Region 5 gets a new Director

As many of you may know the Region 5 Director Gary Jones was elected to the job of UAW President replacing the retiring Dennis Williams. That means that UAW Region 5 has a new Director. Our new Director is Vance Pearson who was formerly the Region 5 Assistant Director. Here's the official scoop on New Region 5 Regional Vance Pearson:

Vance Pearson was elected Region 5 director at the 37th Constitutional Convention in June 2018.

Prior to that, he served as the region’s assistant director following an appointment in January 2016 by Region 5 Director Gary Jones.

In September 2002, President Ron Gettelfinger appointed him to the International staff as a servicing representative in the union’s Retired Workers Department.

In November 2003, he was assigned to Region 5 as a servicing representative responsible for collective bargaining, arbitrations, and organizing.  Pearson also served as a retiree representative, Community Action Program representative and as the office manager of the region’s sub-regional office in Pico Rivera, California.

Pearson hired in at Boeing North American in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1981 and became a member of Local 887. Coworkers elected him to serve as an alternate committeeman, a committeeman, a seniority coordinator, a bargaining committeeman, a shop vice chairman, a chairman, a vice president and later local union president.

Pearson is a graduate of Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa where he earned certification as an aircraft electrician.

Pearson has a long history of being involved in his church and gives his full participation in his community including being a long-term member of organizations such as the NAACP, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.

Pearson lives in St. Charles, Missouri.  He has two sons and one daughter.

We are proud to have him as our new Regional Director and proud of his ties to Oklahoma. He is a local example of success within our great union, as was Gary Jones a native of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.