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1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
June 17, 1936 - Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) forms.
March 7, 1937 - Union signs first contract, with Carnegie-Illinois Steel, for $5 a day wage and benefits.
May 1937 - "Little Steel" strike, called to organize workers at Bethlehem, Jones & Laughlin, National and other companies, results in police riots, attacks on workers by company guards and other hardship for steelworkers, yet ultimately leads to successful organization of these companies and confirms validity of the National Labor Relations Act.
May 22, 1942 - Delegates to SWOC convention in Cleveland create United Steelworkers of America and elect Philip Murray, chairman of SWOC, as first USWA President.
June 30, 1942 - Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel & Tin Workers merges with USWA.
June 30, 1944 - Aluminum Workers of America merges with USWA.
February 13, 1945 - USWA holds first secret-ballot referendum for international officers, district directors, and national director for Canada. Murray elected USWA president.
October 2, 1946 - Steelworkers in Hamilton, Ontario, win historic strike for union recognition at Steel Company of Canada (now Stelco), using solidarity, organization, and political and community support to overcome more than 1,000 company scabs and firmly establish the USWA as the predominant union in Hamilton.
October 31, 1949 - USWA wins first company-funded pension plan for workers in contract with Bethlehem Steel.
November 9, 1952 - Philip Murray dies of a heart attack.
November 15, 1952 - David J. McDonald, International Secretary-Treasurer, is appointed to succeed Murray.
July 1, 1956 - Start off our-week "Big Steel Strike."
1957-1966 - The long struggle to establish the Steelworkers as the union for miners at the Noranda-owned Gaspe Copper Mine in Murdochville, Quebec. The mine and smelter were closed by 2002, effectively turning Murdochville into a ghost town.
July 15, 1959 - Start of record 1l6-day steel industry strike.
July 31, 1961 - Steelworkers join other trade unionists to help create New Democratic Party (NDP) in Canada.
July 1, 1962 - NDP government in Saskatchewan enacts Medical Insurance Act, the beginning of universal health care in Canada.
February 6, 1965 - I.W. Abel elected USWA President.
June 30, 1967 - International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers merges with USWA.
December 20, 1970 - Occupational Safety and Health Act, lobbied for by USWA, becomes law.
January 1, 1971 - United Stone and Allied Products Workers of America merges with USWA.
September 17, 1972 - District 50, Allied and Technical Workers, merges with USWA.
Labor Day, 1974 - USWA-promoted Employee Retiree Income Security Act (ERISA) becomes law.
February 8, 1977 - Lloyd McBride elected USWA President.
November 17, 1983 - Lynn R. Williams elected temporary acting president following death of Lloyd McBride.
March 29, 1984 - Lynn R. Williams elected USWA President, the first Canadian to head an international AFL-CIO union.
October 31, 1985 - Upholsterers International Union merges with USWA.
June 1992 - Restructuring of Algoma Steel creates the largest employee-owned company in Canada, saving 6,000 jobs and the community of Sault Ste. Marie, and leading to the modernization of a company that continues to employ thousands of Steelworkers and serves as the economic anchor of its community.
June 29, 1992 - West Virginia aluminum workers at Ravenswood Aluminum Company march back to work in unity after a successful international campaign ends a 20-month lockout with a fair union contract.
January 5, 1993 - Basic Steel Industry Conference adopts "New Directions" bargaining policy leading to agreements with major steel companies winning employment security, worker involvement and board representation.
November 23, 1993 - George Becker elected as sixth International President.
June 1, 1995 - In a sweeping restructuring of the union, the number of USWA districts in the United States is reduced from i8 to nine.
July 1, 1995 - In a special United Rubber Workers' convention, delegates vote to merge their 98,000-member union with the USWA.
October 18, 1995 - The 1,700 Steelworkers at WCI Steel in Warren, Ohio, win agreement after a seven-week strike.
February 2, 1996 - USWA's International Wage Policy Committee and Basic Steel Industry Conference adopt strong bargaining policy stating: "America needs a raise, and Steelworkers are no exception."
