Marvin Grinstern discusses his career at REO Motor Car Company and Diamond REO Trucks, Inc.
Marvin Grinstern talks about his employment at REO Motor Car Company/Diamond-Reo Trucks, Inc, in Lansing, MI, from 1965 and 1975. Grinstern describes growing up in Lansing, farming, visiting his father at the plant, as a boy, during the 1937 strike and finally joining his father and other relatives at REO. Grinstern also talks about a fatal accident on the shop floor, managers abusing their position, the REO bankruptcy, the plant closing, and the resulting shock, depression and suicides among workers. Grinstern laments the loss of manufacturing companies and jobs in Lansing and remarks on the great changes that came to factories in the wake of unionization and women in the workplace. The interviewers are Shirley Bradley and Lisa Fine. Recorded as part of the REO Memories oral history project.
Read
- In Collections
-
Lansing Auto Town
- Copyright Status
- In Copyright
- Date
- 1992-12-03
- Interviewees
-
Grinstern, Marvin
- Interviewers
-
Fine, Lisa M.
Bradley, Shirley J.
- Contributors
-
REO Memories (Project)
- Subjects
-
Grinstern, Marvin
Reo Motor Car Company
Diamond REO Trucks, Inc
Automobile industry workers
Employees
Families
Plant shutdowns
Plant shutdowns--Psychological aspects
Unfair labor practices
Women automobile industry workers
Work environment
Michigan--Lansing
- Material Type
-
Sound recordings
- Language
-
English
- Extent
- 01:05:38
- Venue Note
-
Interviewed and recorded in Lansing, MI, by Shirley J. Bradley and Lisa M. Fine, Dec. 3, 1992.
- Holding Institution
-
Vincent Voice Library
- Call Number
- Voice 16272
- Catalog Record
- http://catalog.lib.msu.edu/record=b8663562