UAW Secretary-Treasurer
Elizabeth Bunn

Elizabeth Bunn was elected to a second term as secretary-treasurer of the UAW — the highest post held by a woman in the union's history — on June 14, 2006, at the 34th Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas.

As secretary-treasurer, Bunn is the chief financial officer of the UAW and directs various administrative departments including Accounting, Auditing, Building Maintenance, Circulation, Purchasing and Strike Assistance.

In addition, Bunn directs the UAW Technical, Office and Professional (TOP) Department, a post she has held since she was elected vice president of the union in 1998. Soon after her first election as secretary-treasurer, Bunn led a four-year campaign to organize academic student workers at the University of Washington and a successful effort to change state law to allow student workers to organize.

Director of the UAW Women's Department, Bunn created the union's Woman-to-Woman campaign that helped elect Debbie Stabenow to the U.S. Senate in 2000, and elect Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm in 2002.

Upon her election as vice president, then-President Stephen P. Yokich put Bunn's collective bargaining, political action and leadership skills to work with a number of key duties. In addition to her assignment as head of the TOP Department, she also served as director of the UAW Competitive Shop/Independents, Parts and Suppliers (IPS) Department.

Other assignments during her term as vice president included the Consumer Affairs, Conservation and Recreation Departments of the union. With President Yokich's support, she created and headed the UAW's Work & Family Resource Unit, the only such technical department in any international union.

Responsible for TOP organizing and servicing, she led the union to many breakthroughs. Overcoming significant legal and other obstacles, she won bargaining rights for more than 18,000 academic workers at both public and private colleges and universities.

Responding to the needs of health care workers, she led campaigns that won collective bargaining for 6,000 new members at health care facilities in Ohio and Michigan. In Kentucky, she directed a campaign that achieved UAW representation for more than 4,000 employees of the Commonwealth.

At the collective bargaining table, she played a key role in negotiating the first contract for gaming employees at Detroit's three casinos. She bargained innovative and substantial contracts for TOP members at Blue Cross Blue Shield, the State of Michigan, the State of Indiana and many other employers.

As the UAW's bargaining leader for Competitive Shop/IPS, she negotiated national contracts for UAW members at Dana, Alcoa, Exide, Federal-Mogul, Doehler-Jarvis, JCI Battery, Bosch, Budd and other employers. Despite adverse conditions in that sector, she won wage increases, improved pensions and protected health care benefits and improved employer neutrality provisions. She worked with the National Organizing Department to win card check recognitions at several facilities of the Lear, Johnson Controls and JAC products companies.

As a member of the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO, Bunn has been an eloquent voice for the interests of industrial workers in auto and other industries.

Bunn was a member of the National Writers Union prior to its 1991 affiliation to the UAW as UAW Local 1981. As head of the TOP Department, she provided critical support to Local 1981's long legal struggle to protect copyrights on the Internet. In 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, found that the New York Times and other publishers had committed copyright infringement when they resold newspaper and magazine articles via electronic databases without asking permission or making additional payments to the authors.

Bunn was appointed as an administrative assistant to UAW President Stephen P. Yokich on June 20, 1995. Previously, she was appointed in 1985 by then-UAW President Owen Bieber as an associate general counsel of the UAW assigned to the President's Office. In that assignment, Bunn played an important role in both organizing and negotiating collective bargaining agreements for UAW Local 6000 (State of Michigan employees), UAW Local 9212 (State of Indiana employees), Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and other TOP units.

She has been a leader of bargaining teams that have achieved many collective bargaining breakthroughs. Highlights include innovative programs for families including child and elder care referral services, parental leaves for school events and the creation of sick banks that allow workers to share leave time with other workers facing family emergencies; "fair share" union representation for state employees in Indiana; improved pay equity protections for state workers in Michigan, and joint training and health and safety programs modeled on the UAW's Big 3 contracts for public sector workers. She has also been an outspoken advocate for service workers on a broad range of public policy issues.

Bunn holds a BA degree from the University of Michigan and a law degree from Wayne State University Law School.

Bunn is a longtime member of the Michigan Democratic Party, a lifetime member of the NAACP and a member and officer of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW).

She resides in Detroit with her husband Jordan and two sons, Paul and Jordy.