The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, commonly known as the United Steelworkers (USW), is a
general trade union with members across North America. Headquartered in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
, the United Steelworkers represents workers in Canada, the
Caribbean, and the United States. The United Steelworkers represent workers in a diverse range of
industries, including primary and fabricated
metal
A metal (from Greek μÎταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
s,
paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distrib ...
,
chemical
A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., w ...
s,
glass
Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling ( quenching ...
,
rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, an ...
, heavy-duty
conveyor belting,
tire
A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over which t ...
s,
transport
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...
ation,
utilities
A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and ...
,
container
A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping.
Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...
industries,
pharmaceuticals,
call centers and
health care.
The United Steelworkers is currently affiliated with the
AFL–CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million ac ...
in the United States and the
Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) in Canada as well as several international union federations. On July 2, 2008, the United Steelworkers signed an agreement to merge with the United Kingdom and Ireland–based union
Unite
Unite may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums
* ''Unite'' (A Friend in London album), 2013 album by Danish band A Friend in London
* ''Unite'' (Kool & the Gang album), 1993
* ''Unite'' (The O.C. Supertones album), 2005
Songs ...
to form a new global union entity called
Workers Uniting.
The current International President of the United Steelworkers is
Tom Conway
Tom Conway (born Thomas Charles Sanders, 15 September 1904 – 22 April 1967) was a British film, television, and radio actor remembered for playing private detectives (including The Falcon, Sherlock Holmes, Bulldog Drummond, and The Saint) ...
, who was installed as President after the retirement of
Leo Gerard
Leo W. Gerard (born 1947) is a retired steelworker and Canadian and American labor leader. He was elected president of the United Steelworkers (USW) in 2001, becoming the second Canadian to head the union. He served in the role until July 2019. H ...
.
Rank-and-file members, as well as representatives, of the United Steelworkers refer to themselves, and are most often referred to, as Steelworkers. The use of the capitalized single word ''Steelworker'' or ''Steelworkers'', as opposed to the lowercase two-worded ''steel worker'' or ''steel workers'', is also an identifier of those who are part of, or affiliated with, the United Steelworkers International Union rather than being general non-union workers within the steel industry. This distinction is important in North America wherein a vast majority of the steel industry is unionized. For example, some of the most recognizable and largest companies in the business such as United States Steel (USS) and Cleveland-Cliffs, with their combined hourly workforces at facilities in North America being Steelworkers and represented by the USW, including the largest facilities on the continent, like US Steel's Gary Works in Gary, Indiana, Cleveland-Cliffs's Burns Harbor in Burns Harbor, Indiana, Indiana Harbor East and West in Northwest Indiana, and Cleveland Plant in Cleveland, Ohio, all of which are situated on the Great Lakes freshwater system. On the other hand, some steel companies, usually at facilities known as "mini-mills", like
Nucor
Nucor Corporation is an American producer of steel and related products based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the largest steel producer in the United States, the largest "mini-mill" steelmaker (i.e. it uses electric arc furnaces to melt s ...
Steel and its facility in Crawfordsville, Indiana, are non-union shops not represented by the United Steelworkers.
Origins and history
![United Steelworkers Building2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/United_Steelworkers_Building2.jpg)
The USW was established May 22, 1942, in Cleveland, Ohio, through the
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) by a convention of representatives from the
Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers and the
Steel Workers Organizing Committee The Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) was one of two precursor labor organizations to the United Steelworkers. It was formed by the CIO ( Committee for Industrial Organization) on June 7, 1936. It disbanded in 1942 to become the United Stee ...
, after almost six years of divisive struggles to create a new union of steelworkers. The drive to create this union included such violent incidents as the infamous
Memorial Day
Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...
, 1937, when
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
policemen supporting the rival
American Federation of Labor (AFL) fired on workers outside a
Republic Steel
Republic Steel is an American steel manufacturer that was once the country's third largest steel producer. It was founded as the Republic Iron and Steel Company in Youngstown, Ohio in 1899. After rising to prominence during the early 20th Centu ...
mill and killed 10 men.
The founder and first president of the USW,
Philip Murray
Philip Murray (May 25, 1886 – November 9, 1952) was a Scottish-born steelworker and an American labor leader. He was the first president of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC), the first president of the United Steelworkers o ...
, led the union through its first organizing drives and its first decade, when the workers of USW went on strike several times to win the right to
bargain collectively with steel companies.
Significant job actions of the USW include the
1952 steel strike
The 1952 steel strike was a strike by the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) against U.S. Steel (USS) and nine other steelmakers. The strike was scheduled to begin on April 9, 1952, but US President Harry Truman nationalized the American st ...
, the
steel strike of 1959, the
1974 Elliot Lake miners strike
The Elliot Lake Miners Strike was a wildcat strike by approximately 1,000 uranium miners who worked at Denison uranium mine in the Elliot Lake area of Ontario, Canada. The strike was the first time that Canadian workers had taken industrial actio ...
