Robert Battle III
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Robert Battle III | |
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| Born | June 4, 1917 Detroit, Michigan |
| Occupation | Founding members by Organization |
Robert Battle III, better known as Robert "Buddy" Battle, was an influential African American member of the United Auto Workers (UAW) and a founding member of the Trade Union Leadership Council (TULC).[1]
Biography
Robert "Buddy" Battle III was born on June 4, 1917, in Detroit, Michigan. His father, presumably Robert Battle II [need citation], was a working-class black man.[2] Battle, in 1936, started working at the Ford Rogue plant foundry where he eventually found himself an organizer for the United Auto Workers (UAW).[3]
Battle fought to get black representatives in the city of Detroit, including Coleman Young. Battle went to work for Young as a Mayor aide after his retirement from the UAW in 1983. In 1956, Battle married the ex-wife of Coleman Young, Marion McClellan Battle. Battle died at the age of 72, because of respiratory failure in Detroit, Michigan.[4]
Labor organizing
Battle, like many discriminated against workers, was tired of black laborers being forced to work the bottom-of-the-barrel jobs. Black workers were forced to work in dangerously hot parts of metalworking plants, to work in the dirtiest and least-kempt spaces, and in jobs that would never offer them any advancement or growth.[3][4][5]
During the years 1976-1983, he was the United Auto Workers' (UAW) region 1A's director. Following his term as regional director he was on the union's executive board and also served as director of child abuse prevention in the city of Detroit.[5][6]
The UAW didn't work to end racial discrimination in the workplace in ways that many black autoworkers thought was necessary. As a result Battle and many others came together and formed the TULC. Whereas most unions at the time were focused on focusing on the labor movement and didn't really work for equality in the work place by means of race, they just said everyone is equal. The TULC was focused on black workers and how they could represent them in the labor movement.[1][7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Thomas, Cornelius C. (Winter 2005). "The Trade Union Leadership Council: Black Workers Respond to the United Automobile Workers, 1957-1967". New Politics. 10 (2): 124–137 – via ProQuest.
- ↑ "Robert "Buddy" Battle III (1917-1989) - Find a..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Rector, J. (2014-09-01). "Environmental Justice at Work: The UAW, the War on Cancer, and the Right to Equal Protection from Toxic Hazards in Postwar America". Journal of American History. 101 (2): 480–502. doi:10.1093/jahist/jau380. ISSN 0021-8723.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Faue, Elizabeth (2017). Rethinking the American Labor Movement. Routledge.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Battle, Robert III; Babson, Steve; Alpern, Ron; Babson, Steve; Michigan Labor History Society (1982), [Interview of labor leader Robert "Buddy" Battle]., retrieved 2023-03-31
- ↑ "EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page - Ehost2". eds.s.ebscohost.com. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
- ↑ Faue, Elizabeth (2017). Rethinking the American labor movement. American Social and Political Movements of the 20th Century. Florence: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-1-136-17550-3.
External links
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