Ronald A. Gettelfinger (born August 1, 1944) is an American retired labor leader. He served as president of the

United Auto Workers The United Auto Workers (UAW), fully named International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and sou ...

from 2002 to 2010.

Early career and education

Gettelfinger started his union involvement in 1964 in

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

, Kentucky, at the

Louisville Assembly Plant The Louisville Assembly Plant is an automobile manufacturing plant owned by Ford Motor Company in Louisville, Kentucky. Opened in 1955, the plant on 180 acres currently employs a total of 4,554 people. It is located adjacent to the Louisville In ...

run by

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

while working as a

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of a manufactured object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

line repairman. Gettelfinger is a 1976 graduate of

Indiana University Southeast Indiana University Southeast (locally known as IU Southeast or IUS) is a public university in New Albany, Indiana, New Albany, Indiana. It is a regional campus of Indiana University. History The Indiana University Falls City Area Center was ...

in New Albany, Indiana. The workers at Ford's Louisville Assembly plant elected Gettelfinger to represent them as committeeperson, bargaining chair and president. He was elected president of local union 862 in 1984. In 1987, he became a member of the Ford-UAW bargaining committee. Afterwards, he held other positions: director of UAW Region 3 and the UAW chaplaincy program. For six years he served as the elected director of UAW Region 3, which represents UAW members in Indiana and Kentucky, before being elected a UAW vice president in 1998.

UAW presidency

Gettelfinger was elected to his first term as president of the UAW at the 33rd Convention in 2002. He was elected to a second term on June 14, 2006, at the UAW's 34th Convention in Las Vegas. On March 19, 2009, Gettelfinger announced he intended to retire at the end of his term and would not run for reelection in 2010. Gettelfinger is an outspoken advocate for national

single-payer health care Single-payer healthcare is a type of universal healthcare, in which the costs of essential healthcare for all residents are covered by a single public system (hence "single-payer"). Single-payer systems may contract for healthcare services from pr ...

in the United States. Under Gettelfinger's leadership, the UAW lobbied for fair trade agreements that included provisions for workers' rights and environmental provisions; and the union loudly criticized what it calls "the corporate global chase for the lowest wage which creates a

race to the bottom Race to the bottom is a Socioeconomics, socio-economic concept describing a scenario in which individuals or companies compete in a manner that incrementally reduces the utility of a product or service in response to perverse incentives. This pheno ...

that no workers, in any country, can win". He opposed any additional worker concessions until the then-current contract expired in 2011. Gettelfinger was an

elector Elector may refer to: * Prince-elector or elector, a member of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Holy Roman Emperors * Elector, a member of an electoral college ** Confederate elector, a member of t ...

for

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Personal life and public image

Described in 2010 as one of the most influential figures in the auto industry at the time, Gettelfinger was known as "the chaplain" for his abstinence from alcohol and smoking.

References

External links

UAW bio on Gettelfinger
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gettelfinger, Ron 1944 births Living people United States Marines Presidents of the United Auto Workers 2008 United States presidential electors Indiana University Southeast alumni People from Canton, Michigan Trade unionists from Kentucky Vice presidents of the AFL-CIO