“It is not enough for us to have a UAW card in our purse or wallet. We need to have union in our heart,” newly elected United Auto Workers president Ron Gettelfinger told delegates to the union’s 2002 convention, bringing them to their feet.
For 46 years—from the time he worked his way up at the Ford plant in Louisville to become a chassis line repairman—Ron Gettelfinger has not only had the UAW card in his wallet. He has always had the union in his heart. In Local 862, his home local, no one worked harder, volunteered more or learned more. He would later be recognized as one of the best negotiators in the union movement, but he first learned about negotiating as the chair and bargaining committeeman of Local 862. His union sisters and brothers elected Gettelfinger president of his local in 1984 and re-elected him three years later.
Soon he was elected UAW Region 3 director and in 1998 was elected vice president. As vice president he was named director of the UAW Aerospace and Ford Departments. And, in 2002, this chassis line repairman who grew up on a farm without electricity was elected president of one of the most powerful, respected unions in the country.
There was good reason UAW members put their trust in him. As one of his union brothers put it, “When he says something, you can bank on it. And no man puts more time and effort into this than Ron Gettelfinger.”
Gettelfinger led the UAW through some of the biggest challenges in the union’s history: the massive deindustrialization of America, the undermining of the auto industry by years of free trade policies and the assault on the entire union movement by the Bush administration and its anti-worker, anti-union allies. Yet Gettelfinger made solid gains.
Against huge odds, Gettelfinger negotiated the groundbreaking Voluntary Employee Benefit Association (VEBA) agreements in 2007 contract talks with the Big Three automakers. For his union members, he secured retiree health care benefits for decades, while helping the companies chart a path to health.
When General Motors and Chrysler faced bankruptcy, he worked around the clock to save the domestic auto industry and hundreds of thousands of good union jobs from extinction. The anti-union crew in Congress and elsewhere was willing to see the Big Three collapse if it brought the end of the UAW. But those forces lost, and Ron Gettelfinger deserves as much credit as anyone for the survival of his union and his industry. Today, not only are the Detroit Three automakers alive and well, they are investing in American plants and creating American jobs as a result of contract commitments Ron Gettelfinger negotiated as part of the bridge loan process.
Finally, Gettelfinger helped make one of the oldest dreams of the UAW come true. For decades, the union had fought for the dream of health insurance for millions who had none. When the moment of opportunity finally arrived, Ron Gettelfinger spoke out, lobbied, worked with the White House and Congress and mobilized his union sisters and brothers. He and the UAW hold a place of honor in the history of health care reform.
Since his days on the Louisville assembly line, Ron Gettelfinger has championed solidarity inside the union movement, as this Executive Council can attest. As a member of the council, Gettelfinger has contributed to the federation by serving on our Executive Committee, the Industrial Union Council and the Older and Retired Workers Committee. His greatest contribution, however, is his integrity and his model of leadership—his devotion to the members and to getting the job done.
After nearly a half-century in the UAW, our friend and brother has retired as president of the union that remains in his heart, and he is now retiring from the Executive Council. Years ago, he said of the UAW, “This union was born fighting for workers’ rights, and that is what we will continue to do.”
For everything Ron Gettelfinger has done over many years to carry that fight forward, we congratulate him and thank him.