February 1996 - Union begins training local union members to mobilize the "Rapid Response" political action program.
May 31, 1996 - Contract agreements with Alcoa and Reynolds bring the USWA's "New Directions" bargaining principles into the aluminum industry.
June 6, 1996 - Steelworkers at Phelps Dodge's Chino mine save their union by defeating a decertification bid by the company.
August 27, 1996 - Contract agreement with Northwestern Steel & Wire wins neutrality and card-check recognition of the union at NS&W's plant in Hickman, Ky.
September 23, 1996 - After standing firm during a 42-month strike, Steelworkers at Bayou Steel in Louisiana win a new contract and oust scabs who had taken their jobs.
November 4, 1996 - Capping a worldwide struggle that lasted two years, three months and 24 days after United Rubber Workers struck Bridgestone/Firestone, the union wins a settlement covering 6,000 members at seven B/F plants.
December 17, 1996 - Delegates representing 40,000 members of the Aluminum, Brick & Glass Workers vote to merge with USWA.
May 8, 1997 - Agreement with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company following an 18-day strike establishes new pattern for U.S. tire industry, extended to Sumitomo/Dunlop, Yokohama and Pirelli in other 1997 negotiations.
August 1, 1997 - Ten-month strike against Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel wins agreement guaranteeing defined-benefit pensions for 4,500 Steelworkers.
November 7, 1997 - Lobbying blitz by 600 Steelworkers, following Rapid Response barrage of 160,000 letters to Congress, helps defeat "Fast Track" trade legislation.
April 1998 - Canadian Steelworkers, backed by 40 labour and human rights groups, file first-ever complaint under NAFTA's labour side agreement, supporting the attempt by an independent Mexican steelworkers union to organize a brake manufacturing plant near Mexico City.
September 10, 1998 - "Stand Up for Steel" coalition of domestic steel companies and the USWA launches nationwide public awareness campaign about the dangers of massive illegal steel imports triggered by the Asian financial crisis.
May 1999 - Ken Georgetti, a Steelworker from Local 480 in Trail, BC, is elected president of the two-million member Canadian Labour Congress (CLC).
July 31, 1999 - The Great Shipyard Strike of 1999 ends after Steelworkers at Newport News Shipbuilding ratify a breakthrough agreement which nearly doubles pensions, increases security, ends inequality, and provides the highest wage increases in company and industry history to nearly 10,000 workers at the yard.
September 18, 1999 - Longest illegal lockout in U.S. labor history ends when arbitrator orders a new contract at five Kaiser Aluminum plants.
September 19, 1999 - Successful one-year strike at Continental-General Tire in Charlotte, N.C., concludes union campaign to restore pattern bargaining in the top tier of the U.S. tire industry.
November 28, 1999 - Massive Steelworker participation in the "Battle of Seattle" helps to establish labor-environmental alliance against "globalization in the hands of multinational CEOs," which President George Becker says is "destroying millions of industrial jobs, degrading the environment, and undermining our basic rights as workers and citizens."
January 11, 2000 - More than 4,000 administrative and technical support staff at the University of Toronto ratifies their first collective agreement as members of United Steelworkers Local 1998, expanding the benefits of Steelworker representation to workers in higher education with the largest single organizing victory in years. Two years later, on February 12, 2002, Local 4120 is chartered at the University of Guelph, bringing the number of university employees represented by the Steelworkers to more than 5,000.
February 1, 2000 - Charter issued to Local 1976, a 5,000-member national local, following the merger of the Canadian section of the former Transportation Communications Union with the USWA.
June 2000 - Steelworker activists hit Parliament Hill with the first two weeks of intensive lobbying and meeting as part of a long-term campaign to gain changes to Canada's Criminal Code that would hold corporate executives and directors accountable for workplace deaths.
September 21, 2000 - Overwhelming ratification of new agreements at nine Bridgestone/Firestone plants consolidates the restoration of pattern bargaining in the U.S. tire industry.
