Former UAW President Leonard Woodcock dies

DETROIT (CNN) -- Leonard Woodcock, a former president of the politically influential United Auto Workers and the first U.S. ambassador to the People's Republic of China, has died, the union said Wednesday. He was 89.

Woodcock, who succeeded Walter Reuther as UAW president following Reuther's death in a 1970 plane crash, lived in Ann Arbor, Mich. He died Tuesday night at home, where he was under hospice care, of pulmonary complications, the union said.

Following the death of the charismatic Reuther, the low-key Woodcock was immediately thrust into national contract negotiations with with the "Big Three" auto companies and led the union through a bitter 67-day nationwide strike against General Motors, longest ever.

The walkout won for the union the first 30-and-out retirement provision for rank-and-file workers, allowing full benefits after 30 years on the job no matter what the age.

Woodcock, a political activist who threw the support of his million-member-plus union behind Democrat Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential campaign, was rewarded with the post of U.S. liaison to China in 1977 and two years later became full-fledged ambassador when relations were normalized between the two nations.

Woodcock was president of the million-member plus union from 1970-76 following a stint as head of the UAW's GM Division. A native of Providence, R.I., he worked his way up from the assembly line after going to work in 1933 for the Detroit Gear Machine Co. as a machine assembler. His union local later became part of the fledgling UAW.

"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," said current union President Stephen Yokich.

"The entire UAW family is deeply saddened by the loss of this great American and great trade union leader who contributed so much to our union and to the cause of economic and social justice for all."

Woodcock, who in retirement became a member of the Wayne State University Board of Governors, was survived by his second wife, Sharon, whom he married in Beijing in 1978, two daughters, a son, three grandchildren and a sister.