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Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers (USW - United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union) is in his second full term since being elected in 2005.
The USW, the largest manufacturing union in North America,represents 1.2 million active and retired industrial and service sector workers in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Under Leo's leadership, the USW's executive board launched a nationwide mobilization to gain congressional support for health insurance reform, the Employee Free Choice Act, the economic stimulus bill that includes a 'Buy American' provision to promote job creation, and climate protection legislation that serves working families.
In 2008, he signed a merger agreement creating the first trans-Atlantic union with leaders of the UK-based manufacturing union called Unite. The new global union, 'Workers Uniting' (www.workersuniting.org), is a fully functional and registered trade union in the UK, U.S., Ireland and Canada.
He serves on the AFL-CIO's Executive Council (www.aflcioi.org), where he chairs the AFL-CIO's Public Policy Committee. He serves on the U.S. National Commission on Energy Policy, and is a charter board member of the Apollo Alliance (www.apolloalliance.org), a non-profit public policy initiative for creating good jobs in pursuit of energy independence.
Gerard is a founding partner in 2006 with the Sierra Club of the Blue Green Alliance (www.bluegreenalliance.org), which today includes the Natural Resources Defense Council and four other unions dedicated to expanding jobs in the green economy. He also helped create the Washington-based Alliance for American Manufacturing (www.americanmanufacturing.org), a unique non-partisan, non-profit partnership forged to strengthen manufacturing in the U.S. that's made up of America's leading manufacturers and the USW.
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Friday, June 28, 2019NAFTA By Any Name Is Built For The Rich That, right there, is the problem with NAFTA, old and new. One percenters like Mulvaney, self-dealing corporate honchos and fancy-pants corporate lobbyists negotiated the deals. Those fat cats claimed they spoke for labor. But when they opened their mouths, only the word profit emerged. They didn't give a damn about jobs or wages or workers' welfare.
Sunday, May 26, 2019Beware Billionaires Bearing Gifts There's a new Koch organization in town. Instead of trying to buy politicians to do the bidding of billionaires, as Charles and David Koch have historically done, this foundation will support community groups trying to cure the miseries of eons -- everything from poverty to addiction.
Monday, May 6, 2019The Untold Story of Trump's "Booming" Economy Americans are not happy, and for good reason: They continue to suffer financial stress caused by decades of flat income. And every time they make the slightest peep of complaint about a system rigged against them, the rich and powerful tell them to shut up because it is all their fault. Work harder, pull themselves up by their bootstraps and stop bellyaching.
Saturday, April 20, 2019Amazon -- and 56 Other Corporations -- Took Your Tax Dollars Bad things happen when corporations shirk their obligations. One is that workers end up bearing more of the cost. Last year, individual taxpayers provided more than half of federal income tax revenue and corporations contributed only 7 percent. Just four years ago, corporations accounted for 11 percent and individual taxpayers 47 percent.
Saturday, March 30, 2019Republicans on Health Care: Do Vast Harm Barr is not an outlier. He is the face of a Republican Party that has done everything in its power to rob Americans of ACA benefits every minute of the nine years that the law has existed. GOP governors have vetoed the ACA extension of Medicaid, denying insurance to millions of low-income working people. When the U.S. House was controlled by the GOP, it voted more than 50 times to repeal all or parts of the ACA.
Friday, March 22, 2019How Billionaires Are Using Hate to Divide Us The goal of brotherhood and sisterhood among all workers is a noble one that must be strived for. We all sweat together to support ourselves and our families. We all come to each other's aid when a fellow worker's home burns down or child falls ill. We stand shoulder to shoulder to demand a just portion of the profits created by our labor.
Friday, March 15, 2019Of Course College Admissions Rigged for the Rich. The Whole Economic System Is The children of working stiffs learned a brutal lesson this week as federal prosecutors criminally charged rich people with buying admission to elite universities for their less-than-stellar children. The lesson is that no matter how hard you work, no matter how smart or talented you are, a dumb, lazy rich kid is going to beat you.
