The United Auto Workers
The pressures of the Great Depression led Woodcock to drop out of Detroit City College in 1933. He found work as a machine assembler in Detroit, and both he and his father became involved in the union movement. Woodcock became International Vice President in 1955 and in 1970 he succeeded Walter Reuther as UAW president, after Reuther's tragic death in a plane crash.
Woodcock was an active participant in the civil rights movement, marching with Martin Luther King and adding his voice and political clout to the cause. He was a champion of both minority and women's rights, pushing for comprehensive non-discrimination rules and introducing the first union-wide contracted maternity leave in the US.
It was during his time at the helm of the UAW that Woodcock appeared on Nixon's enemies list at #9, with the annotation "No comments necessary".
Read more about this topic: Leonard Woodcock
Famous quotes containing the words united and/or workers:
“The United States have a coffle of four millions of slaves. They are determined to keep them in this condition; and Massachusetts is one of the confederated overseers to prevent their escape.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The industrial world would be a more peaceful place if workers were called in as collaborators in the process of establishing standards and defining shop practices, matters which surely affect their interests and well-being fully as much as they affect those of employers and consumers.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)