WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the United Auto Workers said Sunday his union will aggressively work to elect either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama to the White House, but reiterated that it will not endorse either one for the Democratic nomination.

"The stakes in this election could not be any higher. Our jobs are on the line," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a pre-Super Bowl address to about 1,000 union activists assembled here for a political conference.

The union leader, who helped broker a groundbreaking labor deal with Detroit's automakers last year, said workers would be motivated in November by the loss of more than 3 million manufacturing jobs since January 2001, a gaping budget deficit and the closing of thousands of factories across the country.

Gettelfinger reiterated the union's decision not to make an endorsement in the Democratic presidential primary, but called Clinton and Obama "friends" who would protect manufacturing jobs, support workers' right to organize and expand health care coverage.

The union decided in December against endorsing a presidential candidate, preventing local unions from issuing their own endorsements. Speaking to reporters, Gettelfinger declined to outline the union's strategy in the fall, but said, "we're going to spend a lot."

"You're going to see more groups coming together. It's not about dollars and cents," he said. "Clearly we cannot outspend people. But we can outwork them, and that's what we intend to do." The union has been a longtime stalwart for Democratic candidates in Michigan and throughout the country.

Gettelfinger said internal union polling has found that the most support any Republican presidential candidate received was about 2 percent.

During his speech, Gettelfinger urged Congress to reject passage of a trade agreement with South Korea because the country's market was essentially closed to domestic automakers. South Korea, where Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. are based, sells more than 700,000 vehicles a year in the U.S., compared with about 7,000 vehicles sold by domestic car makers in South Korea.

Gettelfinger also said the union would continue to press Congress to provide universal health care coverage.

As part of a groundbreaking labor agreement reached last year, the UAW agreed to take billions of dollars from Detroit's automakers and form trusts to pay for the health care bills of 540,000 retirees and their spouses beginning in 2010 and for active workers and their spouses after they retire.

The union is expected to hear this week from Democratic Sens. James Webb of Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.

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On the Net:

United Auto Workers: http://www.uaw.org/