Friday, March 8, 2019Why It Takes Pressure and Rabble-Rousing From Workers to Retire With Economic Security multiemployer pension plans are foundering not because of something workers did or didn't do. It's not even because of something the employers did or didn't do. In most cases, they were blown away by a storm of factors including globalization, manufacturing mechanization, and financial deregulation and speculation that caused the Great Recession, which, in turn, cost pension plans untold billions.
Saturday, January 12, 2019Tax Dollars Can Buy Happiness In capitalist America, where there are summer homes and pleasure boats for the wealthy, there is no rest for the weary and worried. The rich and corporations get massive tax breaks, and the 99 percent? Well, they get stagnant wages, growing bills and constant angst.
Thursday, November 22, 2018Labor's Challenge to the New Democrats in Congress Lamb is an exception. Far too many so-called representatives of the people forget the working men and women who volunteered their valuable time to canvass and call and convince for them. They respond only to the demands of CEOs and Wall Street fat cats. Captured by big money, they neglect their roots, renege on their promises, obstruct organized labor.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018The Best Way to Get Voters to Vote Kemp and his vote-stifling cohorts are upending the goal of a representative democracy. In a democratic republic, voters choose their representatives -- not the other way around. Republicans are defiling America's promise of self-governance by erecting obstacles to the ballot. To be great, America must clear the path to the polls, perhaps even mandating voting like Australia. There, turnout is more than 90 percent.
Thursday, July 12, 2018Billionaire Wolves in Workers' Clothing Union members are talking to union members about the value of sticking with the union. Members of the AFT are meeting one-on-one with teachers in 10 states, asking them to sign cards recommitting themselves to the union. They've got 530,000 so far, and are working toward the full 1.7 million members.
Sunday, June 24, 2018A Shining "City On a Hill" Must Treat Immigrants Humanely By signing an executive order ending forced separation of immigrant families, President Donald Trump has admitted that this cruel practice was his administration's policy and that he could have stopped it at any time. A nation of immigrants bears an obligation to do better. To be that shining city on the hill, the United States must do better.
Tuesday, June 19, 2018Where's that $4,000 Raise the GOP Promised Workers? The GOP's tax cut will add $1 trillion to the national debt. Even before passing the tax cut legislation, Republican leaders like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan began saying that workers would have to pay those costs in the form of cuts to cherished safety net programs, that is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Saturday, May 26, 2018Trade Negotiations Require a Steel Spine The first concern of a U.S. president should be the millions of jobs Americans lost because of China's predatory trade practices. On the campaign trail, candidate Trump told workers he cared and that he alone could fix it. Mnuchin did not fix it. He made matters worse by relinquishing America's leverage in exchange for nothing.
Thursday, April 12, 2018GOP Tax Cut Fraud: "It'll Pay for Itself" Privately, Republicans are the party of glee over deficits. That's because they use them as an excuse to slash and burn programs cherished by the vast majority of Americans such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Yes, Grandma, that tax cut Republicans gave to fat cats means you'll be eating cat food.
Monday, April 9, 2018Deep and Abiding Disrespect for Teachers Parents, communities and educators in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arizona know that tax-cutting, labor-hating Republican politicians are to blame for the school disruptions. These four states are among the lowest-paying in the nation. West Virginia was 45th when it granted striking teachers a 5 percent raise in February. Oklahoma is dead last.
Sunday, March 18, 2018Labor Organizes a Congressional Win Lamb's priorities are labor's priorities, including supporting a federal infrastructure bill, pushing legislation to buttress coal miners' underfunded pensions, and defending workers' right to organize and collectively bargain for better pay and working conditions.
Tuesday, March 6, 2018U.S. Aluminum and Steel Workers are an Endangered Species The United States could capitulate and simply allow China to seize the entire world market. Or it could do what the Trump administration announced this week -- impose tariffs intended to stop China from illegally subsidizing its exported metals and transshipping them. The tariffs give U.S. aluminum and steel producers time to recover.
Friday, February 16, 2018Trump's Big Infrastructure Con Candidate Trump boasted that he would double what his opponent Hillary Clinton said she'd spend on infrastructure. But the scheme released by the Trump administration this week not only fails to do that, it would rob vital and cherished social safety net programs to pay for a pittance of improvements. It is nothing but a con.
