Robert Thompson King (born August 18, 1946)United Auto Workers, 2007 Media Fact Book, 2007, p. 59. is an American lawyer and labor union activist and leader. He was elected president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) on June 15, 2010. His term of office ended in June 2014, and King announced his retirement, being succeeded by Dennis Williams as head of the UAW.
Early life and education Bob King was born in Michigan in 1946. His father, William J. King, Sr. was director of industrial relations at Ford Motor Company.Aguilar, "Passion, Pragmatism Drive UAW's King," Detroit News, June 11, 2010. He graduated from University of Detroit Jesuit High School in 1964.
King was raised as a Catholic but later became an Episcopalian. He attended College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and studied religion and philosophy before transferring to the University of Michigan.Gardner and Snavely, "King Poised to Take Helm of UAW," Detroit Free Press, December 12, 2009. He graduated from Michigan with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1968. While in college, he worked during the summer at automobile assembly plants owned by General Motors and Chrysler. From 1968 to 1970, King served in the United States Army in South Korea.Lippert and Naughton, "UAW Set to Nominate King as President," Buffalo News, December 12, 2009.
King earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Detroit Law School in 1973.
Career King was employed full-time by Ford in 1970, taking a position in the Detroit Parts Depot where he became a member of UAW Local 600.United Auto Workers, 2007 Media Fact Book, 2007, p. 58. He became an electrician's apprentice in 1972.Bunkley, "Next Chief Is Nominated for a Troubled Auto Union", New York Times, December 16, 2009.
Union leadership Bob King rose steadily and quickly in the leadership of Local 600. Local 600 (which represented workers at the gigantic Ford River Rouge Complex) was once the largest local union in the UAW and one of the largest local unions in the world, and had a long history of being one of the most liberal unions in the UAW.Stepan-Norris and Zeitlin, Left Out: Reds and America's Industrial Unions, 2003, p. 96; Cabadas, River Rouge: Ford's Industrial Colossus, 2004, p. 134. King was elected vice president of Local 600 in 1981, and president of the 17,000-member local in 1984.Zverina, "Ford Distributes Profit Sharing Checks," United Press International, March 12, 1986. After winning re-election in 1987, King was named chair of the UAW-Ford Negotiating Committee, which bargained the company-wide master contract at Ford Motor Company.Braunstein, "Bieber: Workers Gave Ford Its Success," Associated Press, June 10, 1987; "Ford Mustang Plan," Reuters, August 20, 1987. He bargained with Ford alongside future UAW president Stephen Yokich."UAW, Rouge Steel Settle Tentatively After Year of Bargaining," Associated Press, July 14, 1987.
While president of Local 600, King expanded the union's membership into areas outside the automotive industry. In the 1980s, he led Local 600 in organizing 1,000 health care workers. He served as the chair of the UAW constitutional amendments committee at the 1983 and 1986 UAW conventions.Maynard, "UAW Leaders Happy at Victory Over Dissidents," United Press International, May 16, 1983.Lindquist, " UAW Convention Official Sees a Pivotal Year Ahead for Union," San Diego Union-Tribune, June 5, 1986.
In June 1989, King was elected to the first of what would become three three-year terms as Director of Region 1A, a UAW administrative unit that covered most of Monroe, Washtenaw, and Wayne counties in Michigan.Kertesz, "UAW Dissidents Lose Out," Automotive News, June 26, 1989; Kertesz and Mandel, "In a Bind Over Repairs, Mazda Concedes to Union," Automotive News, October 9, 1989. In 1990, he helped co-found and later co-chaired the Labor/Management Council for Economic Renewal, a non-profit organization made up of small businesses and local unions which exchanged information on best business practices.Barkholz, "Business-Labor Partnerships Grow Amid Some Skepticism," Crain's Detroit Business, November 29, 1993.Sherefkin and Ankeny, "Behind the Scenes, Some Local Labor Leaders Battle," Crain's Detroit Business, October 27, 1997.
King ran for UAW vice president in 1994, but did not win.Lippert, "Retooling the UAW," Detroit Free Press, August 1, 1994; Lippert, "The UAW Campaign: Top Job Is A Given," Detroit Free Press, September 15, 1994; "UAW Picks Officers," Detroit Free Press, November 7, 1994. During the 1995-1997 Detroit newspaper strike, King engaged in acts of civil disobedience and was arrested three times between 1996 and 1997.Konrad, "66 Arrested in Protest at Free Press Building," Detroit Free Press, March 29, 1996; Konrad, "Police Arrest 21 at Latest Protest in Paper Strike," Detroit Free Press, August 31, 1996; Siegel, "Bonior Arrested at Rally," Detroit Free Press, July 12, 1997.
