Harold Janetzke and Eileen Janetzke discuss their career at REO Motor Car Company and Diamond REO Trucks, Inc.
Harold Janetzke recalls his career as a timekeeper and engineer at REO Motor Car Company/Diamond-Reo Trucks, Inc. in Lansing, MI, from 1936 to 1975. He describes the 1937 strike that brought the UAW into REO, his move to engineering and attending Michigan State College. He says that the Great Depression devastated the Lansing community, but that World War II brought work back to the plant as REO converted from car to truck production. Janetzke's wife Eileen describes her job as a secretary at REO, meeting and marrying Harold, and working until late into her first pregnancy in 1943. They describe the heart break of the plant's closing in 1975, the loss of the pension and Harold going back to work for a few more years at Motor Wheel. The interviewers are Shirley Bradley and Lisa Fine. Recorded as part of the REO Memories oral history project.
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- In Collections
-
Lansing Auto Town
- Copyright Status
- In Copyright
- Date Published
-
1992-02-26
- Interviewees
-
Janetzke, Harold
Janetzke, Eileen
- Interviewers
-
Fine, Lisa M.
Bradley, Shirley J.
- Contributors
-
REO Memories (Project)
- Subjects
-
Janetzke, Harold
Janetzke, Eileen
Reo Motor Car Company
Diamond REO Trucks, Inc
World War (1939-1945)
Automobile industry workers
Depressions
Economic history
Economics
General strikes
Labor unions--Recognition
Marriage
Pension trusts--Termination
Plant shutdowns
Michigan--Lansing
- Material Type
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Sound recordings
- Language
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English
- Extent
- 01:39:30
- Venue Note
-
Interviewed and recorded in Lansing by Shirley J. Bradley and Lisa M. Fine, Feb. 26, 1992.
- Holding Institution
-
Vincent Voice Library
- Call Number
- Voice 16262
- Catalog Record
- http://catalog.lib.msu.edu/record=b8663432
- Permalink
- https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m54m96173