Owen Bieber (born 1929), president from 1983 to 1995 of the third-largest labor union in the United States--the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America--is a central figure in the dramatic restructuring of the U.S. auto industry.

Elected UAW president in May 1983, Bieber led more than one million union members, most of whom work in the nation's auto plants. The plants and the U.S. companies that own them reeled in the 1980s from increased competition from lower-cost foreign carmakers and an early 1980s auto slump that saw sales fall to their lowest level since the Great Depression. More than 200,000 auto workers lost their jobs during that time because of the changes in the industry. Bieber struggled to find a balance between the companies' demands to be competitive and the needs of his members to keep their jobs.

Business Week reports one company negotiator as saying Bieber "is...