Three
weeks
ago,
LSA
professor Bob King, the former
president of the United Auto
Workers, heard his phone buzz.
When he picked it up, he saw an
incoming call from his longtime
friend Sen. Bernie Sanders,
D-Vt., the liberal firebrand and
former Democratic presidential
candidate.
Sanders
asked
if King would speak at the
2020
Democratic
National
Convention the upcoming week
to nominate him for president.
It was an offer King couldn’t
pass up.
“He personally called me,”
said King, who teaches social
theory and practice in the
Residential College. “I told him
I’d be honored to do it. I thought
there might be some other
people who would be better.
But he said, ‘No, I’d like you to
do it.’”
Given their shared history
fighting for workers’ rights, it
made sense that Sanders picked
King to nominate him at the
convention. While nominating
the
senator,
King
praised
Sanders, calling him a “great
champion of the working class.”
King grew up in the Midwest,
right in the middle of the nation’s
automotive capital. But it wasn’t
until college that King found
himself
working
part-time
summer jobs in auto factories
in Metro Detroit. He strapped
on steel-toed boots every day to
head to work and got to know
his
blue-collar
coworkers.
Through conversations with his
colleagues, King learned about
the injustices faced by middle-
class workers and the need for
strong labor unions to organize
employees.
“A lot of the people I worked
with
didn’t
have
college
educations or anything, but
they were in many ways wiser,
smarter than people who had
a greater form of (education),”
King said. “And then watching
the struggles over the years,
seeing what it took to really
make change. It’s all played a
role (in my life).”
King completed two years
of study at Holy Cross College
in Indiana before transferring
to the University of Michigan,
where he earned his bachelor’s
degree in political science. It
was at Holy Cross, however, that
King said he took classes that
— like his conversations in the
auto plant — helped to cement
the core beliefs that guided him
through his later work in the
labor movement.
“I took a French course by a
Jesuit who really taught (me) …
the way you have value in life
is you raise human dignity and
lessen human suffering,” King
said. “And at the same time, I
was taking a theology course
from a person who believes in
liberation theology and (in)
the importance of caring about
others. Life was about both
kinds of ideas.”
Those experiences in the
classroom and from his summer
jobs stuck with King after
graduation as he joined the
workforce. In 1970, he took
on a full-time job at Ford’s
River Rouge Complex while
completing a law degree at the
University of Detroit Mercy.
While working at the plant,
he also joined a labor union
— the United Auto Workers
union Local 600 — and became
president in 1984.
King served two terms as
president, chairing the UAW-
Ford Negotiating Committee
during his second term. Both
positions
allowed
him
to
organize and mobilize union
workers in the area to fight for
their rights.
In 1989, King became director
of Region 1A, an administrative
unit of UAW encompassing
several
counties
across
Michigan.
He
served
three
terms in this role, which he said
was one of the most rewarding
experiences of his career.
“In that whole time, it was
always a core part of what I
believed — getting members
more involved and getting into
it — demonstrations, rallies,
striking for recognition (in)
places that weren’t organized
yet,” King said.
Nine years after becoming
the regional director, King was
elected vice president of UAW.
At the time, he was still heading
their
National
Organizing
Department, a position he had
been appointed to the year
prior. During his tenure as vice
president, King helped to attract
more than 60,000 new members
in the first eight years.
But when the Great Recession
hit in 2008, the UAW lost more
than 75,000 members as major
auto companies like General
Motors, Chrysler and Ford either
went into or were threatened
with bankruptcy and had to lay
off thousands of workers. King
said the experience tested his
leadership.
“Everybody had to be part
of the plan. It was a very
collaborative effort which did
say something,” King said. “…
(But) if the members didn’t
have a union, the company
would have just unilaterally
made
changes
(and)
would
not have had to step up and be
transparent about what every
stakeholder was doing.”
“The loudest part of the
discussions and negotiations
were
getting
commitments
from the companies to agree
that
with
the
turnaround,
massive
investments
would
go into UAW facilities in the
United States. We kept a lot of
jobs in our country (and) saved
communities,” King added.
After
pushing
through
the
financial
crisis,
King
became UAW president. King’s
predecessor, Ron Gettelfinger,
told The New York Times in an
interview he was thrilled to see
King take over his position.
“There is no question in
my mind Bob King will be the
right person to lead this union
forward,” Gettelfinger said. “He
is relentless and tenacious. Bob
will move forward an agenda
that will benefit all of our union,
and he is a great negotiator.”
King described being UAW
president as the capstone of his
union career, helping build up
the international network of
workers from the Big Three and
pushing for increased worker
protections.
“The UAW members have a
lot of courage, a lot of fight, so
representing them was such an
honor,” King said.
After serving decades in the
UAW, King decided to shift gears
and inspire the next generation
of the movement by becoming
a lecturer at the University.
He also took on leading roles
in a number of organizations,
including
the
Lecturer’s
Employee Organization, One
University Campaign and the
student-led
Climate
Action
Movement.
“I
really
appreciate
and
enjoy the classes I’ve done at
the University of Michigan
and continuing to do classes
and
workshops
within
the
labor movement,” King said.
“Getting the opportunity to sit
down with students and/or sit
down with workers and talk
about important issues (and)
have discussions where we’re
all learning from each other —
that’s really fantastic.”
King
said
he
hopes
his
work helps further the labor
movement.
“I hope that in working with
students
and
working
with
unions in the area that we really
do build up a movement that will
demand and achieve a much,
much more fairer society,” King
said.
LSA senior Amytess Girgis
spoke to The Daily about her
experiences with King while
working with him on both
the One University Campaign
and LEO. She said he stayed
committed to cultivating an
atmosphere where both students
and school administrators felt
heard and tried to push for
change.
“Every time we go into these
meetings (with administrators),
we’re told that our ideas are
great but it wouldn’t work
because of X reason,” Girgis
said. “And the fact that someone
like Bob continues to come to
the table and says, ‘No, this will
work. You just need to rearrange
your priorities and values in
order to put your money where
your mouth is.’ The fact that
he’s continually able to do that
really encourages us to be more
confident in what we know is
right.”
Whether speaking to millions
of viewers across the nation, a
room of labor union organizers
or a classroom of two dozen
people, King has dedicated his
life to furthering the fight for
workers’ rights.
“In some ways, I’ve always
been a movement builder,” King
said. “I really fully understand
that you never get change if
you don’t build the grassroots
movement that developed over a
number of years.”
Daily Staff Reporter Julia
Forrest
can
be
reached
at
juforres@umich.edu.
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UAW head, LSA prof. Bob King has
‘always been a movement builder’
King, who teaches social theory and practice in the Residential College,
spoke at the DNC to nominate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont for president
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
2 — Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Courtesy of Bob King
LSA professor Bob King nominated Senator Bernie Sanders for presidency at the 2020 Democratic National Debate.
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“I hope that in working with
students and working with unions
in the area that we really do build
up a movement that will demand
and achieve a much, much
more fairer society.”