Labor / Politics
Leonard Woodcock
1911–2001 · UAW president (1970–1977), first US ambassador to the People's Republic of China
Detroit machine assembler who succeeded Walter Reuther as UAW president in 1970, then became the first US ambassador to Communist China.
- Born
Providence, Rhode Island- Died
Ann Arbor, Michigan
aged 89- Birth name
- Leonard Freel Woodcock
- Detroit years
- 1920s–1977
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Leonard Woodcock was born in Providence to British parents and grew up partly abroad before the family settled in Detroit. The Depression forced him to leave the College of the City of Detroit in 1933, and he went to work as a machine assembler, joining the union movement alongside his father. He became a UAW organizer and a close ally of Walter Reuther, heading the union's General Motors department. When Reuther was killed in a plane crash in May 1970, the executive board chose Woodcock to succeed him, and within months he led a 67-day national strike against GM, one of the longest in the company's history. He also landed on President Nixon's enemies list. After retiring in 1977 he was sent by President Jimmy Carter to Beijing, negotiated the establishment of full diplomatic relations in 1979 and became the first US ambassador to the People's Republic of China. He later taught political science at the University of Michigan and died in Ann Arbor in 2001.
Highlights
- Succeeded Walter Reuther as UAW president in 1970
- Led the 1970 national strike against General Motors
- First US ambassador to the People's Republic of China, 1979–1981
- Listed on President Nixon's enemies list
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1970–1977
Solidarity House (UAW headquarters)
UAW headquarters on East Jefferson, his base as union president.