Owen Frederick Bieber (;Sawyer, "In Troubled Detroit, the UAW to Follow 'a Guy You Can Trust'," The Washington Post, November 22, 1982. December 28, 1929 – February 17, 2020) was an American labor union activist. He was president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) from 1983 to 1995.
Born in Michigan, Bieber joined the McInerney Spring and Wire Company, an automotive parts supplier in Grand Rapids, after finishing high school. His father was also employed at the company, and had co-founded a UAW local there. Bieber himself became active within the local, rising from shop steward to its president between 1949 and 1956. In 1961 he became a part-time union organizer for the UAW's international union and retired as president of the local a year later, to work full-time for the international UAW. In 1980 he was elected as the head of the UAW's General Motors Department.
After a hotly contested election in 1983, he was chosen to head the union in October of that year. His time as president of the union was marked by support of several political causes, including the boycott against South African apartheid and opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement. He oversaw the union during the shrinking of the automobile manufacturing industry in the US, and led them through a number of tense negotiations with the Big Three automobile manufacturers that included strikes and other labor action. While he set a goal of adding new union members throughout his presidency, he largely failed as union organizing efforts at Honda and Nissan plants were defeated. His presidency also saw the splintering of his own union, with the Canadian division breaking off to form its own independent organization (the Canadian Auto Workers), amid deep internal divisions which developed throughout his term. He retired from the UAW in 1995.
Early life and career Owen F. Bieber was born in December 1929 to Albert F. and Minnie (Schwartz) Bieber in the hamlet of North Dorr, Dorr Township, Allegan County, Michigan.Maynard, "Owen Bieber: Rising Above Criticism," United Press International, November 12, 1982.Current Biography Yearbook, 1986, p. 46.Fucini and Fucini, 1992, p. 10. His father was of German descent and an autoworker at McInerney Spring and Wire Company (an automotive parts supplier) who had co-founded UAW Local 687.Lippert, "Bieber Held to a Steady Course", Detroit Free Press, June 10, 1995. It was the first UAW local organized within the city limits of Grand Rapids, Michigan.Woolley, "Bieber Started in Plant Father Helped Organize", Associated Press, November 12, 1982. The family were devout Roman Catholics, and Bieber attended Visitation Elementary School (a two-room school)"Bieber Rose from Onion Fields to UAW Presidency", Associated Press, May 18, 1983. and Catholic Central High School in nearby Grand Rapids.Maynard, "New UAW Leader Faces Problems", United Press International, November 13, 1982. As a child, he worked pulling weeds in onion and celery fields. He graduated from high school in 1948, and in July of that year took a job at McInerney Spring and Wire as a wire bender, making seats for Cadillac and Hudson cars.Holusha, "U.A.W. Caucus Nominating Heir to Fraser Today", The New York Times, November 12, 1982. "You had to bend 8- and 9-gauge spring wire, sometimes five wires at a time. Those Hudsons, they had a seat four miles long ... It was a hard job. After the first hour in there, I felt like just leaving. If my father hadn't worked there, too, I probably would've", he later said.
Bieber married his high school sweetheart, the former Shirley M. Van Woerkom, on November 25, 1950, and the couple had three sons (all of them became autoworkers) and two daughters.Current Biography Yearbook, 1986, p. 49. They maintained a home in North Dorr as well as Southfield.
Although his wire bending job was supposed to be only summer employment, Bieber stayed and did not go on to college. Bieber was elected a shop steward of Local 687 (which covered Grand Rapids and most of the immediate surrounding area) in 1949, and in 1951 was elected to the local's executive board.Newsmakers, 1988, p. 41.Mundo, 1992, p. 120. He was elected to Local 687's collective bargaining committee in 1955, and became the local's president in 1956. In 1961, he became a part-time union organizer for the international union.Labor Relations Yearbook, 1984, p. 180. Bieber retired as Local 687's president in 1962, and took a full-time position as an international representative and organizer with the UAW. He worked closely with Kenneth W. Robinson, the director of UAW Region 1D (then the largest region in the international union). Robinson promoted Bieber to servicing representative in 1964, and made him his personal aide.
On December 18, 1972, Robinson appointed Bieber assistant director of Region 1D after the incumbent, Charles Rogers, was diagnosed with cancer and stepped down.Business People in the News, 1976, p. 22. In 1974, Robinson stepped down as director of Region 1D due to ill health.Current Biography Yearbook, 1986, p. 47. Bieber was elected as his successor, and held the position until 1980.Maynard, "Owen Bieber: New UAW President", United Press International, May 18, 1983.
GM Department director In 1980, Bieber won election as vice president of the General Motors Department of the UAW. Irving Bluestone, who had led the GM Department since 1970, had retired.Stuart, "Auto Union Gets New Leadership", The New York Times, June 7, 1980. The UAW Steering Committee (a body of about 400 local union presidents) unanimously endorsed Bieber for the position.Stanton, "The United Auto Workers Union Prepares for Leadership Changes", Associated Press, January 12, 1980. Also nominated for vice president slots were Donald Ephlin, Ray Majerus, and Stephen Yokich. Bieber won the election at the UAW's national convention in June 1980, receiving the highest number of votes of any candidate.
