Draft:Robert Travis - UAW Labor Leader

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"Robert Travis' (February 07, 1906 - 1979) was a labor organizer and leader of the famous Flint Sit Down Strike that took place in a General Motors factory in 1936. The strike lasted forty-four days and resulted in General Motors recognizing the United Auto Workers union. This strike has been called by the LA Times as the most significant strike in American history:

“This strike broke the back of American Industry, forcing steel, rubber, oil, and other industries to accept the burgeoning union movement.”

Among other concessions, Travis managed to negotiate a raise for autoworkers to about .45 cents per hour, and a rule that now allowed workers to talk during breaks. Seventeen GM plants across the Midwest were shut down by the strikers workers and 136,000 workers ceased working as a result causing an almost complete shutdown of the company’s automotive production. (Fine p. 295) The strike started at the shift change and allowed double the amount of strikers to be inside the building than would have been at other times. Prior to this most strikes took place outside the work place with picket lines where strikers were exposed to weather, strikebreakers, and police interference. The sit down allowed them control of the building and to impress others to join in. It also allowed strikers control of the plant, made it harder for scabs to get in, protected them from the Michigan winter and police violence. GM kept the heat on to protect pipes and keep workers from destroying machinery.

Early Life

Robert Travis was born February 7, 1906 in Toledo, Ohio . (Fine/Warner p.1) His father was of Welsh ancestry and his mother was part Lithuanian. He grew up in Defiance, Ohio and as a boy went with his father to see Eugene Debs speak.

Travis quit school at sixteen and went to work in a forge. His first job was at the Willys Overland Company, from there he moved to the Toledo, Ohio Chevrolet plant and helped to organize the first UAW-CIO chapters there. While there he was involved in one of the first strikes in GM. In 1934 he aided Toledo Auto Lite strikers, and helped form a federal labor union in Toledo. In 1935 Travis served on the strike committee and later became the president of the Toledo local. (Keeran p.12)

Based on his success in Toledo he was asked in October of 1936 to go to Flint, Michigan to replace Wyndham Mortimer as labor organizer president. At thirty years old Travis was an auto worker with twelve years of experience, and had already proven himself a talented organizer and strategist. (Keeran p.153)

Later Life

A victim of infighting and power grabbing by Jay Lovestone and Homer Martin, who worked to undermined the work of popular union men Roy and Bob. They instituted a vicious propaganda campaign claiming that GM strikes had nearly bankrupted the union, as a result important organizers were dropped by Martin. Wildcat strikes were provoked by supervisors speeding up the line and increasing workloads. The number of wildcat strikes was exaggerated by GM and these strikes were used as weapons against Travis and others as an excuse to oust them. Eventually he was pushed out of leadership roles in the UAW because of political infighting. Membership in the Communist party was also used as an excuse to oust him.

In 1941 Travis left the UAW and took a position with the national CIO far from Flint. Travis served as the first president of Local 14 UAW (Union Journal ). He went on to work for the United Mine Workers in the coal fields of Southern Illinois. In all he organized forty-seven UAW locals. (Terkel p.103)

Later he ran as the Progressive Party’s candidate for secretary of state Michigan in 1950, and for the state board of agriculture 1951.(Political Graveyard) After leaving the UAW he moved to California working at various occupations including; farming, real estate, investment counseling and a tool business. He retired in 1973.

In 1974 at a UAW convention in Los Angeles his contributions to the early labor movement were recognized by President Leonard Woodcock, calling him, “one of the greatest pioneers of this union.” Travis received a standing ovation and was awarded a lifetime pension in recognition of his service. (LA Times) Robert Travis died in Los Angeles in 1979 leaving behind his wife Helen and one daughter, Carole Travis.

Labor activities

Wyndham Mortimer first Vice President of the UAW dedicated his autobiography The Many and the Few to Robert Travis in it he writes:

“The real leader of the 1937 GM Sit Down Strike, and the most brilliant strategist the UAW ever had.” (Kraus p. xvii)

There were many obstacles to organizing the union at that time, not the least of which was spying. In order to keep member’s identities anonymous Travis instituted a policy of secret membership enrollment. Prior to that anyone who joined the union would find themselves without a job within a week. Organizing the shop stewards and communicating with them without giving away their identities was another hurdle. Across the street from the plant a union office was rented where red lights were strung in the window. Travis instructed the stewards to look at the window as they were leaving for the day and if the red lights were on that was a signal that a meeting was going to be held, and if they were off the men were free to go on home. (Fine/Warner p.6 )

During the latter part of the sit down strike when morale was waning, a union meeting was held and someone suggested that a “diversion” was needed. Others proposed that more plants be taken by the workers. The idea of a “diversion” stuck in Travis’ head and he came up with an ingenious plan. He announced that they should focus on the bearings plant, despite arguments that this plant wasn’t big or important enough to bother with he prevailed and told everyone at the meeting what to do, knowing that there were stool pigeons and spies among the meeting attendees. Next he contacted some trusted people at the bearings plant and instructed them to shut down the plant at a specific time for about fifteen minutes. Just prior to the time when the bearings plant strike was supposed to take place, he arranged for a meeting of the women’s group – the Emergency Brigade – whose purpose was to assist in rioting and other strike support functions. During the meeting he had an announcement sent in that the bearings plant was being taken, that security was beating up workers, and the women rushed off to that plant. Police and GM security had surrounded the bearings plant in preparation of a takeover. Meanwhile the real plan was focused on taking a completely different plant on a different side of town with utter secrecy. This plant was easily taken due to the “diversion” and was instrumental in resurrecting the spirits of the strikers. A few days later GM, which had been unwilling to come to any negotiations, relented and came to the talk table. (Kraus pgs. 207-208)

Charges were brought against a group of strikers including Travis, by GM management for unlawful assembly and malicious destruction of property in conjunction with riots that took place during the strike. These charges were dropped as a result of the negotiations. (Flint Journal Jan. 17, 1937 p.1)

Travis also was involved with organizing activities at Libby Owens Glass, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Ford in New Jersey, at International Harvester and John Deere Agricultural manufacturing in Illinois. During a strike in Cleveland, Ohio he was beaten so badly that he was in a coma for three days. (LA Times). He was shot at in Cleveland, his life was threatened in Flint but the hired killer, a union sympathizer warned him, in another instance he was run off the road in Kalamazoo the ruffians threw his keys into a cornfield and proceeded to take pot shots at him as he searched for his keys. The incident came to an end when a woman passerby stopped her car and began shouting at the shooters.

References

1. Fine, Sidney, Frank Murphy The New Deal Years, 1975 University of Chicago Press Chicago, Ill. P 295

2. Fine, Sidney and Warner, Robert, Interview With Robert Travis Transcript, December 10, 1964, Michigan Historical Collections, University of Michigan

3. Flint Journal, Flint Michigan, January 17, 1937

4. Folkart, Burt A. , Los Angeles Times, 1979 Los Angeles, CA

5. Keeran, Roger, The Communist Party and the Auto Workers Unions, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN. 1980

6. Kraus Henry, The Many and the Few: A Chronicle of the Dynamic Auto Workers, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago IL. 1947

7. New York Times, November 27, 1979 New York, NY.

8. Political Graveyard Index to Politicians – http://www.political graveyard.com/bio/travis; accessed December 31, 2001.

9. Ruether, Victor W., The Brothers Reuther and the Story of the UAW, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston MA, 1976

10. Terkel, Studs, Hope Dies Last Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times, New Press, New York NY., 2003

11. Union Journal, November 30, 1979, Toledo Ohio.