USW Lauds Bloom's Longtime Commitment to Manufacturing

PITTSBURGH--Aug. 10, 2011: The United Steelworkers (USW) today commented on yesterday's announcement by the White House that Ron Bloom, Assistant to the President for Manufacturing Policy, will leave the administration at the end of this month to spend more time with his family.

Bloom served as special assistant to the president of the USW prior to being appointed to a Treasury Department task force in early 2009 to restructure America's auto industry.

"Ron has always been a tireless advocate for American manufacturing and the good paying jobs that allow working families to live a middle class life," said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. "He understands both public service and that a strong industrial sector is vital to a healthy national economy."

Bloom's expertise in restructuring distressed companies was central to his appointment by the administration as the senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the president's task force on the automotive industry. Here he played a key role in the bankruptcy restructurings of General Motors and Chrysler.

President Barack Obama appointed Bloom as his senior counselor for manufacturing policy on Labor Day, 2009, and as an assistant to the president in January 2011.

"The auto restructuring secured the jobs of hundreds of thousands of American workers in the auto and reliant industries alone, secured the future of companies that provide their employment, and further secured tax revenue from both the workers and their employers," said Gerard. "For many, it's too easy to forget that that every manufacturing job supports five service-sector jobs."

The USW is the largest industrial union in North America and has 850,000 members in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. It represents workers employed in pulp, paper and packaging, metals, rubber, chemicals, oil refining, atomic energy, government and the service sector.