Today, we remember former UAW Region 1A Director Robert "Buddy" Battle, born on June 4, 1917.
Robert "Buddy" Battle III was born in Detroit, the son of a cleanup crew supervisor for railroad cars. He went to work as a sand-slinger in the Ford Rouge plant foundry in 1936 and quickly became an organizer for the UAW.
Beginning in the early 1940's, he was elected to a number of positions at UAW Local 600, including district and bargaining committee person, chairman of the special foundry unit, and local vice president, culminating in his election as Director of Region 1A in 1976.
Recognizing the inhumane conditions of foundry labor, Battle helped establish the union's Foundry Wage and Hour Council in 1946, which fought for and won paid sick leave and a 25-and-out retirement for foundry workers. A skilled and aggressive negotiator at the bargaining table, he served on the UAW Ford national negotiating committee in 1967, 1970, and 1973.
Battle worked to increase African American leadership in the UAW and, with Horace Sheffield and others, formed the Trade Union Leadership Council in the late 1940's, which became the nucleus of the national Negro American Labor Council. As TULC president, he oversaw the organization's pre-apprenticeship training program designed to help Black and other minority individuals enter the skilled trades.
Buddy Battle was also active in Democratic Party politics as UAW CAP chairman in the 1st and 13th congressional districts of Detroit and, later, chairman of the 1st congressional district. He played a prominent role in the campaigns to elect Detroit's first black City Council member, William Patrick, and its first black mayor, Coleman Young.
After he retired from the UAW in 1983, Brother Battle served as Young's executive assistant. He died on August 4, 1989, at the age of 72.
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