UAW Director Makes Like Past President, Hits the Bricks

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems
uaw director makes like past president hits the bricks

Following the resignation of scandal-tainted UAW President Gary Jones late last week, UAW Region 5 Director Vance Pearson took the cue and followed him out the door. Pearson, charged with embezzlement and money laundering in an ongoing federal corruption probe, was, like Jones, on a paid leave of absence.

Both men headed for the exit after the UAW, newly infused with an reformist attitude, moved to oust the officials.

There was no thanking Pearson for his service.

“The UAW announced today that after the filing of Article 30 charges against him by the UAW’s International Executive Board, Vance Pearson, has informed the UAW that he was resigning as Director of UAW Region 5, effective immediately, and retiring,” the union said in a Sunday statement. “He is also resigning his UAW membership, effective immediately. Mr. Pearson had been on leave from his position.”

Pearson was charged in September, one of many UAW officials collared by the federal investigation. Pearson, along with other top officials (including Jones and former UAW President Dennis Williams) are accused of embezzling union dues to the tune of $1.5 million, spending the loot on lavish getaways and glitzy goods.

Neither Jones nor Williams have been charged, but media sources claim Jones is the “UAW Official A” listed in court documents.

After taking the helm as acting president, Rory Gamble issued a directive outlining the steps the union will take to restore its reputation, root out corruption, and prevent a takeover by the federal government. That directive came out earlier this month.

“We wanted to focus on Mr. Pearson’s defense,” said Peason’s lawyer, Scott Rosenblum, when asked about his client’s resignation by The Detroit News.

Jones and Pearson both hail from St. Louis, where Jones served as Region 5 director before moving into the president’s office. Pearson served as Jones’ assist director starting in 2016, taking over his boss’ old gig in 2018.

[Image: UAW]

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  • Indi500fan Indi500fan on Nov 25, 2019

    As our local bail bond outfit advertises....ain't no glamor being in the slammer. Of course even in prison there will still be some lush GM and UAW pension payments for the family to persevere on.

  • Funky D I despise Google for a whole host of reasons. So why on earth would I willing spend a large amount of $ on a car that will force Google spyware on me.The only connectivity to the world I will put up with is through my phone, which at least gives me the option of turning it off or disconnecting it from the car should I choose to.No CarPlay, no sale.
  • William I think it's important to understand the factors that made GM as big as it once was and would like to be today. Let's roll back to 1965, or even before that. GM was the biggest of the Big Three. It's main competition was Ford and Chrysler, as well as it's own 5 brands competing with themselves. The import competition was all but non existent. Volkswagen was the most popular imported cars at the time. So GM had its successful 5 brands, and very little competition compared to today's market. GM was big, huge in fact. It was diversified into many other lines of business, from trains to information data processing (EDS). Again GM was huge. But being huge didn't make it better. There are many examples of GM not building the best cars they could, it's no surprise that they were building cars to maximize their profits, not to be the best built cars on the road, the closest brand to achieve that status was Cadillac. Anyone who owned a Cadillac knew it could have been a much higher level of quality than it was. It had a higher level of engineering and design features compared to it's competition. But as my Godfather used to say "how good is good?" Being as good as your competitors, isn't being as good as you could be. So, today GM does not hold 50% of the automotive market as it once did, and because of a multitude of reasons it never will again. No matter how much it improves it's quality, market value and dealer network, based on competition alone it can't have a 50% market share again. It has only 3 of its original 5 brands, and there are too many strong competitors taking pieces of the market share. So that says it's playing in a different game, therfore there's a whole new normal to use as a baseline than before. GM has to continue downsizing to fit into today's market. It can still be big, but in a different game and scale. The new normal will never be the same scale it once was as compared to the now "worlds" automotive industry. Just like how the US railroad industry had to reinvent its self to meet the changing transportation industry, and IBM has had to reinvent its self to play in the ever changing Information Technology industry it finds it's self in. IBM was once the industry leader, now it has to scale it's self down to remain in the industry it created. GM is in the same place that the railroads, IBM and other big companies like AT&T and Standard Oil have found themselves in. It seems like being the industry leader is always followed by having to reinvent it's self to just remain viable. It's part of the business cycle. GM, it's time you accept your fate, not dead, but not huge either.
  • Tassos The Euro spec Taurus is the US spec Ford FUSION.Very few buyers care to see it here. FOrd has stopped making the Fusion long agoWake us when you have some interesting news to report.
  • Marvin Im a current owner of a 2012 Golf R 2 Door with 5 grand on the odometer . Fun car to drive ! It's my summer cruiser. 2006 GLI with 33,000 . The R can be money pit if service by the dealership. For both cars I deal with Foreign car specialist , non union shop but they know their stuff !!! From what I gather the newer R's 22,23' too many electronic controls on the screen, plus the 12 is the last of the of the trouble free ones and fun to drive no on screen electronics Maze !
  • VoGhost It's very odd to me to see so many commenters reflexively attack an American company like this. Maybe they will be able to find a job with BYD or Vinfast.
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