History - 2010 Speaker
Ronald A. GettelfingerPresident
International Union, UAW
Ron Gettelfinger was elected to a second term as president of the UAW on June 14, 2006, at the UAW’s 34th Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas. The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) is one of the largest and most diverse unions in North America, with approximately 640,000 active members and more than 500,000 retired members in multinational corporations, small manufacturers, state and local governments, colleges and universities, hospitals, and private non-profit organizations in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
Gettelfinger was first elected as president on June 5, 2002. He was elected vice president of the UAW on June 24, 1998, and was assigned as director of the UAW National Ford Department. He was also director of the UAW Aerospace Department and the UAW Chaplaincy Program.
Gettelfinger had been the director of UAW Region 3 since 1992, which represents UAW members in Indiana and Kentucky. He had served as an International Representative on the staff of Region 3 from 1987 until his election as regional director.
A member of UAW Local 862 since 1964, Gettelfinger worked as a chassis line repairman at Ford’s Louisville Assembly plant. He served on the UAW-Ford National Negotiating Committee for the 1987 pattern-setting negotiations, and he was president and chairperson of his local bargaining committee for the 1984 and 1987 local negotiations. Prior to that he had served as chairperson of the bargaining committee, bargaining chairperson, committeeperson, and delegate to the UAW National Ford Council, Sub-council #2, as well as delegate to three UAW Constitutional Conventions.
Gettelfinger received a Bachelor of Science degree in business from Indiana University in 1976.
