UAW President Says Auto Industry Is Rebounding, Credits Obama

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger, ending eight years as the union’s leader, said the U.S. auto industry is recovering and credited President Barack Obama with saving it, Bloomberg reported.

“There is strong evidence that the worst is behind us and the industry has clearly rebounded,” he said today in a farewell speech at the UAW’s constitutional convention in Detroit. “Without hesitation, President Obama addressed the auto industry crisis.”

Gettelfinger, 65, is retiring this week after two terms as president. He overcame the union’s shrinking size to persuade the U.S. Congress and Obama to rescue General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC last year. The UAW has fallen to about 355,000 members from a 1979 peak of 1.5 million, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Bob King, 63, who leads the UAW’s bargaining with Ford Motor Co., has been chosen by the union’s Administration Caucus to replace Gettelfinger when delegates elect a new leader June 16 at the convention. The Administration Caucus has controlled the Detroit-based union since 1946.

Chrysler is hiring workers for the first time in a decade, GM is set to build a new small car in Michigan and Ford is “hitting on all cylinders and setting the standard for the industry,” Gettelfinger told about 1,200 union delegates at Cobo Hall in Detroit.

Gettelfinger said “anti-union forces” and “right-wing conservatives” sought to destroy the union and the U.S. auto industry during the debate over its bailout last year.

“The contempt for the UAW was so deep that some of them were willing to let the industry collapse in hopes that they could destroy us,” he said. “We are leaner, yes, but stronger, wiser and more determined.”

Gettelfinger said the delegates should support Obama and Democrats in the midterm elections in November.

“We must stand with those who stood with us,” the union leader said.