United Auto Workers Elects Yokich President

Taking over as president of the United Auto Workers union won’t alter the way that Stephen P. Yokich operates. At least that’s his claim.

“It’s a little late in life for me to change,” said Yokich, a 59-year-old UAW vice president. Yokich was elected Wednesday to succeed Owen Bieber, who is retiring after 12 years as president of the 826,000-member union.

But the UAW could benefit from Yokich’s aggressive ways. The group has shrunk by half since 1979 and must find ways to build membership and political power by organizing auto parts plants, Japanese- and German-owned auto factories and workers in industries that don’t have anything to do with cars and trucks.

“He’s a very dynamic and charismatic leader assuming the presidency at a pivotal point for the union,” said Harley Shaiken, a University of California-Berkeley professor who studies organized labor.

He spoke outside the Anaheim Convention Center, where the UAW is holding its triennial convention.

Yokich has always been an aggressive organizer. He headed the UAW’s organizing department when it won the campaign that created the union’s largest local, more than 20,000 state employees in Michigan.

He’s known among union members as a scrapper, not afraid of confrontation.

“Yokich is receptive to taking on the corporations during the good times,” said Dave Yettaw, president of UAW Local 599 in Flint, Mich.