Obama Adviser Has W.Va. Connection

The former investment bank and labor union aide tapped by President Obama to advise his new auto industry task force has a track record that includes helping West Virginia's steel industry, the The Associated Press (corrected cite) reports.

Ron Bloom "helped resolve a 10-month strike against the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp. in 1997," and "facilitate Esmark Inc.'s successful tie-up with Wheeling-Pittsburgh in 2006," while a top adviser to the president of the United Steelworkers union, the article said.

"He should be given a tremendous, tremendous amount of credit for restructuring -- and I believe saving -- the American steel industry," Mark Glyptis, president of USW Local 2911 in Weirton, told the newspaper.

As an adviser to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, "Bloom will have the day-to-day task of working with carmakers, their bondholders and labor unions to force concessions, reprising a similar role he played during the consolidation of the steel industry in the last decade," the article said.