Feb. 17--A top official with the United Steelworkers union in Pittsburgh will take on a new role as the point man on a task force President Obama will appoint today to revamp the U.S. auto industry.

Ron A. Bloom, a former New York investment banker who has served as assistant to the president at the Downtown-based USW since 1996, will fill the top nonpolitical role on the task force, Obama administration officials said Monday.

Bloom, 53, a New York native and now of Pine, will join a team headed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers.

Obama has opted to follow a group approach rather than appoint a single "car czar" to help resolve the domestic auto industry's problems that have raised doubts about the future of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

Bloom brings a combination of Wall Street savvy, ties to labor unions, and a penchant for out-of-the-box solutions to the government-led restructuring of GM and Chrysler.

The two corporate giants are scheduled to submit road maps to viability today that show how they will repay $17.4 billion in promised government loans.

The companies face a March 31 deadline to complete their plans or else the government can pull the loans, essentially forcing bankruptcy.

Described as cerebral and blunt-talking, Bloom has been credited with taking creative approaches to managing the downsizing of the steel industry and creating a leaner operating structure.

He advised airline pilots in 1994 in the $4.9 billion employee buyout of UAL Corp., the parent company of United Airlines, and he worked with auto parts supplier Dana Holding Corp. to develop a health care trust fund.

"He's not someone who brings just a conventional, cookie-cutter approach. He's going to force people to think about new ideas," said Andy Kramer, a Washington attorney who has sat on the opposite side of the bargaining table from Bloom.

Advising 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 had during the consolidation of the steel industry in the last decade.

A Harvard Business School graduate, Bloom served as a vice president with the Wall Street firm Lazard Ltd., focusing on the steel and airline industries.

As a top aide to the steelworkers union's president, he helped resolve a 10-month strike against the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp. in 1997, broker an agreement with Goodyear Tire in 2003 and facilitate Esmark Inc.'s successful tie-up with Wheeling-Pittsburgh in 2006, defeating a plan to merge with Brazil's Companhia Siderurgica Nacional SA.

"He brings a unique perspective from Wall Street but can also relate very well to the steelworker, to the man on the shop floor," said Mark Glyptis, president of USW Local 2911 in Weirton, W.Va.

"He should be given a tremendous, tremendous amount of credit for restructuring -- and I believe saving -- the American steel industry."

"The approach that the administration has settled on provides a vast amount of expertise that crosses a number of governmental agencies and departments," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said yesterday.

Bloom will bring "vast credibility" to the task force, Gibbs said.

Gary Hubbard, a spokesman for the USW in Washington, declined to elaborate on Bloom's pending appointment, saying he has not yet had a chance to talk to either Bloom or USW International President Leo Gerard to determine what role Bloom would play in the auto task force.

Hubbard said neither man could be reached because of the Presidents Day holiday.

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