Detroit Free Press (Michigan), September 17, 2007, Monday

Copyright 2007 Detroit Free Press

Detroit Free Press (Michigan)

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News

September 17, 2007 Monday

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL NEWS

HEADLINE: Gabriel Alexander: Longtime automotive arbitrator

BYLINE: Zlati Meyer, Detroit Free Press

BODY:

Sep. 17--Gabriel Alexander, an automotive labor arbitrator and longtime chairman of the Chrysler/United Automobile Workers arbitration board, died Friday of heart failure in Sarasota, Fla. He was 97.

Born in Detroit, Mr. Alexander graduated from Central High School and from Wayne State University in 1933. After earning his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1936, he practiced law with his father in Detroit.

Mr. Alexander later lived in Huntington Woods and Bloomfield Hills before moving to Florida in 2001.

During World War II, he was an aircraft parts inspector and then a hearing officer for the automotive section of the Detroit Regional War Labor Board. He was appointed the public member of the Detroit Regional Wage Stabilization Board from 1951 to 1953.

He was the General Motors Corp./UAW labor umpire from 1948 to 1954 and also served as umpire with Bethlehem Steel/United Steelworkers of America and Great Lakes Steel/United Steelworkers, among others.

In addition to his role as head of the Chrysler/UAW arbitration board for more than 30 years until he retired at age 86, Mr. Alexander was the longtime chairman of the board of the legal services plan, which offered free legal help to union members working for the Big Three. He held the position from its 1977 inception to 1999.

His daughter Ellen, herself a labor arbitrator, recalled why her dad stayed in arbitration work after he initially was asked to help with some GM matters.

"The challenge was to find a solution that keeps the parties working together in the future," she said Sunday.

Mr. Alexander, an early member and a president of the National Academy of Arbitrators, also was a visiting professor of labor relations at Wayne State, which houses his automotive and other industry decisions, and a guest professor at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.

"He forged trusting relationships on both sides of the arbitration table in the days when presentations were made by union leaders and company industrial relations officials rather than attorneys," Ellen Alexander said.

An avid sailor, Mr. Alexander was commodore of the Great Lakes Yacht Club and the Detroit River Yachting Association. In addition, he was a member of the Amateur Radio Relay League and of the Birmingham Temple.

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Alexander is survived by two other daughters, Molly Schechter and Sara Alexander; a grandson, and a great-grandson.

Services will be in Florida on Tuesday.

Memorial contributions may be sent to the Jewish Family & Children's Service, 2688 Fruitville, Sarasota, FL 34237, or the Florida West Coast Symphony, 709 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236.

Contact ZLATI MEYER at 313-223-4439 or meyer@freepress.com

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