, and the
steel strike of 1986 About 22,000 employees of major American steel manufacturer USX stopped work from August 1, 1986 to January 31, 1987 after the United Steelworkers of America and the company failed to agree on new employee contract terms. The event was characteriz ...
.
Growth of the union
The 46,000 members of the
Aluminum Workers of America voted to merge with the budding steelworker union that was the USW in June 1944. Eventually, eight more unions joined the USW as well: the
International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (1967); the
United Stone and Allied Product Workers of America (1971);
International Union of District 50, Allied and Technical Workers of the United States and Canada (1972); the
Upholsterers International Union of North America
The Upholsterers International Union of North America (called the UIU or UIUNA) was a North American labor union of upholsterers. It was founded in 1892 when eight small met at a conference in Chicago and agreed to combine. It affiliated with t ...
(1985); the
United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America (URW) (1995); the
Aluminum, Brick and Glass Workers Union (ABG) (1996); the Canadian Division of the
Transportation Communications International Union (1999); and the
American Flint Glass Workers' Union (AFGWU) (2003).
In June 2004, the USW announced a merger with the 57,000 member
Industrial, Wood and Allied Workers of Canada (IWA Canada), a major Canadian
forestry
Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. ...
workers union. In 2005 it then announced an even larger merger with the
(PACE). The resulting new union adopted its current name after the PACE merger.
In September 2006, the Independent Oil Workers Union of Aruba, which represents refinery workers on the
Caribbean island of
Aruba, affiliated with the United Steelworkers, becoming the first USW union local outside of the US (including
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
and the
US Virgin Islands
The United States Virgin Islands,. Also called the ''American Virgin Islands'' and the ''U.S. Virgin Islands''. officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory ...
) and Canada.
[''USW@Work'', Volume 1/5, p. 27 (Fall 2006).]
In April 2007, the USW also merged with the Independent Steelworkers Union, adding 1,150 members at
Arcelor-Mittal's Weirton, West Virginia
Weirton () is a city in Brooke and Hancock counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located primarily in Hancock County, the city lies in the northern portions of the state's Northern Panhandle region. As of the 2020 census, the city's pop ...
steel mill.
[One Strong Voice: USW, Weirton Independent Union Sign Merger Agreement](_blank)
USW, April 2007 .
Strategic alliances
In addition to mergers, the USW has also formed strategic alliances with several other unions as well as other groups. In April 2005, the USW and the
Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) announced that they had formed a strategic alliance to take on the globalization of the culture industry and to address a range of common issues.
In July 2006, the USW announced a similar arrangement with the
United Transportation Union
The United Transportation Union (UTU) was a broad-based, transportation labor union that represented about 70,000 active and retired railroad, bus, mass transit, and airline workers in the United States. The UTU was headquartered in Cleveland, ...
(UTU), to address common issues in the transportation industry, including the globalization of the industry.
[United Transportation Union Signs Strategic Alliance with United Steelworkers](_blank)
(July 2006) In July 2007, the USW inked yet another strategic alliance with the Canadian Region of the
Communications Workers of America
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States, representing about 700,000 members in both the private and public sectors (also in Canada and Puerto Rico). The union has 27 l ...
.
[Steelworkers and Communications Workers Sign Strategic Alliance](_blank)
, USW, July 17, 2007.
Beyond its affiliations with other unions, in June 2006, the USW announced the formation of a 'Blue-Green Alliance' with the
Sierra Club, with the goal of pursuing a joint public policy agenda.
[Sierra Club, United Steelworkers Announce ‘Blue-Green Alliance’](_blank)
(June 2006)
In October 2009, the USW announced a framework for collaboration between US and Canadian Steelworkers with
Mondragon Internacional, S.A., the world's largest federation of
worker cooperative
A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which management is elected by ...
s.
2008 transoceanic merger
In April 2007,
Amicus, then the United Kingdom's second-largest trade union, began discussions with the USW about a possible merger.
[BBC announces start of discussions with UK trade union Amicus](_blank)
(April 2007) Amicus subsequently merged with the British
Transport and General Workers Union
The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate its ...
to form the new union Unite. Unite and the USW continued the merger talks initiated by Amicus.
In May 2008, the unions announced that they were putting the "finishing touches" on the merger, that the merger had been endorsed by Unite officials, and that the USW would discuss the plan at its forthcoming convention in July. Once completed, the new merged entity would represent more than 3 million workers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
and the Caribbean. The unions have further announced that the new entity would target further mergers with labor groups in
Australia and in the emerging economies of
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
,
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
and
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
.
[Bill Toland]
"USW, Brits near creation of 'super' union,"
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 28, 2008. On July 2, 2008, USW and Unite leadership formally signed the merger agreement to create the new entity, to be called Workers Uniting.
[Steven Greenhouse]
New York Times, July 3, 2008.
American politics
2006 midterm elections
In the 2006 election, the USW led a massive political mobilization program that eventually grew to include 350 full-time political organizers in 26 states, a majority of whom were rank and file USW members who took time from work to organize their communities and educate fellow union members. The USW turned out some 5,000 USW volunteers on Election Day, including over 1,000 each in the key states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Exit polls suggested union families made up 23 percent of the total vote and supported Democratic candidates by a substantial 32 percent margin, 65 percent to 33 percent. Based on these numbers, the United Steelworkers, in conjunction with the rest of the labor movement, took substantial credit for the eventual Democratic victory.
