[Excerpt] In August 1980 General Motors announced that it was closing its Hyatt Roller Bearing Plant in Clark, New Jersey The union leadership at United Autoworkers Local 736, which had a history of militancy and a better-than-standard local contract, immediately mobilized to try to talk GM out of its shutdown plan. Jim May, UAW 736 president, was—along with Chief Steward Jim Zarello—one of the principal architects of the worker buy-out at HCI. Besides being local union president, May is also on the company's board of directors. Labor Research Review interviewed May in late December 1984, shortly after his local negotiated a new 3-year contract with the company its members own.