[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 16072-16073]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      IN MEMORY OF VICTOR G. REUTHER, JANUARY 1, 1912-JUNE 3, 2004

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 15, 2004

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, Victor G. Reuther was born January 1, 
1912, in Wheeling, West Virginia, where his father, Valentine, was well 
known as President of the Ohio Valley Trades and Labor Assembly and as 
an active churchman. Victor was educated in the secondary schools of 
that state, and along with his brothers, by their father as well. The 
strong religious influence of Victor's early family life is revealed 
throughout his life in his continuing interest and activity in relating 
core ethical values to the broad field of social and economic life. 
Victor studied economics and sociology at the West Virginia University 
and at Wayne State University. Years later he was awarded the degree of 
Honorary Doctor of Laws by both of those universities.
  In 1932 Victor joined his brothers Walter and Roy in Detroit for work 
in the auto industry. Between 1932 and 1935, Victor and his brother 
Walter, both unemployed, used their meager savings to travel and work 
their way around the world. They traveled by bicycle through Europe and 
Asia, lodging with farm families and at hostels, and visited relatives 
in Germany. They witnessed the beginning of the Nazi government in 
Germany and the growth of Stalin's despotism in Soviet Russia, where 
they worked at the Gorky auto factory. Those observations and firsthand 
experience led them to become strong, pro-democratic leaders for 
freedom and social justice. On return to the United States, Victor went 
to work on the assembly line of the Kelsey-Hayes Wheel Company in 
Detroit where he plunged into the struggle to organize the automobile 
workers in Michigan and Indiana.
  In a break from organizational drives, Victor Reuther and Sophie 
Goodlavich were married on July 17, 1936, on the campus of the 
Brookwood Labor College--a rich marriage of shared labor, love, family, 
friends, and a common commitment to social justice of 60 years.
  A member of UAW Local 174, Victor was a strike leader during UAW 
campaigns in Flint and Detroit. He first came to public attention 
through his role in the sit-down strike in the winter of 1936-1937 
against General Motors in Flint where his voice from the sound truck

[[Page 16073]]

