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Media Advisory: UAW president on VW defeat, labor in a global economy

By Kathleen Maclay

WHO & WHAT: Bob King, president of the United Automobile Workers, will make two appearances at the University of California, Berkeley, to talk about the state of union organizing and collective bargaining and international union solidarity in the wake of a headline-grabbing failed UAW attempt to unionize at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant.

King has said that he wants the UAW to unionize several foreign-owned auto plans in the South in a major effort to improve conditions in the industry and reverse the national decline of union membership. King, who will be the guest of the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) and the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, has vowed that the bad union news in Chattanooga won’t derail those plans. WHEN & WHERE: Both appearances

From 1-2 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 24, King will discuss the state of union organizing and collective bargaining in the United States, and why it matters, in Boalt Hall, Room 105. Boalt Hall is located on the south side of campus, on Bancroft Way at Piedmont Avenue.

At 6 p.m., King will join CLAS director, labor specialist and fellow Detroit native Harley Shaiken in the Maude Fife Room (Room 315) of Wheeler Hall for a discussion of challenges unions face globally, the Volkswagen unionizing results, and how the UAW is reaching out to unions in Latin America and other regions. Wheeler Hall is near the center of campus, just north of Sather Gate.

DETAILS: Reporters planning to attend should arrive early, as both venues may fill up quickly.  To request interviews with King, contact Mariana Insua at CLAS at (510) 642-2088.