[Press Release]
"Unprecedented USW Voter Turnout Effort Highlighted Trade and Economy,"
November 8, 2006.
2008 presidential election
In May 2008, the USW announced its endorsement of
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
's presidential campaign for president by way of Sen.
John Edwards
Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 alongside John Kerry, losing to incumbents George ...
's endorsement.
[Press Release]
"United Steelworkers Endorse Senator Barack Obama for President,"
May 15, 2008.
2012 presidential election
On March 6, 2012, the USW endorsed President Obama's reelection.
[Press Release]
"Steelworkers Endorse Barack Obama for Re-election as President,"
March 6, 2012.
2016 presidential election
On June 9, 2016, the USW endorsed Hillary Clinton for President.
2020 presidential election
On May 20, 2020, the USW endorsed
Joe Biden for President.
Canadian politics
The United Steelworkers was a founding partner of the
New Democratic Party and continues to be an affiliated union.
Philanthropy
The USW has contributed to various charitable and philanthropic causes since its creation. The USW has enthusiastically supported
The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential
The Institutes for The Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP), founded in 1955 by Glenn Doman and Carl Delacato, provide literature on and teaches a controversial patterning therapy (motor learning), which the Institutes promote as improving the "n ...
(IAHP), a nonprofit organization that works with brain-injured children. The USW has hosted the IAHP's founder, Glenn Doman, at their annual convention. The USW has also held fundraising events for the
Make-A-Wish Foundation
The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in the United States that helps fulfill the wishes of children with a critical illness between the ages of and 18 years old.
Make-A-Wish was founded in 1980 and headqu ...
and
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is a cancer research and treatment center located in Buffalo, New York. Founded by surgeon Roswell Park in 1898, the center was the first in the United States to specifically focus on cancer research. The ...
. The USW has consistently stated that such charitable causes are important to its mission.
Presidents
The presidents of the United Steelworkers are:
*
Philip Murray
Philip Murray (May 25, 1886 – November 9, 1952) was a Scottish-born steelworker and an American labor leader. He was the first president of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC), the first president of the United Steelworkers o ...
, 1942–1952
*
David J. McDonald, 1952–1965
*
I. W. Abel, 1965–1977
*
Lloyd McBride
Lloyd McBride (March 16, 1916 – November 6, 1983) was an American labor leader and president of the United Steelworkers of America from 1977 to 1983.
Early life and union work
McBride was born in Farmington, Missouri, in 1916. His father was ...
, 1977–1983
*
Lynn R. Williams
Lynn Russell Williams (July 21, 1924 – May 5, 2014) was a Canadian labour leader best remembered as the International President of the United Steelworkers union (USW) from 1983 until his retirement in 1994. Williams was the first Canadian to h ...
, 1983–1994
*
George Becker, 1994–2001
*
Leo Gerard
Leo W. Gerard (born 1947) is a retired steelworker and Canadian and American labor leader. He was elected president of the United Steelworkers (USW) in 2001, becoming the second Canadian to head the union. He served in the role until July 2019. H ...
, 2001–2019
*
Tom Conway
Tom Conway (born Thomas Charles Sanders, 15 September 1904 – 22 April 1967) was a British film, television, and radio actor remembered for playing private detectives (including The Falcon, Sherlock Holmes, Bulldog Drummond, and The Saint) ...
, 2019–present
See also
*
Arthur Goldberg
Arthur Joseph Goldberg (August 8, 1908January 19, 1990) was an American statesman and jurist who served as the 9th U.S. Secretary of Labor, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the 6th United States Ambassador to ...
, general counsel of the USW and later a US Supreme Court associate justice
*
Bernard Kleiman, general counsel of USW from 1965 to 1997
References
Further reading
* Bodnar, John (1977).
Immigration and Industrialization: Ethnicity in an American Mill Town, 1870-1940'.
* Brody, David (1965).
Labor in Crisis: The Steel Strike of 1919'.
* Caballero, Mary Hull (Spring 2006)
"Interview with Leo Gerard" ''
The Heinz Journal
The Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, often called Heinz College, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a private graduate college that consists of one of the nation's top-ranked public policy schools†...
''.
* Catano, James V. (2001).
Ragged Dicks: Masculinity, Steel, and the Rhetoric of the Self-Made Man'.
Early History of the United Steelworkers*Scamehorn, H. Lee (1992). Mill & Mine: The Cf&I in the Twentieth Century. Colorado Steel Company.
*
*
*
Warne, Colston E., ed. (1963). ''The Steel Strike of 1919'' (primary and secondary documents).
External links
*
{{Authority control
AFL–CIO
Canadian Labour Congress
International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions
International Metalworkers' Federation
General unions
Trade unions established in 1942
1942 establishments in Ohio
Trade unions in Canada