Lecturer, Social Theory and Practice
bobtking@umich.edu
Office Information:
1615 East Quad
phone: 734.615.1466
Social Theory and Practice;
Residential College
About
Bob King is one of the most thoughtful U.S. labor leaders of his generation. King hired into the River Rouge plant (UAW Local 600) in 1970 and was elected to ever higher positions in the UAW until he became International President (2010-2014). He was Vice-President for Ford when the 2008 global financial crisis hit, pushing GM and Chrysler to the brink of bankruptcy. We’ll talk about that extraordinary period and what the UAW and the Obama administration did to save the industry.
King has also championed a vision of the labor movement as a force for social justice in capitalist societies, building on a tradition of social unionism in the UAW that goes back to its origins in the 1930s.
