United Steelworkers of America. District 36G

The Committee for Industrial Organization was founded in 1935 within the American Federation of Labor as a means of gaining new union members in a changing economy. The Steelworkers Organizing Committee was formed in 1936 as the body that would specifically target the organization of steelworkers. After a successful organizing campaign, the United Steelworkers of America was founded in 1942 at a meeting between SWOC and the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers. The union became a member of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which was created in opposition of the AFL. District 10 of the USWA represents workers in locals throughout Pennsylvania.

The United Steelworkers of America (USA) District 35, Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., covers the states of Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. Prior to the merger in 1955, District 35 existed as a CIO steelworker's region. In 1972, District 50 of the United Mine Workers of America and District 30 formally aligned. District 35 represents the interests of organized labor in the six state region through grievance and arbitration procedure, collective bargaining, and political education.

District 36G of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), based in Tampa, Florida, coordinated activities of USWA local unions in the Gulf States organizing area.

The United Steelworkers of America, District 28 (f. 1942), is an AFL-CIO organization of steelworkers' locals in the Cleveland, Ohio, area (including Lorain and Akron). The earliest Cleveland steelworkers' unions date to the late 1870s with the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers, which was active locally until 1892. Attempts to organize steel industry-wide, most notably in 1919, failed until the late 1930s. The Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) formed in 1936 and in the spring of 1937 was recognized by United States Steel. Refusal by smaller corporations, particularly Republic Steel, to recognize the union led to the Little Steel Strike in 1937 and delayed organization of half the steel workforce until 1942. In May 1942, 1,700 representatives of SWOC met at Public Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, to officially form the United Steelworkers of America. Organizers in District 28 included James C. Quinn, Dave and Alex Balint, James C. Adams, Mike Yanak, Jack Ferline, and William Donovan. Donovan was district director until 1953 and purged the union of leftist influence, expelling the Balint brothers in the process. He also worked to put down a series of wildcat strikes that plagued the union in the 1940s. The union led major strikes in 1956 and 1959, the latter lasting 116 days. From 1981 to 1985 membership in District 28 fell from 47,000 to 26,000. The decline in the steel industry led the United Steelworkers of America to fight a defensive battle for job security and wage maintenance as in a 1986 strike in Lorain.

click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for the United Steelworkers of America