Labor & Employment Law

King Elected UAW President

By James Parks

Bob King

Delegates to the UAW’s Constitutional Convention today overwhelmingly elected Bob King  as president. King has been a UAW vice president since 1998 and has headed the union’s National Ford Department since 2006. He succeeds retiring President Ron Gettelfinger.

Delegates also elected by acclamation UAW Region 4 Director Dennis Williams as secretary-treasurer. He succeeds Elizabeth Bunn, who is the new organizing director of the AFL-CIO.

Delegates re-elected by acclamation incumbent UAW vice presidents James Settles and General Holiefield, as well as new vice presidents Joe Ashton and Cindy Estrada, the union’s first Latina vice president.

King, 63, played a major role in both the UAW Ford 2007 national agreement and the 2009 modifications to the agreement. He led the UAW’s organizing department between 2002 and 2006 and assisted nearly 80,000 workers in their efforts to join the UAW.

Williams was elected director of UAW Region 4 in 2001 and re-elected in 2002 and 2006. Ashton is director of UAW Region 9 and Estrada is director of UAW’s national organizing department.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 16, 2010 (boomark / email).