Biographical sketch of UAW Vice President Terry Thurman
06.15.2006

Terry Thurman was elected a vice president of the UAW on June 14, 2006 at the 34th UAW Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Thurman has served on the union’s International Executive Board since June 1998, when he was elected to the first of his two terms as director of UAW Region 3, which covers Indiana and Kentucky.

As Region 3 director, Thurman has represented UAW members in every sector of the union in collective bargaining, political action and community service.

An innovative bargainer, Thurman negotiated some of the UAW’s first card-check and neutrality agreements. As regional director, he also earned a reputation for never backing away from tough fights. When automotive parts supplier Delco Remy America closed its Anderson, Indiana, plant in 2003 and refused to pay 350 workers the Supplemental Unemployment Benefits (SUB) as provided by the contract, Thurman led the fight that resulted in the company agreeing in January 2006 to pay the workers $5.25 million. He also led the nearly eight-year struggle for a first contract for UAW members at Duffy Tool & Stamping in Muncie, Indiana.

Thurman’s commitment to the UAW’s tradition of community service is reflected is his creation of the Director’s Charitable Fund, a non-profit organization that has helped raise more than $350,000 for the children’s charity, Make-A-Wish.

He also started the UAW Region 3 Annual Diversity Dinner and Awards program, which recognizes UAW members and non-members through the James Smith Diversity Award for their commitment to equality, tolerance and human dignity.

Thurman was appointed to the staff of the UAW in August 1986, when he was assigned to help negotiate contracts, handle arbitration cases, conduct education classes and otherwise service local unions in Indiana and Kentucky. In 1995, he became the region’s Community Action Program (CAP) representative; CAP is the political action arm of the UAW.

Thurman has been a UAW member since 1978 when he joined UAW Local 440 at the GM Powertrain facility in Bedford, Indiana. His union activism and leadership abilities led to many appointed and elected positions in the local, including alternate committeeperson, committeeperson and, in 1984, president of Local 440. He also served as an officer of GM Subcouncil 5 and was chair of the Region 3 GM Shop Committee Council.
Interested in politics since his youth, Thurman received a B.A. degree in Political Science from Indiana University in 1973. He has worked in numerous campaigns in Indiana and Kentucky, and has served as a Democratic Party county chairperson, a member of the Democratic National Committee and as a delegate to state and national Democratic Party conventions.

Thurman has received numerous awards, including Sagamore of the Wabash, Indiana’s highest honor; Kentucky Colonel; the Indiana Trial Lawyers’ Hoosier Freedom Award; and awards from the NAACP, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the A. Philip Randolph Institute.

Terry and his wife Connie, a UAW member and CAP representative for Region 3, have three grandchildren.
Thurman was born in Bedford, Indiana, on July 19, 1950.