Douglas Fraser

Douglas Andrew Fraser (December 18, 1916 – February 23, 2008) was a Scottish–American union leader. He was president of the United Auto Workers from 1977 to 1983 and an adjunct professor of labor relations at Wayne State University for many years.

He is best remembered for helping to save Chrysler from bankruptcy in 1979 by heavily lobbying the US Congress for a loan and convincing workers to make concessions. He received the Walter P. Reuther Humanitarian Award from Wayne State University in 2006.

Early life Fraser was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on December 18, 1916. His father, Samuel, was an electrician and an active and vocal trade unionist. The family was so poor that his father, who worked at a brewery, would sometimes fuel the family stove with stolen whiskey.

Samuel Fraser moved to Detroit, Michigan, while his son was still a young boy, in 1922. Samuel, his mother, Douglas, his sister, and his brother sailed to New York City aboard the and were inspected at Ellis Island on April 23, 1923. They travelled to their new home in Detroit by train.

Douglas was deeply influenced by the Great Depression. His father was out of work for long periods, and he admitted that the poverty and social disorder that he witnessed changed his life. He joined the personal staff of UAW President Walter Reuther in 1951, where he was a personal administrative assistant to Reuther.

In 1959, he was elected co-director of UAW Region 1A, and a member-at-large of the international UAW board of directors in 1962. Reuther soon thereafter appointed him director of the UAW's Chrysler, Skilled Trades, and Technical, Office and Professional Departments. He was elected a vice-president of the international union in 1970.

Fraser led a nine-day strike against Chrysler that began on September 14, 1973, the first against the automaker in decades. The collective bargaining agreement hammered out five days later and ratified on September 23 contained restrictions on mandatory overtime, a comprehensive health-and-safety program, significant improvement to the early retirement plan, and a new dental care benefit. A new streamlined arbitration process was also negotiated, which reduced the time for resolving grievances.

UAW presidency Fraser was president of the UAW from 1977 to 1983. He was elected president after Woodcock had reached the mandatory retirement age of 65, according to the UAW constitution.

He is best known for his role in negotiating a greater voice for the union in corporate governance with Chrysler during the company's 1979 bankruptcy crisis and subsequent government-sponsored loan. Fraser mobilized UAW members and heavily lobbied Congress in a move that proved critical

Fraser negotiated another round of concessionary contracts in 1982. The early 1980s recession hit the Ford Motor Company particularly hard. To help save the company, Fraser negotiated significant wage and benefit cuts. The same wage concessions were given to General Motors, as Fraser sought to keep wages uniform across the industry to avoid giving one company a cost advantage over another.

Fraser received The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence for his significant contributions to life in America.

Death Douglas Fraser died on February 23, 2008, of complications from emphysema at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan. "I would rather sit with the rural poor, the desperate children of urban blight, the victims of racism, and working people seeking a better life than with those whose religion is the status quo, whose goal is profit and whose hearts are cold."