Bieber was GM Department director for just two and a half years, but negotiated a historic contract with General Motors (GM) in 1982. The early 1980s recession and competition from Japanese automakers had cut very deeply into GM's market share, and the company had laid off more than 140,000 of its 330,000 production workers (roughly half its workforce).Fucini and Fucini, 1992, pp. 11–12.Holusha, "Union's Leaders Foresee Strike or Cuts at G.M.", The New York Times, February 17, 1982. UAW membership had fallen to 1.2 million from a peak of 1.5 million in 1979. In March 1981, nine months after Bieber became GM Department head, GM asked the union to reopen its contract and negotiation concessions but the union refused.Holusha, "Auto Labor Groups Agree to Consider Reopening Pacts", The New York Times, December 22, 1981. In November 1981, however, GM began using its worker participation program to convince its unionized employees to reopen their contract."Union Upset By G.M. Plea", The New York Times, November 19, 1981. Bieber strongly criticized the company for generating "distrust of the U.A.W. leadership", "spoonfeed[ing]" a "captive audience", and perverting the worker participation program into a means to "propagandize or parrot the current views of the chairman of the board of G.M. as to how to save G.M. through worker sacrifice." But behind the scenes, UAW president Douglas Fraser, Bieber, and others were secretly already talking with GM about reopening the contract.Serrin, "Shrinking U.A.W. Tries to Steer a Steady Course Through Troubled Times", The New York Times, June 22, 1982. The union agreed to enter into talks in January 1982,Holusha, "Layoffs Are Just One U.A.W. Problem", The New York Times, January 24, 1982. hoping to win job security commitments for its members in exchange for wage and benefit concessions. The decision was a historic one, as it was only the second time in UAW history that the union had agreed to reopen a contract. It was historic as well as it was the first concessionary contract the union had negotiated.
In April 1982, UAW members approved the concessionary contract Bieber negotiated. Initially, GM agreed to link wage concessions to reductions in the price of its vehicles, but this was not part of the eventual agreement.Holusha, "Auto Unionists Narrowly Favor New G.M. Pact", The New York Times, April 10, 1982. The contract concessions were (at the time) the largest ever made to GM. The workers agreed to forgo an annual 3 percent wage increase, eliminated nine paid holidays over the next two years, deferred cost of living adjustments in the first three months of the contract to the final three quarters of the contract, established a wage tier that paid new employees 20 percent less, and implemented fines for chronic absenteeism. The union also agreed to negotiate over work rules at the local level. In return, GM agreed to keep four plants open which it had planned to close, agreed to a two-year moratorium on plant closings, established profit sharing, established a prepaid legal service program for its employees, and promised that if it laid off workers with 15 years or more of job experience it would pay them 50 percent of their annual salary. The pact was only narrowly approved, however (114,468 for and 105,090 against), even though UAW members at Ford Motor Company had approved a similar pact by a 3-to-1 margin.
Implementing the contract proved troublesome, however. Just days after the pact was approved by UAW members, GM attempted to give its executives large pay bonuses."U.A.W. to Oppose Bonuses at G.M.", The New York Times, April 21, 1982; "UAW Criticizes New Bonus Plan for GM Executives", Associated Press, April 21, 1982. Bieber angrily denounced the pay plan and GM backed off the proposal just two days later;Holusha, "G.M. Backs Down on Executive Bonus", The New York Times, April 23, 1982. however, the damage was done. Bieber began local bargaining over the work rules, but angry workers refused to negotiate any changes and bargaining ended in July 1982 with no changes.Maynard, "Anger at GM Hurting Local Talks: Bieber", United Press International, June 28, 1982; Maynard, "GM Workers Reject Additional Concessions", United Press International, July 22, 1982.
In his last year as GM Department director, Bieber discussed with GM the impact outsourcing was having on UAW members."Union, GM to Discuss Outsourcing," Associated Press, October 14, 1982. When GM signed a compact with Toyota to co-own and co-manufacture automobiles in California, Bieber worked to prevent UAW members in affected GM plants from engaging in a wildcat strike."UAW Workers to Vote on GM Strike", United Press International, April 15, 1983; "Union Denies Report of Strike Over General Motors-Toyota Pact", Associated Press, April 15, 1983.
UAW presidential race The UAW constitution barred anyone over the age of 65 from running for president of the union.Woolley, "UAW Choice Could Be Made Before Thanksgiving", Associated Press, August 30, 1982. 64-year-old Douglas Fraser won re-election as UAW president in July 1981, but was barred from seeking a third term."Fraser Will Not Run for Third Term", United Press International, July 13, 1981. In January 1982, Owen Bieber, Donald Ephlin (director of the Ford Department), Raymond Majerus (secretary-treasurer and director of the Aerospace Department and American Motors Department), and Stephen Yokich (director of the Agricultural Implement and Skilled Trades Department) were considered his most likely successors."Working on Picking Leader to Follow UAW Chief", Associated Press, August 11, 1982. At that time, Bieber and Majerus seemed to have the most support from the union's executive board.Holusha, "4 Seek Presidency of Auto Workers", The New York Times, September 21, 1982.