The topics covered in these 129 interviews ranged from working conditions, reasons for interest in union, the interviewees' concept of management's reactions to collective bargaining, the strategy of union growth, sit-down strikes, the personalities of union leaders, the role of left wingers, the function of worker education, factional fights, work and production techniques, conversion to wartime production, political action, equal employment opportunities, the growth of various union functions, to the development of present-day auto contracts and Canadian labor relations. Overall the interviews give an intimate look into the development of unions and labor relations from the union's standpoint.
In the fall of 1959, the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations began an oral history project on the development of unionism in the automobile industry. Interviewees were selected on the basis of (a) having played an important role in the development of automobile unionism, (b) being recommended as able to articulate their experience, and (3); being available.
The interviewees included a number of present day key UAW leaders as well as many important past leaders. Though UAW people constituted the vast bulk of the interviewees, the project actually had a broader scope than UAW history. For the 1918-1932 period, the Vehicle Workers Union and Auto Workers Union were the main organizations among auto workers. From 1933 to 1936 the American Federation tried to organize auto workers into federal labor unions. Also in existence at the time were the Mechanics Education Society of America, Automotive Industrial Workers Association, Associated Automobile Workers of America, and Dingmen's Society, as well as others. From 1936 on, the main focus of the project was the UAW-CIO. Interviews with persons knowledgeable in the workings of ideological left-wing groups were included because these groups were an important factor in the UAW's early history, especially in its factional fights.
