Jerry Tucker (labor leader)

Jerry Tucker (1939 - October 19, 2012) was an American labor leader and educator associated with the United Auto Workers (UAW).^[1] He led the UAW's campaign to defeat right-to-work in Missouri in 1978, and was a leader of the UAW rank-and-file caucus fighting for union democracy known as New Directions.^[2][3]

A month before the 1986 UAW convention, Tucker announced his intention to challenge incumbent Region 5 regional director Kenneth Worley and was fired from his job as assistant regional director.^[4] Tucker lost the election, at which delegates had votes proportional to the size of their constituency, by 0.16 votes out of about 650 votes cast.^[4] However, Tucker argued that some delegates had been improperly elected, and the Department of Labor ordered a new election in 1988, which Tucker won with 52% of the vote.^[4] He was one of the first members of the UAW's governing executive board in decades not to be part of the dominant Administration Caucus.^[4]