据美联社报道，曾经在上世纪七、八十年代美国汽车工业阴暗时期，领导全美汽车工人联合会(UAW，亦称美国联合汽车工会)，并帮助挽救克莱斯勒汽车公司，使其免于破产的道格拉斯-弗雷泽(Douglas A. Fraser)，当地时间星期六晚在密歇根州南菲尔德市普罗维登斯医院去世，享年91岁。

　　道格拉斯-弗雷泽的妻子温妮-弗雷泽，当地时间星期天对外公布了弗雷泽去世的消息。温妮表示，弗雷泽长期患有肺气肿，日前因为呼吸系统问题住院接受治疗，但是目前导致弗雷泽死亡的直接原因尚不明确。

　　道格拉斯以恶作剧似的顽皮微笑，平易近人、逍遥自在的独特风格而广受工会普通员工欢迎。普通工会成员都很赏识弗雷泽，高度评价他的率真公正与和蔼可亲。熟悉弗雷泽的同事回忆说，大家都直呼其名，喊他道格，但他丝毫不以为意。温妮-弗雷泽也表示：“大家都认为他是好样的。他是一个好人，他的确非常出色。”

　　弗雷泽同时还是一位精明而又注重实效的谈判代表，并因此赢得了美国三大汽车公司高级管理人员的敬重。上世纪六、七十年代，他帮助工人争取综合性卫生保健与上不封顶的生活费津贴等各种福利，改善工人的工作条件。但是在他1977年至1983年担任全美汽车工人联合会主席期间，遇到了前所未有的挑战。美国汽车工业当时正处于严重金融困境之中，这也迫使全美汽车工人联合会不得不作出空前让步。

　　全美汽车工人联合会现任主席罗恩-盖特芬格(Ron Gettelfinger)在接受美联社电话采访时表示：“道格是理性之声。他能够在非常紧张的情形之下突然插进幽默的话语。他很现实，他总是能够及时了解正在发生的一切，与时俱进。”盖特芬格并表示：“当我与道格通电话时，我总是非常放心。在你挂断电话前，他总是能够让你感到愉快。”

　　弗雷泽担任全美汽车工人联合会主席期间最大的成就，就是于1979年为克莱斯勒汽车公司争取到了15亿美元联邦贷款担保，使得该汽车制造商免遭破产命运。前密歇根州州长詹姆士-布兰查德(James Blanchard)与弗雷泽相识已经超过30年，他曾经以国会众议员的身份与弗雷泽合作，为克莱斯勒汽车公司提供付款担保。布兰查德回忆说：“他当时很可能是全美最受人尊敬的工人领袖。他拥有强大的政治魅力和切实的承诺与义务。他在挽救克莱斯勒汽车公司的每一项努力中都发挥了关键作用。”

　　弗雷泽于1979年决定给予克莱斯勒汽车公司合同让步，并于1982年给予福特汽车公司与通用汽车公司同样的让步。尽管他的这些决定曾遭到大量全美汽车工人联合会成员的反对，但是对美国汽车工业的复苏发挥了巨大帮助。作为让步协议的一部分，弗雷泽也首开先例，成为克莱斯勒汽车公司董事会的一名董事。但是他将自己的全部董事薪水都捐赠给了底特律市韦恩州立大学。

　　弗雷泽于1983年退休后依然积极活跃于政坛以及全美汽车工人联合会事务，同时还在韦恩大学担任教授。韦恩大学的同事们表示，弗雷泽直至数周前还在学校坚持工作。

　　弗雷泽曾于1997年自信地表示，自己的一生没有任何遗憾。弗雷泽的名言是：“民主社会真正的内涵是捍卫工人基本的权利。这些权利包括在民主开放的车间里，安全无忧地工作。”他还说过：“如何去衡量一个领导者，就是看他有没有能力让人们去做他们不愿意做的事情。”

Douglas A. Fraser, who led the United Auto Workers union through dark hours in the U.S. auto industry in the 1970s and '80s and was instrumental in the effort that saved Chrysler from bankruptcy, has died. He was 91.

Fraser died late Saturday at Providence Hospital in Southfield, his wife, Winnie, said Sunday. She said he had emphysema and went into the hospital with breathing problems, but a cause of death wasn't determined.

With his mischievous smile and gregarious, easygoing manner, Fraser was popular with the union's rank-and-file, who appreciated his candor and accessibility. Everyone called him Doug.

"Everybody thought he was wonderful," Winnie Fraser said. "He was a good guy, and he really was (wonderful)."

