UAW Certifies Worley as Winner in Disputed Vote

The United Auto Workers certified the controversial reelection of Ken Worley as director of its largest region Friday, the final day of its constitutional convention in Anaheim.

Worley narrowly defeated challenger Jerry Tucker by one-tenth of a vote Wednesday for the directorship of Region 5, which covers eight states stretching from Colorado to Louisiana. Regional directors serve on the union’s international executive board.

Tucker formally challenged the results Thursday, contending that five delegates who voted for Worley were not eligible to vote. On Friday, the union’s credentials committee issued a report saying the five had been eligible. The report, UAW President Owen Bieber told the convention delegates, resolved the issue.

Delegate Joe Smith from St. Louis, a Tucker backer, unsuccessfully attempted to introduce a resolution asking that the results not be finalized for 60 days, allowing more time for a fuller investigation. Smith said a lawyer and a retired union staff member had flown to Brownsville, Tex., to investigate the election process at the UAW local from which two of the contested delegates had come. He read a statement by four members of the local, reportedly given under penalty of perjury, saying that no election for delegates had been held there.

Bieber ruled the motion out of order, saying the union’s process had been properly completed. At that point, almost all of the Region 5 delegates supporting Tucker walked out of the convention hall.

Tucker, the former assistant director in Region 5, said he would pursue a remedy outside the union structure.

He was not sure what action he would take, Tucker said, but sources close to him indicated that he would file a suit alleging violations of the Landrum-Griffin Act, the federal law that regulates internal union procedures.