Bieber Wins, Dissenters Lose in UAW Voting

As expected, two dissident leaders fighting for top union offices in the United Auto Workers were soundly defeated Wednesday at the UAW’s national convention.

At the same time, UAW President Owen Bieber was reelected by acclamation to his third three-year term at the helm of the 1-million member industrial union. The 59-year-old Bieber, who succeeded former President Douglas Fraser in 1983, ran unopposed for reelection.

The rest of the leadership’s slate, which included Secretary-Treasurer Bill Casstevens, the second most powerful official in the union, and four vice presidents, also was elected.

Only in two races, for two regional directorships, did the dissenters challenge the Bieber team, and in both cases they suffered overwhelming defeat.

Jerry Tucker, one of the leaders of the so-called New Directions coalition of dissidents opposed to Japanese-style cooperative labor agreements in the auto industry, was defeated in his bid for reelection as director of the union’s St. Louis region. Tucker had won a court-ordered election as director last year following a bitter legal battle with the UAW’s leadership.

Tucker was overwhelmingly defeated by Roy Wyse, a former assistant regional director who was supported by Bieber.

Meanwhile, Don Douglas, a local union president from Pontiac, Mich., and a New Directions leader, was defeated in his bid to oust an incumbent director in the union’s eastside Detroit region. Douglas was beaten by Bob Lent, the incumbent who also was supported by Bieber.

Both Tucker and Douglas have leveled election fraud charges against the Bieber forces and appealed many of the local elections of delegates to the convention. The delegates elected by local unions this spring voted for regional directors at the convention Wednesday.

Tucker said Wednesday after the vote that he has not yet decided whether to challenge the results in court, as he did in his earlier race for regional director.

Wyse said he believes that the election results marked “the beginning of the end of the New Directions movement.”