BOB KING, President, UAW

 

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King, 65, faced down the challenge this year of negotiating competitive labor contracts with the Detroit 3, while keeping on track an aggressive plan to organize German and Asian automakers operating in the United States. The Detroit 3 deals covering about 113,000 hourly workers were a departure from the past. They provided signing bonuses of as much as $6,000 at Ford Motor Co. and other lump-sum payments in lieu of raises and restoration of cost-of-living allowances the workers wanted. The Detroit 3 walked away with agreements that will increase their hourly labor costs in the United States by no more than 1 percent in each of the four years of their contracts.