USW Delegation of 50 to Advocate Value of Collective Action During Today’s White House Working Families Summit

Contact: Gary Hubbard (202) 778-4384; (202) 256-8125; ghubbard@usw.org

Elva2Washington, D.C. (Jun. 23, 2014) – A delegation of 50 workers represented by the United Steelworkers (USW) today joined other AFL-CIO represented members at the White House Summit on Working Families held with President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Biden, and Dr. Jill Biden at the Omni Hotel.

The broad coalition of more than 250 activists, particularly women, will focus at the forum on the challenges facing working families to raise awareness and mobilize support for collective action as a solution to the challenges facing the nation’s working women, from equal pay to raising the minimum wage to sick leave and fair workplace scheduling.

USW President Leo W. Gerard mobilized participants among his union’s programs from ‘Woman of Steel’ and ‘Next-Gen’ to be at the national forum for a successful discussion. He said: “Through collective advocacy, we’ve helped enact policies that give women equal opportunities as breadwinners, and low-wage workers a better deal with a higher minimum wage, but collective action with a union contract is the best way to help all working families.”

The participants, representing millions of workers across the country, will attend the summit along with AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler, who will speak at one of several panels featured in the day-long event.

katelin simsAdvocating the Working Families Summit as a national conversation, the White House is encouraging union members and their families to tune-in to the proceedings that begin at 9:00 am, EDT at: www.WorkingFamiliesSummit.org/.

The White House says the modern family looks different than it has before. More parents are working, and nearly a third of families with children are single-parent families.

USW participating members all cite the value of collective action for strong union contracts that provide workplace standards not guaranteed in non-union employment for working family benefits.

Among those at the summit are:

Tiffaney Lewis, a clerical worker of USW Local 3267 at Evraz Steel in Pueblo, CO, who says: “Being in a union means that I can walk into my plant every day and know that as a woman, I will earn equal pay.”

Another USW member at the national summit, Katelin Sims of Hannibal, MO, is a USW Local 205 laborer at Continental Cement Co. As a wife and mother of three, she states: “The union contract provides me with fair wages, healthcare coverage, a safe working environment, a retirement plan, job security and my union gives me a voice in the workplace.”

tiffany lewisAlso at the event as a former single mother and Ohio public employee of the Lorain City Utilities Dept., is USW Local 6621’s Elva Martes. She relates: “Belonging to a union at a young age gave me the opportunity to provide for my daughter with paid sick time, vacation time and equal pay.”

The Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR) is out with a new study on women, working families and unions. The study concludes that unionized women are 36 percent more likely than non-union women to receive health-insurance benefits through their job; and are

53 percent more likely than non-union women to participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan.  

The study found that “firms with a union presence were 22 percent more likely to allow workers to take parental leave for a new child, 16 percent more likely to allow workers to take medical leave for their own illness, 12 percent more likely to allow workers to take medical leave for pregnancy, and 19 percent more likely to allow workers to take medical leave to care for a family member. Click Here for a copy of the CEPR study.

The USW is the largest private-sector union in North America, representing 850,000 workers employed in metals, mining, rubber, paper and forestry, oil refining and renewable energy products, chemicals, health care, and municipal governments. For more: www.usw.org/.

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