Robert Thompson King (born August 18, 1946)[1] is an American lawyer and labor union activist and leader.
[2] His term of office ended in June 2014, and King announced his retirement, being succeeded by Dennis Williams as head of the UAW.
[4] He attended College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and studied religion and philosophy before transferring to the University of Michigan.
[1][3][5][6][7] King was employed full-time by Ford in 1970, taking a position in the Detroit Parts Depot where he became a member of UAW Local 600.
[3][8][10] After winning re-election in 1987, King was named chair of the UAW-Ford Negotiating Committee, which bargained the company-wide master contract at Ford Motor Company.
[13][14] In June 1989, King was elected to the first of what would become three three-year terms as Director of Region 1A, a UAW administrative unit that covered most of Monroe, Washtenaw, and Wayne counties in Michigan.
[19] During the 1995-1997 Detroit newspaper strike, King engaged in acts of civil disobedience and was arrested three times between 1996 and 1997.
[20] In November 1997, King was assigned to oversee the union's National Organizing Department, a position created especially for him.
[36] The UAW's aggressive use of these types of agreements led to two challenges before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
[38] The decision was declared highly significant by both right-to-work advocates and labor unions, even though it only applied to future card check campaigns and did not affect the workers at Dana Corp. or Metaldyne.
[48] The press called the negotiations "historic" because the company agreed not to close some of its plants, promised to invest in its remaining plants to ensure they will remain open, was permitted to establish a two-tier wage system (which established a much smaller $14-an-hour wage for new hires), and moved $22 billion in retiree health care obligations to a new union-run voluntary employee beneficiary association (VEBA).
[50] With the onset of the automotive industry crisis of 2008–2010, however, King was forced to go back to the bargaining table in an attempt to help save Ford Motor Co. from bankruptcy.
[54] In February 2009, King led the UAW team in negotiating a historic agreement which allowed Ford to make up to 50 percent of its required payment into the VEBA using common stock in lieu of cash.
[16][56] In the mid-1980s, King was being called one of the "bright young hopes for the future"[14] and a "militant ... up-and comer" by the press.
[57] For expanding the union's membership base outside the automotive industry, he was called a "leader to watch in the coming decade",[58] and frequently mentioned as a possible successor to UAW President Stephen Yokich.
[61] Gettelfinger announced in March 2009 that he would not seek a third term as UAW president, leading some news outlets to declare King one of his possible successors.
He had particularly harsh words for General Motors, because it took aid from the federal government and yet still closed plants and because it said it would import vehicles from overseas to meet U.S.
[65] During these talks, Ford sought changes in work rules, a ban on strikes during the life of the contract, and the imposition of yet another two-tier wage system for new hires.
[66] A tentative agreement was reached on October 13, 2009, that froze wages for entry level workers, limited but did not eliminate the union's right to strike, required Ford to commit to production levels at existing plants, and required Ford to give workers a $1,000 cash bonus in March 2010.
He led a group of union officials to El Salvador in 1989 to monitor elections there,[3][79] and he has participated in protests at the School of the Americas, a United States Department of Defense facility at Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia, which many accuse of training Latin American soldiers and officers in techniques later used to commit human rights violations.