UAW Ousts Saturn Union Leader Known for Cooperative Approach

United Auto Workers members, in an apparent rebuke to innovative labor-management relations at Saturn Corp., voted to replace Michael Bennett, the union leader in the plant since the mid-1980s.

Bennett will be replaced as bargaining chairman of UAW Local 1853 at Saturn by Robert “Jeep” Williams, who serves as the local’s vice president.

Bennett is a UAW lighting rod because of his ardent advocacy of Saturn-style union contracts, which are more cooperative and performance-based than at most other General Motors Corp. factories. He believes high U.S. wages can’t be maintained without such partnerships. But he was swept from office, on the verge of national UAW-GM contract talks, by opponents who favor a more traditional and more confrontational approach with management.

Bennett’s entire slate of 11 candidates for other union offices were also defeated, generally by a 2-1 margin. A 13th position may go into a runoff. In a near-record turnout, 6,000 of the plant’s 7,000 workers voted.