September 29, 2000 - USWA members at the Southwire aluminum smelter in Hawesville, Ky., overwhelmingly approve their first contract following a 27-month unfair labor practice strike.
October 15, 2000 - Steelworkers make up the largest delegation of 5,000 women from across Canada who gather in Ottawa for the culmination of the World March of Women that began on International Women's Day in March, 2000.
January 23, 2001 - USWA Basic Steel Industry Conference unanimously calls for federal action to prevent the collapse of the U.S. steel industry as illegal imports push steel prices to record lows.
February 28, 2001 - George Becker retires. International Executive Board appoints Leo W. Gerard the union's seventh International President. Jim English appointed Secretary-Treasurer.
April 19, 2001 - Canadian Steelworkers hold a Commission of Inquiry into Corporate Conduct in the Americas as part of the Second People's Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, as citizens protest secret negotiations to establish the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
September 12, 2001 - President Leo W. Gerard condemns "the armies of the intolerant" and demands "justice for the victims, their families and humanity" following the September 11 terrorist attacks.
September 2001 - Following the attacks against the U.S., which many blamed on gaps in airport security, 25,000 Steelworkers in Canada's private security industry - including airport security personnel - launch a reform campaign for better regulation, licensing, training and employment standards.
December 9, 2001 - Ratification of a new labor agreement at Titan Tire of Natchez ends the longest strike in the history of the U.S. tire industry, which began at the company's Des Moines, Iowa, plant May 1, 1998.
December 12, 2001 - USWA Basic Steel Industry Conference sets firm principles for protecting Steelworkers' jobs and preserving domestic steelmaking capacity in any negotiations necessitated by proposed consolidations among major integrated steelmakers.
December 18, 2001 - Canadian National Director Lawrence McBrearty calls on the federal government to make needed changes to trade law and to take stronger action to protect the Canadian steel industry by introducing a safeguard action to prevent a further flood of imports, part of the union's nationwide campaign to protect steel jobs in Canada.
February 28, 2002 - More than 30,000 Steelworkers and supporters march and rally in the shadow of the White House demanding decisive federal action to end unfair trade.
April 10, 2002 - Leaders from 21 unions who represent workers at International Paper Co. facilities throughout the world meet in Nashville for two days to establish a global union network to advance and protect the interests of IP employees worldwide.
February 18, 2003 - Rank-and-file Steelworkers overwhelmingly ratify a six-year agreement with International Steel Group, Inc. (ISG), providing wage increases and benefit improvements for workers at five steelmaking facilities which had been shut down by bankruptcies at LTV and Acme Steel, establishing a new pattern in basic steel, and facilitating consolidation of the steel industry in the United States.
June 3, 2003 - Delegates representing the 12,000 members of the American Flint Glass Workers Union vote by an overwhelming 80 percent to merge with the USWA.
August 2003 - The end of a three-month strike at Inco Ltd. in Port Colborne and Sudbury, Ontario, where the key issue was protecting retiree benefits. With the solidarity of the community, the union won on that issue and many more, including wage and pension increases.
September 15, 2003 - Steelworkers at 14 Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company plants in the United States ratify a new agreement that provides workers with an unprecedented network of job security measures, restricts both imports and the company's right to transfer production, and guarantees capital investment to keep USWA plants globally competitive.
October 6, 2003 - Delegates to the International Metalworkers' Federation World Aluminum Conference in Montreal create a global network of unions committed to global solidarity to strengthen workers' rights in the aluminum industry. The conference, co-chaired by International President Leo W. Gerard, puts global aluminum producing corporations on notice that continuing attempts to undermine unions at their organized facilities will be confronted by coordinated, international actions.
October 2003 - In response to a moving speech by Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, delegates to the District 6 conference spontaneously pledge $47,000 to the Stephen Lewis Foundation to help in the fight against AIDS in Africa.
November 2003 - After a decade-long campaign led by Steelworkers in Canada, the Westray Bill is finally passed into law, changing Canada's Criminal Code to make corporations, their directors and executives criminally accountable for putting workers' lives at risk.
