Gut-level communicator
“Steve Yokich was a great leader who cared deeply about the membership and was very proud of rising from the shop floor to president of the UAW. A special quality of Steve’s was his ability to relate and communicate at a gut level with our members. His passion for social and economic justice is most strongly demonstrated and reflected in his two children, Stephen and Tracey, who share Steve’s passion and his ability to connect on a personal level with workers. We will miss Steve, and the best way to honor him is to carry on the fight for justice, as he requested at the last convention.”
Bob King is a UAW vice president.
Quality and diversity
“Steve was very instrumental in forcing the company to put on a quality representative. Quality was very, very important at that particular time. Ford was in a bit of trouble, something like they’re in at this particular point. But we used to talk about how all the job security programs we could negotiate for ourselves really didn’t mean an awful lot if we weren’t producing a quality product.
“Steve wanted to make sure that the company understood that we wanted to be involved in their decisions as far as quality was concerned. We ultimately ended up negotiating quality representatives. We were part of their meetings, when we talked about quality, from a local level and also from a national level.
“He did a tremendous amount of work as far as our education and training programs. He believed in them; he made all of us believe in those programs. That’s why, I believe, we’re so far ahead of everybody else when it comes to those types of social programs, programs that represent and benefit all of our membership.
“He really believed in that. I think our staff, our International Board, represent exactly what he wanted to do in that particular area. And he was very proud to see that he had not just myself but Nate Gooden as his vice presidents.
“Yokich was a guy who could sit down with a Bill Ford or he could sit down with a Gerald Bantom or he could sit down with an average guy in a particular plant and carry on a conversation about anything and everything. And I think that was the true test of a man who really cared. He wanted to find out exactly what the membership thought about different things.”
Gerald Bantom is a UAW vice president.
Insisted on diversity
“Steve insisted that all levels of our union be very aware of the diversity of our union. We talked openly and candidly about diversity on a number of occasions. He wanted to lead by example. He even emphasized diversity in the scholarships the Community Caring Foundation gave out.
“The last time I talked to him was about three weeks before his death. He was doing well, very happy. We just talked about each other enjoying retirement. He talked about spending some time on his boat and said he was coming up to Flint to play some golf.
“I must tell you I’m very emotional about him. Most of all because he spent so much time helping other people. There were so many things he had missed out on as a result of representing this union of ours that he was so proud of.”
Ruben Burks is the retired UAW secretary-treasurer.
