“We’ve had our share of disappointments," acknowledged UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, as union leaders prepared to elect his successor.

The United Auto Workers Union will select new leaders this week as it holds its 35th Constitutional Convention in Detroit as it struggles with a sharp decline  in membership, a battered public image and fading clout at the bargaining table.

“It’s a union that has a glorious history,” said Mike Smith, chief archivist at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University said Monday.  But one whose future is anything but certain.

What is clear is that the new leadership team will be trying to halt the steady erosion of both the union’s clout and the gains made its membership since the UAW was born out of the sit-down strikes that helped organize General Motors more than 70 years ago.

Ron Gettelfinger, the union’s outgoing president,  has faced some of the most serious challenges to confront the union since those early days.

“We’ve had our share of disappointments and setbacks,” said Gettelfinger, but, he quickly added, “we have also had major victories. Workers at Tenneco have been on strike for over five years and we have three additional strikes under way. We saw the impact of downsizing and the pain associated with the Peterbilt, NUMMI and other closings,” Gettelfinger said.

The union lost 76,000 members in 2009, leaving it with only 355,000 members, according to reports filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.  That’s less than a quarter its peak size, four decades ago, despite the UAW’s ongoing outreach to non-automotive workers.  Its biggest struggle, however, has been the effort – largely unsuccessful – to sign up workers at the so-called “transplant” assembly lines, such as the Honda factory in Marysville, Ohio and Nissan’s line in Canton, Mississippi.

In fact, one of the few UAW-represented transplants, the NUMMI facility, near San Francisco, is closing.

But the events of 2009 could have completely ruptured the UAW, Gettelfinger suggested, admitting the economic woes that drove General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy “were not on anyone’s radar screen.”

“As a result, we found ourselves in a fight for the very survival of our union and one of our country’s most important industries,” he said.

The outgoing union chief, who oversaw some of the most dramatic givebacks in UAW history, stressed that the union has survived the dislocations created by the industry’s restructuring. “Because of your strength; your commitment; your willingness to stand up; and your solidarity, we faced these challenges and chartered a course that led our great union down a path to survival.”

In his speech opening the first-ever UAW Convention ever held in Detroit, Gettelfinger took the offensive against the union’s conservative wing, insisting that the once-dominant organization is, Leaner yes, but stronger, wiser, and more determined as well.”

Gettelfinger also pointed to “right-wing conservatives in Washington who thought our industry should just fade away.”  Without the UAW’s concessions, his backers argue, the White House, first under President George W. Bush, and then under his successor, Barack Obama, very well might have allowed GM and Chrysler to fold.

“Most of these conservatives chose to represent the overseas foreign nameplate operations and turned their backs on America’s domestic auto industry and her workers. Let’s be clear. The contempt for the UAW was so deep that some of them were willing to let the industry collapse in the hopes they could destroy us,” Gettelfinger said, adding that, “Even the former president recognized the insanity of what they were attempting to do and granted bridge loans to Chrysler and GM insuring short term survival for the industry,” he said.

In an oration that recalled some of the more fiery speeches of the past, Gettelfinger took jibes at Toyota, the once seemingly invincible Japanese maker that is now struggling to regain momentum lost because of an ongoing safety scandal.

He also noted, with pleasure, a recent survey of American motorists showing that 38% now prefer the Detroit Three domestic brands compared with 33% who favor foreign manufacturers.
“I think this is a transformative moment for the union,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at the University of California-Berkley. “The union has just survived the most difficult period in its history,” he said.

Bob King, a long time union executives who is expected to become the next UAW president, this week, appears to understand that the union faces big challenges.   “He wants to rebuild the union’s image,” said Shaiken, who acknowledged the UAW’s influence has waned during the affluent decades immediately after World War II, when it was instrumental in raising the living standards of its members – and indirectly, the lifestyle of Americans overall.

Opposition to the pay and benefit concessions sanctioned by the union’s executive board, over the past four years, has been distilled into a last-minute campaign for the union presidency by Gary Walkowicz, the chairman of the bargaining unit at the Ford Motor Co. truck plant in Dearborn, Michigan.

“We said that this policy needs a drastic, 180-degree change,” said Walkowicz, who contends  the concessions have diminished union members’ standard of living and prospects for the future.

Walkowicz spearheaded the successful opposition to additional concessions demanded by Ford, last fall.  But he acknowledged his bid for the top post at Solidarity House, the UAW’s headquarters along the Detroit River, has no real chance of success.

Still, said Walkowicz, “We think it is important that there be at least one person nominated at this convention who clearly stands for a drastic change in policy for our union.”

Paul A. Eisenstein contributed to this report.