News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Leonard Woodcock Passes

Date: January 17, 2001

"Ex-Auto Workers Pres. Woodcock Dies
By JIM SUHR, Associated Press Writer

DETROIT (AP) - Leonard Woodcock, the former United Auto Workers leader and bargainer who later negotiated for the United States as ambassador to China, has died. He was 89.

Woodcock, who was UAW president from 1970 to 1977 and U.S. ambassador to China from 1979 to 81, died Tuesday of pulmonary complications at his Ann Arbor home, UAW spokesman Paul Krell said.

Born Feb. 15, 1911, into an organized-labor household, Woodcock joined a union in 1933 in Detroit, and seven years later the UAW hired him for the staff covering western Michigan.

In 1955, Woodcock was elected UAW vice president, initially directing the union's agricultural implement and aerospace departments. He then led the union's contract bargaining with General Motors Corp. and the aerospace industry until replacing Walter Reuther, who died in a plane crash.

Woodcock's appointment as UAW chief came at what current President Stephen Yokich called ``one of the most difficult times in our union's history,'' given Reuther's death and the immediate challenge of guiding the UAW in national contract talks with U.S. automakers.

That year, Woodcock led the UAW through a 67-day strike against GM before a contract was reached.

``In his long and remarkable career as a trade union leader, political and social activist, and educator, Leonard Woodcock touched the lives of countless working people throughout the world,'' Yokich said in a statement Wednesday.

President Carter sent Woodcock as his envoy to Hanoi in 1977, and he returned with the remains of 12 U.S. servicemen who had been declared missing in action during the Vietnam War.

Two years later, Woodcock was ambassador to China when he arranged a lengthy Beijing meeting with then-leader Deng Xiaoping for Michigan's top administrators.

During a White House event last year, Carter credited Woodcock with helping him negotiate terms of normalized diplomatic relations with China, as well as brokering the first trade agreement with the Asian country in 1979.

``And now for 20 years, each year the Congress has confirmed his decision, and mine,'' Carter said.

In 1992, Woodcock helped arrange for China to buy cars and trucks from U.S. automakers. He billed the agreement as a first involving U.S. vehicles in the country, which had banned automobile imports since the late 1980s.

Private services for Woodcock were held, the UAW said. A memorial service will be held later, Krell said."