UAW Elects Dennis Williams as President

The United Auto Workers union elected Dennis Williams to a four-year term as its president on Wednesday.

Williams, 61, has said he will serve only a single term as president of the 78-year-old union.

He faces difficult 2015 contract talks with the three major U.S. automakers, General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler, a unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, as UAW members will press for the elimination of a two-tiered wage scale.

About a quarter of unionized workers at the U.S. automakers are so-called second-tier employees who make less than veteran workers. The UAW accepted the tiered wage structure in 2007 as the automakers were struggling. Now all three are profitable.

Williams succeeds Bob King, 67, who served a four-year term. Williams will be inaugurated on Thursday at the UAW convention in downtown Detroit. (Reporting by Bernie Woodall; editing by Matthew Lewis)