rallied the strikers and the women who supported them. UAW success in 
that strike played a key role in establishing the right of workers to 
bargain with auto industry employers. From that time forward he was 
closely identified with the dynamic growth of industrial unionism, not 
only in the automobile industry, but throughout America's basic 
industries organized by the CIO.
  With the onset of World War II, Victor served as Assistant Director 
of the UAW-CIO War Policy Division, a department created by the UAW-CIO 
to facilitate speedy and orderly conversion and mobilization of the 
nation's urgent defense production. In the spring of 1946, Victor 
Reuther was appointed Director of Education for the UAW. In this role 
he led a fundamental approach in the development and consolidation of 
pro-democratic forces in the UAW. In the years following World War II, 
Victor assisted in the location of trade unionists and social democrats 
throughout Europe who had escaped Nazi persecution, bringing them to 
the attention of Allied occupation forces in the search for leadership 
in the re-establishment of civil democratic government. He also 
represented the CIO on the Trade Union Advisory Committee in the 
conduct of the European Recovery Program--the Marshall Plan.
  On May 24, 1949, in an attack identical to that against his brother 
Walter, Victor was shot by an unknown assailant while reading the 
evening paper in his living room. He suffered very serious injuries 
including the loss of his right eye.
  Victor Reuther served as European Representative of the CIO, with 
headquarters in Paris, France, from January 1951 through 1953. His work 
led to a greatly expanded program of assistance to the free European 
labor movement. Representing the CIO, he implemented the program of 
trade union aid for the democratic European unions. Awards bestowed by 
the governments of Germany and Sweden, noted below, reflect the 
multiple contributions of Victor Reuther in international leadership 
and accomplishments in freedom, democracy, and social justice.
  With their return to the United States in 1954, the Victor Reuther 
family made their home in Washington, DC--the family home for the next 
50 years. That home not only served the family, but it served as a most 
hospitable refuge for friends, the extended family, trade union 
colleagues, social activists and international visitors for all those 
years.
  On his return from Europe, Victor served as Assistant to the 
President of the National CIO and Director of the CIO's Department for 
International Affairs. Following the AFL-CIO merger, he served as 
Administrative Assistant to the President of the International Union, 
United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of 
America (UAW), and as Director, UAW Department of International 
Affairs. His contributions to international social development programs 
extended to Asia, Africa, and Latin America as well as in the United 
States. He worked intensively in India, South Vietnam, Israel and the 
Mediterranean countries for the purpose of initiating programs designed 
to deal with food deficits, the need for democratic leadership and 
skilled manpower requirements. One of these undertakings was the joint 
effort of the UAW with the Peace Corps under which the union 
participated in a mechanical training program in the African Republics 
of Guinea and Gambia and in Bolivia.
  Victor Reuther retired from his formal responsibilities in the UAW in 
1972, but he always remained a committed member of that union he loved. 
Throughout the following 28 years he continued to direct his heart, his 
mind and his voice in advocacy of democratic trade unionism, social 
justice, and understanding among all people. In his initial years of 
retirement he researched and wrote The Brothers Reuther, and the Story 
of the UAW, A Memoir, a history of family and of the UAW.
  In the early 1980s, with the strong encouragement of his wife, 
Sophie, Victor returned attention to ongoing trade union issues. 
Joining with other activists he gave active support to the Association 
for Union Democracy and to Teamsters for a Democratic Union, which won 
major changes in unions. He maintained close fraternal contact with the 
Canadian Auto Workers after they separated from the UAW, and he 
supported and became an active leader of the New Directions Movement 
within the UAW. In those endeavors, Victor Reuther drew on his 
passionate advocacy for the role of rank and file membership in 
democratic trade unionism. He understood well the pressures on trade 
union leadership and the critical role of the rank and file throughout 
organized labor.
  Victor Reuther was active in the political life of the United States 
in many ways complementary to his goals in labor. He served in 
presidential appointments, in leadership in a wide array of political 
and social justice organizations, including support of the full scope 
of civil rights as we have come to understand those goals in social 
justice.
  In the mid-1990s Victor again undertook a task in personal and 
historical research to write a second book, Commitment and Betrayal, 
Foreigners at the Gorky Auto Works, the story of the tragedy that 
befell foreign workers of Gorky under the Stalinist Soviet Union, 
English language publication pending.
  In his 90th year, Victor chose to move to a retirement residence in 
Georgetown, a move that launched a reawakening of his well honed 
leadership skills. Responding to fellow residents, Victor agreed to 
lead a weekly discussion of current international affairs, and for 
nearly 2 years, that discussion group of 20 to 30 octogenarians 
deliberated every Thursday afternoon on the core international issues 
of the day.
  In his 92nd year, on March 30, 2004, Victor Reuther accepted the 
``Lifetime Achievement Award'' of Progressive Maryland before a 
cheering audience of 600 political activists. In his acceptance 
remarks--which became his last public remarks--Victor complimented the 
gathered members of Progressive Maryland on their commitment to the 
same goals in support of working people he advocated throughout his 
life. He then concluded with a charge to that audience of 600 political 
activists: ``Don't forget your love of and commitment to family.'' That 
perspective brings Victor and the Reuther family full circle to the 
nurturing environment of their parents, Valentine and Anna Reuther, a 
blessing for which we are eternally grateful.
  Victor G. Reuther died on June 3, 2004. He was pre-deceased by his 
wife, Sophie, and his daughter Carole L. Hill. He is survived by his 
sister, Christine Richey, his sons Eric V. Reuther and John S. Reuther, 
and seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.


                           Awards and Honors

  1972--Social Justice Award of the UAW; 1972--Cross of the Order of 
Merit, highest award of the Federal Republic of Germany Honorary Doctor 
of Laws, Wayne State University; 1979--Order of the First of May, 
Venezuela's highest trade union honor; 2002--Knight of the Polar Star, 
Sweden's highest civilian award; 2002--Honorary Doctor of Laws, West 
Virginia University.

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