José E. Serrano: “Today, I rise to honor Ron Gettelfinger, who retired last week from being president of the United Auto Workers. Mr.…”

“Today, I rise to honor Ron Gettelfinger, who retired last week from being president of the United Auto Workers. Mr. Gettelfinger first joined the UAW as a line repairman in 1964 and has now spent a lifetime fighting for the best interests of working Americans. Mr. Gettelfinger was elected to the Presidency of the UAW in 2002 and provided excellent leadership through a difficult time in the history of the auto industry in the United States. The auto industry faced great hardships during his tenure and as a whole needed to make a lot of changes. Mr. Gettelfinger recognized the great changes that needed to be made and ably defended his members while working hard to address the long term needs of the industry. He understood that the automakers and the unions needed to work together to insure that they both could go forward stronger than before. During his time as President he worked hard not only for his own members, but for the rights of all American workers and of all workers around the world. In addition to his efforts working for workers, he understood the importance of universal health care to having a healthy and competitive workforce and he spoke out in favor of health care for all Americans.”