Canadian Auto Workers union chief retiring

TORONTO, July 8 (UPI) -- The president of the Canadian Auto Workers union, Buzz Hargrove, announced in Toronto Tuesday he will retire in September.

Hargrove has led the CAW since 1992, seven years after it split off from the United Auto Workers, the Globe and Mail reported.

The union's national executive board is gathered in Toronto to vote on Hargrove's replacement in the group's first contested leadership bid since 1985, the report said.

Hargrove turns 65 early next year, which is the mandatory retirement age in the union.

His successor faces a rocky time as Canada's automotive industry is reeling from the announcement of the closing of a large General Motors plant in Oshawa, east of Toronto, next year. That will eliminate more than 2,000 jobs, and small GM suppliers have already begun shuttering their plants.