United Steelworkers (2005-)

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, 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 metals, paper, chemicals, glass, rubber, heavy-duty conveyor belting, tires, transportation, utilities, container industries, pharmaceuticals, call centers and health care.
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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, 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, 1937, when Chicago policemen supporting the rival American Federation of Labor (AFL) fired on workers outside a Republic Steel mill and killed 10 men.[2]

The founder and first president of the USW, Philip Murray, 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 steel strike of 1959, the 1974 Elliot Lake miners strike, and the steel strike of 1986.
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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 (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 workers union. In 2005 it then announced an even larger merger with the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (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 and the US Virgin Islands) and Canada.[4]

In April 2007, the USW also merged with the Independent Steelworkers Union, adding 1,150 members at Arcelor-Mittal's Weirton, West Virginia steel mill.[5]

n 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.[6] In July 2006, the USW announced a similar arrangement with the United Transportation Union (UTU), to address common issues in the transportation industry, including the globalization of the industry.[7] In July 2007, the USW inked yet another strategic alliance with the Canadian Region of the Communications Workers of America.[8]

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.[9]

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 cooperatives.[10]

In April 2007, Amicus, then the United Kingdom's second-largest trade union, began discussions with the USW about a possible merger.[11] Amicus subsequently merged with the British Transport and General Workers Union 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 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, Latin America and Eastern Europe.[12] On July 2, 2008, USW and Unite leadership formally signed the merger agreement to create the new entity, to be called Workers Uniting.[13]

The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) was a trade union in the United States which existed between 1917 and 1999.
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The union was first originally established as the International Association of Oil Field, Gas Well, and Refinery Workers of America in 1918 after a major workers' strike in the Texas oil fields in late 1917, which led to numerous mortalities.[2] It affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) when they granted the occurrence of local unions of oil workers at a convention held in El Paso, TX and officially set up the international union for oil workers in 1918.[3] Beginning with only 25 members, the newly established union underwent much success in the first few years of establishment. In just a few years they were already organizing and negotiating well thought out contacts that would affect thousands of oil workers in only three states California, Texas, and Oklahoma.
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n 1937, the union changed its name to the Oil Workers International Union (OWIU).[3] The union was one of the first that affiliated with the Committee for Industrial Organization in early 1938, and AFL President William Green revoked the union's AFL charter.
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Similar to that of the OWIU, the UGCCWA began as the United Mine Workers of America. The main purpose of the UMA was to unite workers in industries related to coke and artificial gas production, which used coke as a fuel.
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Oil Workers International Union (OWIU) and the United Gas, Coke, and Chemical Workers of America (UGCCWA) merged on March 4, 1955 to form the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW).[4] When the AFL and CIO merged in 1955, so did the two oil workers' unions.[6][9][10] In 1956, after only one year of the merge, OCAW represented approximately 210,000 workers. During this time, it represented more workers than any other union in the oil and chemical field.
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OCAW finally merged with the 250,000-member United Paperworkers International Union on January 4, 1999, to form the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE).[1][15]
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PACE merged with the United Steelworkers in 2005 to form the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union (although the merged union is still more commonly known as the United Steelworkers).[17]

The United Paperworkers' International Union (UPIU) was a labor union representing workers involved in making paper, and later various industrial workers, in the United States and Canada.

The union was founded on August 9, 1972, when the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers merged with the United Papermakers and Paperworkers.[1] Like both its predecessors, it was chartered by the AFL–CIO. On formation, the union had 389,000 members.[2]

In 1978, Joseph Tonelli, the union's president, was indicted on a charge of embezzling $360,000 of union money.[3]

The Independent Workers of North America union merged into the UPIU in 1991,[4] followed in 1994 by the Allied Industrial Workers of America. On January 4, 1999, the union merged with the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union, to form the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union.[1]

The United Papermakers and Paperworkers (UPP) was a labor union representing workers involved in manufacturing paper in the United States and Canada.

The union was established on March 6, 1957, when the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers merged with the United Paperworkers of America. Like both its predecessors, it was chartered by the AFL–CIO.[1] On formation, it had 130,000 members.[2]

In 1959, the American Wire Weavers' Protective Association merged into the UPP, but it split away again in 1964. In 1972, the union merged with the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite, and Paper Mill Workers, to form the United Paperworkers' International Union.[1]

The International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite, and Paper Mill Workers (IBPSPMW) was a labor union representing workers involved in making paper in the United States and Canada.

The union was founded on January 6, 1906, as a split from the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers. In 1909, it was chartered by the American Federation of Labor. By 1926, it had 10,000 members.[1][2]

The union was affiliated to the AFL–CIO from 1955 and by 1957 it had grown to have 165,000 members.[3] In 1958, it absorbed the United Wall Paper Craftsmen of North America.[1] However, in 1964, many of its West Coast members left to form the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers.[4] On 9 August, 1972, the union merged with the United Papermakers and Paperworkers, to form the United Paperworkers' International Union.[1]

The International Brotherhood of Paper Makers (IBPM) was a labor union representing workers involved in making paper in the United States, Canada and Newfoundland.

The union originated in 1884 as a social club, in Holyoke, Massachusetts. On May 19, 1893, it was chartered by the American Federation of Labor as an international union. Originally named the United Brotherhood of Papermakers, it added "of America" to its name in 1897. In 1898, machine tenders left the union, to form the International Paper Machine Tenders' Union. This rejoined in 1902, when the union renamed itself as the IBPM. Initially, the union also represented pulp and sulphite workers, but they split away in 1906, to form the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite, and Paper Mill Workers.[1][2]

By 1926, the union had 7,000 members.[3] This figure grew rapidly, and by 1953, it had 208,189 members.[4] From 1955, it was affiliated to the AFL–CIO, and in 1957, it merged with the United Paperworkers of America, to form the United Papermakers and Paperworkers.[5]

The United Paperworkers of America (UPA) was a labor union representing workers involved in making paper in the United States.

The union's origins lay in the United Paper, Novelty, and Toy Workers' International Union, which was affiliated to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). On January 1, 1944, the CIO spun the paper workers' section off from its parent union, as the Paper Workers' Organizing Committee. On October 27, 1947, this was re-chartered as the UPA.[1] By 1953, the union had 50,000 members.[2]

In 1955, the CIO became part of the AFL–CIO, and on March 6, 1957, the UPA merged with the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers, to form the United Papermakers and Paperworkers.[3]

The union was led by president Harry Sayre.

The Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) was an international union that represented workers in the United States and Canada. PACE was founded on January 4, 1999, by the merger of the United Paperworkers' International Union with the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union.

Like all labor unions, PACE fought for rights, wage raises, and improvement of working conditions for workers in such fields as: the paper industry, the oil industry, chemicals, nuclear materials, pharmaceuticals, automobile parts, motorcycles, tissues, toys, cement, corn sugar, etc.

On January 11, 2005, the union announced a merger with the United Steel Workers of America. The new union, with 860,000 active members in the United States and Canada, is the largest industrial labor union in North America. The union is known as the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union, abbreviated as the "United Steelworkers" or by the acronym USW.

Throughout its existence, the union was led by president Boyd Young.[1]