UAW said to pick King as next leader of smaller union

United Auto Workers (UAW) President Ron Gettelfinger plans to anoint Bob King, head of negotiations with Ford Motor Co, to be the shrinking union’s next president, on December 16, said two people familiar with the matter.

Gettelfinger and his administration caucus are to nominate King among a slate of prospective leaders, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal union politics. Those endorsed by the caucus, the union’s dominant political party, are expected to be elected by delegates at the UAW constitutional convention next June.

King, a journeyman electrician who also has a law degree, is set to inherit a union that has fallen to 431,000 members from a peak of 1.5 million in 1979. King is ascending to the union’s top job despite last month’s rejection of concessions by Ford’s 41,000 hourly workers. It was the second round of givebacks he negotiated this year with Ford, the only major US automaker to avoid bankruptcy.