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The Once and Future Union The Rise and Fall of the United Rubber Workers, 1935–1995 by Bruce Meyer 457 pp., photographs Ohio History and Culture |
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| While never one of
the biggest unions in the United States, the Akron, Ohio-based labor
organization, the United Rubber Workers (URW), wielded power for
decades that seemed far disproportionate to the union's size. To tell
the story of the URW is to tell a saga of conflict-internal and
external. If the Rubber Workers were not battling a tire or rubber
company at the bargaining table or on the picket line, then they were
fighting within their ranks. Throughout the URW's history, its members
operated a democratic union where the rank and file always made sure
their leaders knew who really was in charge. The membership expected a
lot from their officers, and if they were less than satisfied, then the
leader would hear about it (and sometimes lose his job because of it).
When the URW merged with the larger United Steelworkers of America
(USWA) union in 1995, it was clear the URW's history needed to be
chronicled soon.
Once and Future Union traces the history of the URW from its controversial beginning to the present incarnation of the union, if not the United Rubber Workers in name, then at least as the United Rubber Workers in spirit. This is the story of the members who lived through the battles and the conventions, the strikes and the organizational campaigns. It is these memories that give the URW's history the life and dimension it so deserved. Just as the union was theirs for nearly six decades, so too this story belongs to them. |
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Bruce M. Meyer is the managing editor of Rubber & Plastics News (published by Crain Communications). He received his Bachelor's degree from Kent State University in 1984. |
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