He also was a shrewd and pragmatic negotiator who won the respect of Big Three executives. In the 1960s and '70s, he helped win such benefits as comprehensive health care, uncapped cost-of-living allowances and improved working conditions.

But he faced challenges as UAW president from 1977 to 1983, a period of severe financial hardship for the industry that forced the union to make unprecedented concessions.

"Doug was a friend, a mentor and a counselor to so many within the UAW and the larger labor movement," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a statement. "His integrity and his enduring commitment to protecting the rights of workers will continue to inspire us."

Fraser considered his finest achievement the UAW's campaign to obtain $1.5 billion in federal loan guarantees for Chrysler Corp. in 1979, which saved the automaker from bankruptcy.

"At the time, he was probably the most respected labor leader in America and he had great political charm, as well as substantive commitment," said former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard, who knew Fraser for more than 30 years and as a U.S. House member worked with Fraser on the efforts to guarantee Chrysler's loans. "He was really key in everything that happened to save Chrysler."

Fraser's decisions to give contract concessions to Chrysler in 1979 and to Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. in 1982 were opposed by many UAW members but contributed to the U.S. auto industry's recovery.

As part of the agreement for concessions, Chrysler gave Fraser a seat on its board, making him the first major union chief on the board of a large corporation. He donated his board salary to Wayne State University in Detroit.

A lifelong Democrat, Fraser proudly called himself a liberal. He marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s and pushed an often reluctant UAW and the Big Three to recruit more minorities and women.

Fraser retired in 1983 but kept active in politics and union issues. He served as a professor in the College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs at Wayne State.

"He was one of those folks, one of the few people that have it," said Mike Smith, director of the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University. "It's hard to describe, but he was a great labor leader and he was a fine trade unionist who segued into a second career as a professor at Wayne State."

Smith said Fraser had been at work at Wayne State until a few weeks ago.

After the UAW reached historic agreements with the Detroit automakers last fall that include a lower wage scale for new hires and the union taking on retiree health care for the companies, Fraser said the deals were necessary to keep the companies afloat and competitive with their Japanese rivals.

"I frankly don't know any other alternative," Fraser said in an interview with The Associated Press in November, praising Gettelfinger for finding creative ways to help the struggling companies while preserving as many UAW jobs as he could.

Winnie Fraser said a memorial service for her husband would be scheduled later, and his body was being donated to Wayne State.

Born Dec. 18, 1916, in Glasgow, Scotland, Fraser immigrated to Detroit with his parents six years later. His father, an electrician, was active in unions and frequently brought his young son to political meetings.

Fraser said he never forgot his roots growing up in a working-class neighborhood and the effects of the Great Depression.

"In an auto neighborhood like ours, hardly anybody worked," he said in a 1997 interview with The AP. "People lost their sense of dignity. They all were very proud, like my father. And it was shattering not being able to support a family."

Fraser dropped out of high school in his senior year and joined the UAW in 1936. He said he was fired from his first two jobs for union organizing but eventually found steady work as a "ding man," smoothing out dents in body panels at Chrysler's DeSoto plant.

At age 25, Fraser was president of the UAW local. After serving in the Army during World War II, he joined the UAW staff in 1947 and steadily moved up the ranks through the 1950s and '60s.

He was considered a potential successor to President Walter Reuther, but after the revered leader died in a plane crash in 1970, Fraser narrowly lost a poll of the executive board to Leonard Woodcock, head of the big GM unit.

Fraser succeeded Woodcock in 1977, when U.S. auto sales grew to a then-record of 12.7 million units. But by 1979, they tumbled to 8.3 million. At the same time, imports, with their focus on fuel economy, captured a surprising 21.7 percent share of the market.

Chrysler was on the verge of bankruptcy. Fraser worked with the Carter administration and Congress to get the loan guarantees approved. Chairman Lee Iacocca helped persuade Republican members of Congress, but Fraser said Iacocca was given too much credit.

"I resent it a bit, not for myself but for the Chrysler workers, when people say Lee Iacocca saved the Chrysler Corporation," Fraser said. "The Chrysler workers saved the Chrysler Corporation."

In 1997, Fraser said he had no regrets about his life.

"I can say, without equivocation, I'd do the same thing," he said. "You get a lot of satisfaction from that."

Fraser has two daughters from his first marriage, Judith Yonish and Jeanne Fraser, and his wife has two daughters from her first marriage, Barbara Mackenzie and Sandy Bryner. The Frasers also have several grandchildren.

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