UAW organizing efforts In November 1997, King was assigned to oversee the union's National Organizing Department, a position created especially for him."UAW Creates New Post," Newsday, November 14, 1997; "Diary," Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 15, 1997; "New UAW Post Targets Increase in Membership," Dallas Morning News, November 16, 1997. UAW members approved making the position an elected vice president in June 1998, and King was elected that year.Lippert, "UAW Chief Expected to Get Vote of Confidence With Re-Election," Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 21, 1998; Akre, " Strikes to Dominate UAW Convention," Associated Press, June 21, 1998; Miller, "Yokich Calls for New Global Ties," Automotive News, June 29, 1998.Sherefkin, "UAW Organizing Drive to Target Suppliers," Crain's Detroit Business, June 22, 1998. It was the first new vice presidency created in many years. During his four-year tenure in this latter position, King pushed the UAW to organize retail workers at Kmart, casino workers; state, county, and local government employees; and graduate student teaching and research assistants.Aguilar, "Bob King Wins UAW Presidency," Detroit News, June 17, 2010.Serwach, "UAW Loses Fight With Kmart in Canton After Wins Elsewhere," Crain's Detroit Business, May 24, 1999. Yokich defended King's outreach to these nontraditional constituencies of the UAW.Gallagher, "UAW's Chief Defends Daimler," Detroit Free Press, April 6, 2001. King also established six regional organizing centers to help devolve responsibility for organizing closer to the worksite.Sedgwick, "UAW Targets Auto Suppliers," Automotive News, December 21, 1998. By November 2000, he had led organizational drives which added about 50,000 new members to the union.Evanoff, "UAW Chief Could Use a Gore Win," Indianapolis Star, November 4, 2000. By 2001, more than 22,000 state government workers in Michigan belonged to the UAW, as did some 15,000 graduate student workers.Haglund, "UAW Expanding Membership Beyond Autoworkers," Newhouse News Service, May 2, 2001. More than 20,000 of the 60,000 new members the UAW organized between 2002 and 2006 worked outside the automotive industry.Woodyard, "UAW Sees Growth Past Blue Collar," USA Today, June 16, 2006. Under his leadership, the UAW organized another 6,000 new members between 2006 and 2009.Hoffman, "King Emerges As Next UAW Chief," Detroit News, December 12, 2009. But his organizing drives also saw some major setbacks, such as when Nissan workers in Tennessee rejected UAW representation 2-to-1 in what was seen as a major setback for the union in its Southern organizing effort.Miller, "Nissan Workers at Tennessee Plant Reject UAW Representation," Associated Press, October 3, 2001; Jones, "UAW Loses Bid to Enter Nissan Plant," Los Angeles Times, October 4, 2001; Hakim, "Big Loss at Nissan Seems to Undercut U.A.W. Objectives," New York Times, October 5, 2001. Another loss came at Freightliner in North Carolina,Nowell, "Freightliner Workers Reject Offer to Join UAW," Associated Press, March 20, 2002. and a major organizing effort at Mercedes-Benz never resulted in an election.Chappell, "The UAW Knocks, But Few Workers Answer," Automotive News, April 8, 2002. The union did make organizing headway among auto parts suppliers, however.Garsten, "UAW Reports Progress in Organizing Workers at Supplier's Plants," Associated Press, August 6, 2002; Miller, "Gettelfinger Creates Strategy for Increasing Union Ranks," Detroit News, August 8, 2002.
During his tenure at the head of the UAW National Organizing Department, King extensively utilized card check, employer neutrality agreements,A neutrality agreement is an agreement between a union and an employer under which the employer agrees to neither hinder nor support the union's effort to organize its workers. Neutrality agreements may not, however, provide support to the union in any way. See: Gould, A Primer on American Labor Law, 2004, p. 94-95; Gittell, High Performance Healthcare: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve Quality, Efficiency and Resilience, 2009, p. 267. and collective bargaining clauses that provided for card check, employer neutrality, and/or expedited representation elections overseen by a neutral third party in plants newly opened by the employer.Hudson, "Gettelfinger Puts Priority on Health Care," Detroit News, June 20, 2003; McCracken, "UAW Wins Major Pact," Detroit Free Press, August 14, 2003; Webster, "UAW Woos Parts Makers," Detroit Free Press, August 30, 2003; Ramirez, "Supplier to Let UAW Recruit," Detroit News, October 15, 2003; Wieland, "Neutrality Pacts Hit Nerve for Workers," Lansing State Journal, May 16, 2004; Webster, "UAW, Axle Alliance Reach a Noteworthy Contract," Detroit Free Press, October 12, 2004. The UAW's aggressive use of these types of agreements led to two challenges before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Workers at two companies organized by the UAW under card-check and neutrality agreements, Metaldyne and Dana Corporation, sought to have the UAW ousted as the labor representative at their respective plants.Grant, "NLRB Reviewing Unions' Strategy," Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 12, 2004. The NLRB consolidated the two cases, and in Dana Corporation, 351 NLRB No. 28 (September 29, 2007), the board significantly amended its existing policy so that, if an employer voluntarily recognizes the union a card check agreement, workers do not have to wait the required 45 days before petitioning the NLRB for decertification of the union.Siegel, "Dana Corp., 351 NLRB No. 28 (September 29, 2007)," Memorandum OM 08-07, Office of the General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board, October 22, 2007. The decision was declared highly significant by both right-to-work advocates and labor unions, even though it only applied to future card check campaigns and did not affect the workers at Dana Corp. or Metaldyne.Holland, "NLRB Sets Window for Decertification," USA Today, October 2, 2007; Von Bergen, "Angry Clash of Ideologies Splits NLRB," Philadelphia Inquirer, November 10, 2007; Atkins, " National Labor Relations Board Draws Union Ire," Lawyers USA, November 19, 2007; Dine, " Labor Marching Again, But Does It Matter?", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 23, 2007.
King won re-election as vice president in 2002.Garsten, "Ron Gettelfinger Elected to Lead UAW," Associated Press, June 5, 2002. In addition to his organizing duties, he was also appointed head of the UAW's Competitive Shop/Independents, Parts and Suppliers (IPS) Department, which assisted members and local unions in the auto parts and automotive supply industries.Gallagher, "GM, DC May Opt to Change Suppliers," Detroit Free Press, June 14, 2002; Higgins, "Gettelfinger Quickly Shows Companies UAW Means Business," Detroit News, June 16, 2002.