UAW Vice President Bob King

Bob King was elected to a third term as vice president of the UAW on June 14, 2006, at the union's 34th Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas.

King will direct the Ford, Severstal, and Independents, Parts and Suppliers/Competitive Shops Departments.

King was first elected a UAW vice president in 1998 and assigned to lead the union's National Organizing Department. He was re-elected in 2002.

With King's leadership the National Organizing Department has assisted tens of thousands of workers in their efforts to join the UAW.  He pioneered the use of innovative partnership agreements with employers.

King has negotiated partnership agreements with 11 major automotive suppliers, covering more than 36,000 workers. These agreements include employer neutrality during organizing drives, and fast and fair card-check election procedures.

With strong support from UAW local unions, regions and departments, the National Organizing Department organized more than 50,000 workers between June 1998 and June 2002.

The UAW has won 65 percent of the campaigns conducted by the National Organizing Department during this period, a success rate significantly greater than the overall union win rate of 29 percent in manufacturing workplaces.

In his second term as vice president, King also directed the UAW Competitive Shop/Independents, Parts and Suppliers (IPS) Department, representing members in auto parts and other manufacturing industries.

Prior to his service as vice president, King was elected to three terms (1989-1998) as director of Region 1A, which covers nearly all of Wayne, Monroe and Washtenaw counties in Michigan.

As regional director, King mobilized 1,500 unionists to support recently organized members in a pre-dawn demonstration at Johnson Controls in Plymouth, Mich., in 1997. He also helped Dayton-Hudson's Westland, Mich., workers achieve a first contract after an eight-year struggle in 1998.

He joined UAW Local 600 in 1970 when he was hired at Ford Motor Co.'s Detroit Parts Depot and began his electrical apprenticeship in 1972. King, a member of the UAW International Skilled Trades Advisory Committee, was elected vice president of Local 600 in 1981 and president in 1984. He was reelected in 1987 and was chair of the UAW-Ford Negotiating Committee.

King has always involved members in standing up for social and economic justice. Region 1A gave strong backing to Detroit newspaper strikers and locked-out workers. King himself was arrested for civil disobedience in the face of illegal and anti-worker actions of newspaper management. He set up region-wide networks to stand behind workers in other nations, from Mexico and Central America to South Africa and Haiti. He is a firm believer in union education, including strategic planning for local union leaders.

King was one of the original members of the AFL-CIO Elected Leader Task Force on Organizing. He also founded the region-wide International Labor Solidarity Network. A 1968 graduate of the University of Michigan, King received his law degree in 1973 from the University of Detroit. He served in the U.S. Army from 1968-1970. King is a life member of the NAACP, a Michigan Democratic Party precinct delegate, and a member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women.

Born on August 18, 1946, he lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his wife, Moe Fitzsimons. He has four children: Jennifer, Kathlene, Jackson and Bernadette.