Williams Vows to Keep Focus on South as UAW Chief

The expected next president of the UAW is promising to push ahead with the union’s efforts to organize workers at Volkswagen and other transplant automotive facilities in the South.

“People better get used to the UAW in the South," says Dennis Williams, who is likely to be elected during the union's Constitutional Convention in early June.

"We're not leaving Volkswagen," the 61-year-old Williams tells WardsAuto in an interview, adding he dislikes 2-tier wage agreements and wants workers to get a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

The UAW's first effort to organize workers at VW's new plant in Chattanooga, TN, ended in a narrow defeat in February. However, the UAW has withdrawn its post-election protests, setting the stage for another election early next year.

Williams, currently the UAW secretary-treasurer, brings to the UAW presidency a deep Midwestern character, having first joined the union in 1977 as a welder in a J.I. Case plant in Rock Island, IL.

As the UAW’s regional director in Illinois and a member of  union's board since 2001, Williams has dealt extensively with companies such as Caterpillar, Case (now part of CNH), Mitsubishi and Navistar, where he has served seven years on the board of directors, as well as General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.

"I've negotiated with several companies," Williams says. "They're all unique. They have their own philosophies. They have their own strategies. Some companies are more proactive with their labor unions.

“But basically they're all businessmen. They're there to make a profit and to build the best vehicles they can.”

In the case of Mitsubishi, the union leader has managed several times to persuade management to continue operating the automaker’s assembly plant in Normal, IL. "I've had a close relationship with Mitsubishi since 1988 and I've traveled back and forth to Japan several times," says Williams, whose record at the bargaining table and in politics marks him as a hardcore pragmatist.

Williams says experience has taught him management and labor have the same basic objectives, adding UAW members want employers to succeed.

"We just want to share a little bit," he says.

In 2010, Williams succeeded in negotiating a new contract with Caterpillar, which in the past had been the target of several damaging strikes. The relationship between the company and the UAW remains is “a work in progress,” he says, “But for the first time since 1950 we were able to get an agreement without a confrontation.”

2-Tier Wage Pact

Williams also was one of UAW President Bob King's top lieutenants in 2011 as the union negotiated new 2-tier contracts at Ford, GM and Chrysler. He believes those talks ultimately were successful for both sides.

“We went into the negotiations without (reserving) the right to strike” at Chrysler and GM, Williams recalls. “Our whole goal was to bring product back into the United States and rebuild the auto industry. We were successful. Our other goal was to try and get some kind of wage increase through profit sharing."

For 2015, Williams says union leaders will listen carefully to the concerns of its membership before preparing specific demands.  "We're talking to our members now. We want that conversation,” he says, noting the UAW has nearly 30,000 new members at GM, Ford and Chrysler.

The union won't set its bargaining agenda until the spring of 2015. But Williams tells WardsAuto he is not in favor of the 2-tier wage system, in which new hires are paid less than long-term employees, that now is part of the union's contract.

Workers on the upper tier have received bonuses and profit sharing but have not had an increase in base wages in nearly a decade, a point raised by Gary Walkowicz, a committeeman with UAW Local 600 in Dearborn, MI, who plans to challenge Williams for the union presidency.

With thousands of new members, the dynamics of the 2015 negotiations will be somewhat different, Williams acknowledges.

“We want that conversation. Two-tier always been problematic,” he says. “We believe in a fair day's pay for a fair day's work and equal pay for equal work. We're always going to have a strategy to bridge that gap.

“One thing about leadership is, you've got to listen.”

Williams says the union is changing the way it operates. It's setting out its objectives long-term so they won't change from one presidential administration to the next, he says, adding he wants to ensure the union has larger voice in the future.

“I think (the conservative groups) attacking the UAW have helped us,” says Williams, who has earned a reputation as one of the UAW's leading political strategists for his role in national politics in the Midwest. “They're not just attacking us. They are attacking all working men and women, and I think people want organizations like the UAW out there fighting.”

The union must openly discuss the challenges it is facing and the strategies required to meet them, Williams says.

"It's no secret we've been talking about a dues increase. The real decision happens at the convention. It will be one of the greatest conversations we've had in a long time," he says, noting the union hasn't raised dues since 1967.

Williams became a member of the UAW's permanent staff after working as a temporary organizer recruiting union members at the Mitsubishi plant in Illinois. "The director asked me to help him organize Mitsubishi. I told him I'd do it for a while. But then it was history. I wound up loving organizing," he recalls.

Early Backer of Obama

While working in the UAW regional office in Illinois, Williams learned about Iowa's pivotal presidential caucuses and Chicago politics and played a key role in helping a little-known Illinois state senator named Barack Obama first win election to the U.S. Senate and then the presidency in 2008.

“There are several different sides in Chicago. But (Obama) really connected with people. He campaigned as himself, not as somebody else. There's not a lot of under the surface stuff,” Williams says, adding he was impressed with Obama's candor and straightforward approach to politics.

“The private person is the same as the public face. What you see is what you get. I like that in a politician," he says.

Williams' assistance helped Obama overcome opposing factions during a Democratic senatorial primary in 2004 and he also delivered a critical endorsement that boosted Obama's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

"I told him I was glad to introduce him to Iowa. I felt very strongly America needed a change," says Williams, who favored Obama over other Democratic contenders in the 2004 Senate election because of his opposition to the Iraq War.

"I own guns. I love to hunt and fish…I'm not a pacifist. I served in the U.S. Marines,” Williams says, adding, “I had given a speech against the war, too.”

Williams says he has "learned a lot" by serving on Navistar's board of directors.

“I’ve got a better understanding of how boardrooms think about business. I really believe companies would be better off if they had someone from organized labor on their boards. There are a lot of areas where we have expertise. A lot of time boardrooms don't know what's going on the shop floor," Williams says, adding he is an enthusiastic supporter of Joe Ashton, who is retiring from the UAW's board in June and will join the GM board later this summer.

"We recognize companies have different pressures, especially in the global economy. But I tell them our members have pressures, too. UAW members want their companies to succeed. UAW officials want their members to be treated with dignity and to be paid a fair wage, not a minimum wage," Williams says.

“You can't have a good economy with having disposable income.”