The defeat of proposed contract changes by Ford workers this fall was blamed on mixed messages from boastful Ford executives.
After a secretive conclave in Detroit, Bob King, a well-known figure around the Detroit Three auto industry has secured the nod of a majority of the executive board of United Auto Workers union during a member’s only caucus to become the next president.
King, 63, has served as current president Ron Gettelfinger’s top lieutenant in recent years. He also has handled several rounds of delicate negotiations with the Ford Motor Company as the union navigated the big downturn in the U.S. auto industry and the big concessions demanded from the union.
Harley Shaiken, a University of California-Berkley labor expert, said King had emerged as the logical choice to succeed Gettlefinger.
The defeat of a series of proposed contract changes by Ford workers this fall was blamed on the mixed messages flowing from Ford executives rather than King’s handling of the contract proposals. Ford executives were touting the company’s comeback at the same time they were demanding new concessions from workers. Not surprisingly, union dissidents successfully exploited the fact the company appeared to be speaking out of both sides of its mouth.
Gettlefinger won’t officially relinquish the union’s presidency at the UAW’s next convention in June, but King is expected to play a more active role as a union spokesperson.
Critics maintain that the union has been too passive in public relations matters as the American middle class continues to be decimated as job losses grow during the ongoing Great Recession, the longest and deepest in post-war history.
King’s nomination by the “Administration Caucus” also underscored the relatively secretive process by which the union selects its top officers.
For more than 60 years, the UAW’s top leadership has actively blocked any attempt to have union members vote directly for the union presidency, as they do in the Teamsters and the United Steel Workers unions. Instead, the UAW presidency is decided by a vote of the board.
King, offered a peak at his leadership style, by waging a very effective campaign by pledging to address each of the key priorities of each board member, according to sources familiar with process.
Thus, King is guaranteed the support of the union executive board, which has picked the UAW presidents since the late 1940s through series of caucuses and convention votes designed to enhance the power of the incumbent officers.
Early on during his career in union politics, King was considered too radical and too militant to serve as a top UAW leader. He also openly defied the union’s top leadership to win a spot on the UAW executive board in the 1980s and pushed for greater union militancy while supporting left-wing causes such as the campaign against the School of the Americas at Fort Benning in Georgia, which is considered a training ground for right-wing military leaders across Latin America.
However, King also accumulated other relevant credentials, graduating from University of Detroit Law School in the 1970s while working as an apprentice electrician at Ford’s once giant manufacturing complex in Dearborn.
Dennis Williamson, the regional director in Region 4, which includes cities such as Chicago and Milwaukee, who also briefly considered running for president, secured the nomination for secretary-treasurer. The incumbent, Elizabeth Bunn, has decided to retire in June.
UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles is expected to expand his portfolio by taking over King’s role as the head of the Ford Department. Settles, who also is a member of the board that runs Detroit Metropolitan Airport, also becomes King’s heir apparent.
Because of his age, King is likely to serve one term and Settles, who comes from a family with deep roots in union and Detroit politics, is considered, under the UAW’s current system of selecting officer, the union leader to become UAW president. Settles also would be the first African-American to fill the top spot in the union, which played an important role in the Civil Rights movement and raising the economic status of African Americans.
Following the bankruptcies of both General Motors and Chrysler, managing the relationship with Ford has probably become of the union’s most important jobs.
King will inherit a union that has watched as the contract gains made over the last two generations have been wiped out during the crisis in the U.S. auto industry. Overall, union members hired prior to the current downturn continue to make $28 per hour before benefits. However, when or if the industry recovers and the Detroit Three hire new employees, workers will earn $14 per hour. (Click here for a detailed analysis.) The union’s membership is also now at a low ebb as membership has dropped to under 350,000.
The new UAW president will face several other challenges.
For now, union pensions at GM, Chrysler and Ford appear safe. However, starting in January, the union will become partially responsible for the VEBA (voluntary employees’ beneficiary association), which now takes care of retiree health care. The resources devoted to the VEBA have been badly depleted by the bankruptcies at GM and Chrysler, creating doubts about how long they can sustain current benefit levels.