UAW's Bob King to join board of GM's Opel

The head of the United Auto Workers, Bob King, will join the supervisory board of General Motors Co's struggling unit, Opel, in March, marking the fourth new appointment to come out of Detroit recently, a newspaper reported late on Monday.

The paper reported that King would be the first US union representative elected to a German carmaker's board in five years after the UAW gave up its seat on Daimler AG's board following the sale of Chrysler.

In November and in January, GM appointed three US-based top executives to Opel's board and named Vice-Chairman Steve Girsky as head of the board in an attempt to stanch losses at the subsidiary.

Both Opel and GM declined to comment, while the UAW had no immediate comment.

Earlier on Monday, Opel said it appointed 47-year-old Thomas Sedran as a new management board member responsible for Operations, Business Development and Corporate Strategy.

Sedran is currently one of the heads of the European automotive consultancy practice for AlixPartners and has worked closely with Opel since 2009, the company said on Monday.