025 at 6:51 PM
"Don't Let 'Em Scare You!"👻😱🏚️
#Halloween haunted house-themed flyer from @uaw.org Local 1069, telling members about their legal rights to wear a union button with pride, no matter what their foreman threatens.
1953, from UAW Aerospace Dept Records at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social
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October 31, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by UAW Archivist
Enlisting the assistance of Gavin Strassel, @uawarchivist.bsky.social for the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social at Wayne State University proved to be the detective they needed.
October 31, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Such and honor and so much fun to be a part of this event!
uaw.org UAW @uaw.org · 24d
🧵 Solidarity House had some very special guests last week!

Former Ford workers, Jim and Cheryl Bassett, purchased a vintage Ford station wagon from UAW Local 174 around 10 years ago. It was a bit worn and dusty from being stored for decades, but it appeared to be something special.
October 31, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Gulliver breaks his bonds
Cartoon from 1941 issue of United Automobile Worker, newspaper of the @uaw.org. From the archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.
October 30, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Halloween hoopla!
👻🧙‍♀️🦇October 1989 issue of The 1866 Voice, publication for @uaw.org Local 1866. From the archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social. 🎃🏚️🌙
October 30, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Deeply misguided and ahistorical view on organized labor by Vance. As Chris Cooper says in the film Matewan, "Any union keeps this man out ain't a union, it's a goddam club!"
JD Vance claims that diversity weakens unions, as people end up distrusting each other and not organizing.

Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵
October 30, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Kid going all in on the 🍎 bobbing? Human-sized 🐕/surgeon? Girls terrified by something off-camera? Grim Reaper? Reaper's victim?
Tag which photo from this collage of @uaw.org Local 662's 1977 Halloween party you most identify with this Halloween! From the archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.
October 28, 2025 at 6:40 PM
🎃 @uaw.org members from the Lansing Car Assembly GM plant, rocking their Halloween costumes. 1990 issue of Line Times. From the archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.
October 28, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Sweet and sour pork recipe from the Executive Chef at the @uaw.org’s Black Lake education center. 1976 issue of Solidarity magazine, from the UAW archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.
October 27, 2025 at 8:57 PM
🚗🔊Very excited to present today at Solidarity House on the history of sound cars and sound trucks used in the early decades of the @uaw.org! Lots of great content and stories from the archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.📣
October 24, 2025 at 3:15 PM