UAW President Could Be "Difference Maker" in This Year's Talks

Interview: We talk about the upcoming negotiations with University of Michigan Business Professor Gerald Meyers.

DETROIT: (WWJ) With two weeks to go before the start of this year's auto talks, a lot of attention is being focused on UAW President Bob King. This is the first and possibly only time that King will lead the union in the talks

"The UAW has a leader who's a different kind of animal," says University of Michigan business professor Gerald Meyers. "He's educated, articulate, intelligent."

Meyers had a long auto industry career that culminated in time as the CEO of America Motors. Since then, he's taught and consulted. A recent meeting with King left him impressed.

"I haven't heard a UAW President, and I've known them all now, through the years talk like he does," said Meyers. "Because he'll talk safety, he'll talk fuel economy and he'll talk about the need to be competitive."

King has been talking about competitiveness at a number of public events since he took over the presidency of the UAW a year ago.

"We want the consumer to know that we are as committed to them in these negotiations as we are to our membership," said King at an April 26th Automotive Press Association meeting.

The theme of a "21st Century UAW" has been a topic of King at several public meetings, ranging from last summer's Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City to the Mackinac Policy Conference in May. King plans to take time out from the auto talks to attend this year's Traverse City conference as well.

Meyers thinks this is more than just posturing on King's part.

"He's thinking of the needs of the company and the needs of the membership at the same time, and that's new."

While King became UAW President last summer, he's had extensive involvement in auto negotiations. He lead the Ford bargaining team last time around, and before that negotiated contracts with several suppliers.

He was also disappointed when Ford workers two years ago voted down a concession deal that King personally promoted at auto plants.

If King follows the tradition of UAW Presidents, who have not run for re-election after the age of 65, he'll be a one term president. That makes the 2011 talks his legacy.

"People talk about a strike target," King said at the Automotive Press Association Meeting. "I don't have a strike target."

While King hinted that he'd consider settling with all three companies at once, he later backed off saying that it was really about finding creative ways to settle difference.

"I believe we've got really strong relationships, we've had a great ability to do problem solving together."

The problem solving efforts formally begin on July 25th, when the UAW starts its talks with Chrysler. That breaks a tradition that had the union starting with the company that settled first in the last talks, which would have been General Motors.

King has hinted that he doesn't feel bound by tradition, and these talks will be anything but traditional. The union forged "no strike" deals with GM and Chrysler before those companies' bankruptcies. It doesn't have a similar deal with Ford.

The agreement calls for mandatory Arbitration if the union can't come to an agreement with GM or Chrysler. That's something King is trying to avoid.

"I'll figure I've failed, and the companies together have failed, if we have to go to arbitration."

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