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UAW names a new president of the union and a top negotiator for Ford

Detroit Free Press - 6/28/2021

A former truck assembler and military veteran, Ray Curry, will become the new president of the UAW.

Curry, 55, will take over for retiring President Rory Gamble, 65, on Thursday.

The UAW International Executive Board unanimously elected Curry, its secretary-treasurer, to serve the remainder of Gamble's term, which ends in June 2022 at the 38th Constitutional Convention.

Curry said his priorities are to strengthen the organization with more reforms that safeguard it against corruption and to build membership in the union, which currently represents about 400,000 members and some 600,000 retirees.

"I pledge to continue to build upon our commitment to a culture of transparency, reforms and checks and balances," Curry said in a statement. "I will be embracing the model that has been set forth by my brother and friend, Rory L. Gamble, to be accessible and accountable to our members, to keep them informed and engaged. Rory has led us through the storm, and we are so grateful for his leadership."

Separately, the board elected UAW Region 1A Director Chuck Browning, 57, to fill the remainder of Gerald Kariem's term as vice president and director of the Ford Department. Kariem, 65, is also retiring and his term ends in June 2022.

Browning, a veteran bargainer, will officially assume his new role Thursday.

On Friday, Gamble announced his retirement, saying his last day in the job would be this Wednesday. Gamble, who made history as the union's first African-American president, served since the fall of 2019.

Gamble was recruited to the job after then-President Gary Jones abruptly quit. Jones' home had been raided by the FBI as part of a corruption investigation of the UAW at that time. Earlier this month, Jones was sentenced to 28 months in prison for his part in the corruption scandal. It was a reduced penalty rewarding him for his cooperation.

In May, another former UAW President, Dennis Williams, was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine in addition to restitution to the UAW amounting to $132,000. Williams had pleaded guilty in September to a charge of conspiracy to embezzle union funds.

Browning, who will head future Ford negotiations, once served as executive administrative assistant to Williams, the UAW said in a biography on Browning.

Gamble had made reforming the union a priority to guard against any further corrupt activity and avoid federal oversight of the union. Curry said he plans to continue that work.

"Rory and I are absolutely committed to making this a smooth, transparent transition for our membership," Curry said. "And we are both dedicated to the reforms that we have put in place for the UAW."

While serving as the UAW's secretary-treasurer, which is essentially the union's chief financial officer, Curry helped to implement a series of financial ethics reforms including internal and external auditing, better reporting procedures, a complete review of financial systems and checks and balances.

A North Carolina native, Curry worked as an assembler at Freightliner Trucks in Mount Holly, North Carolina. He eventually became a quality assurance inspector there before being hired to the UAW staff in 2004, the union said. Curry also served on the local's civil rights committee and as a delegate for the area.

He has served on the UAW board since 2014, when he was elected regional director of UAW Region 8 in Alabama and Tennessee. There, Curry was responsible for collective bargaining, arbitration, organizing, political action and other bargaining-unit assignments across aerospace, automotive, heavy truck and other industries in the region.

He was elected secretary-treasurer in 2018 and also directed the Heavy Truck, General Dynamics, and Agricultural Implementation Departments.

Curry is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Charlotte with a degree in business administration/finance and an MBA from the University of Alabama. He served three years in the Army and five years in the Army Reserves.

Curry said his next step in the UAW is to build, grow and strengthen the union and its membership. While there are "significant challenges ahead," the union is in a strong position to meet them, he said.

"Industry is at a crossroads right now with massive changes in new innovative technologies. It will be up to us to navigate through this monumental shift in mobility and manufacturing," Curry said. "My priority — is to grow our membership across all sectors, and new sectors, including gaming, higher education, public health, parts suppliers and auto transnationals."

Curry is the 2017 recipient of the A. Philip Randolph Leon Lynch Lifetime Achievement Award among other leadership honors. He is a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Nashville, a Silver Life member of the NAACP, and member of the national NAACP Board of Directors.

Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.

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