In a Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, file photo, then-United Auto Workers president Dennis Williams speaks during a roundtable with reporters in Detroit. Prosecutors are seeking a two-year prison sentence for Williams, a former president of the United Auto Workers who they say had "two lives" — as a leader of a blue-collar union and a connoisseur of premium champagne and California vacation villas paid for with members' dues the U.S. attorney's office said in a court filing Monday, May 3, 2021.

DETROIT — Dennis Williams, a welder who rose from the factory floor to president of the United Auto Workers labor union from 2014 to 2018, was sentenced Tuesday to 21 months in prison for luxurious winter stays in the California sun covered by dues paid by his blue-collar members.

Dennis Williams, who led the United Auto Workers from 2014 to 2018, was one of two presidents convicted of corruption in an investigation that revealed payoffs and embezzlements in the top tier of the Detroit-based union. The probe has roiled the UAW and exposed entitlement among union elite. The union has agreed to have an independent monitor watch its finances, and members might get an opportunity to elect future presidents rather than leave the job to delegates at a convention.

Williams, 68, pleaded guilty to an embezzlement scheme that turned union dues into cash for golf, lodging and fancy meals.

He symbolized an “upside down version of solidarity: Once I get to the top, I’ll get mine by taking yours,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Cares said.

U.S. District Judge Paul Borman noted that Williams was at the “pinnacle” of his career in leading 400,000 members, especially auto workers. While railing against excesses in corporate America, Williams was ordering fine meals, sipping champagne and lighting big cigars in vacation villas, all while scheming to cover it up, prosecutors said.