November 17, 2003 - Steelworkers mobilize the largest labor contingent - nearly 2,000 strong - to protest unfair trade at the ministerial meetings of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Nearly 2,000 Steelworkers from across North America join a massive turnout of union, environmental, social and religious activists in Miami to denounce "NAFTA on steroids."
March 12, 2004 - Rank-and-file Steelworkers decisively approve a comprehensive settlement with Oregon Steel Mills, Inc. and its CF&I Steel subsidiary, ending the longest labor dispute in the union's history and resulting in more than $100 million in back pay for our members.
March 29-April 2, 2004 - Paper workers at the first National Paper Bargaining conference outline long-term strategy to restore pattern bargaining in the industry and approve the National Paper Bargaining program to centralize and unify the union's bargaining agenda and processes.
April 23, 2004 - Lawrence McBrearty retires. International Executive Board appoints Ken Neumann the union's National Director for Canada.
June 5, 2004 - The USWA and IG Metall, the German metalworkers' union, sign an understanding "to strengthen the international solidarity and cooperation between our unions" and "support new and innovative strategies in order to steer globalization in a more human direction."
August 23, 2004 - After more than 10 weeks on strike, and with the solidarity and support of BF Goodrich Tire bargaining committees in the U.S., 1,100 members of Local 677 win a settlement from the Michelin-owned tire maker in Kitchener, Ontario.
August 31, 2004 - Workers at Armstrong World Industries in Macon, Ga., vote overwhelmingly to merge their Directly Affiliated Local Union with the USWA.
September 1, 2004 - Members of the Industrial, Wood and Allied Workers (IWA Canada) vote to merge their 50,000-member organization with the USWA, creating the largest private sector union in Canada.
November 26, 2004 - After a year-long campaign to win Steelworker representation, 3,000 former members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees on Canadian National Railway are certified as Steelworkers by the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
January 2005 - In Canada, the Steelworkers Humanity Fund donates $100,000 towards Tsunami relief in Southeast Asia.
February 7, 2005 - The USWA signs a strategic alliance with the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) to develop joint strategies, including "cross-national bargaining and organizing support" and "coordination of bargaining across national borders."
February 11, 2005 - The USWA and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union of Australia (CFMEU) form a strategic alliance and "commit to building power by increasing communication, collaboration and coordination across our national borders," responding to corporate globalization with global solidarity.
March 1, 2005 - Andrew "Lefty" Palm retires. International Executive Board appoints Thomas M. Conway the union's International Vice President (Administration).
March 28, 2005 - Three-year extension of the National Oil Bargaining pattern settlement is negotiated by the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers (PACE) International Union shortly before merging with the USWA.
April 2005 - The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) signs a strategic alliance with the Steelworkers. The alliance is aimed at taking on the globalization of the culture industry and to address a range of common issues.
April 13, 2005 - The USW signs strategic alliances with the National Union of Mining, Steel and Allied Workers of the Republic of Mexico (SNTMMSRM) .and with CNM-CUT, the largest metalworkers' union in Brazil, to strengthen the close working relations between the unions and increase communication, collaboration and coordination across national borders.
April 14, 2005 - The USWA and the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers (PACE) International Union merge to form the largest industrial union in North America, the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (USW). With more than 850,000 active members in over 8,000 bargaining units in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, the combined union is the dominant union in paper, forestry products, steel, aluminum, tire and rubber, mining, glass, chemicals, petroleum and other basic resource industries.
May 24, 2005 - Canadian Steelworker Carol Landry is elected as one of eight women on the-executive committee of the International Metalworkers' Federation, joining International President Leo W. Gerard as one of two Canadians on the 25-member executive board.
August 1, 2005 - International Executive Board appoints Richard "Dick" LaCosse International Vice President with responsibility for national paper industry bargaining, following the July 31 retirement of former PACE President Boyd Young, who is named USW President Emeritus.
August 9, 2005 - USW and Amicus, the largest manufacturing union in the UK with over one million members in the private and public sectors, including: steel and other metals; energy; paper; chemicals and pharmaceuticals; shipbuilding; health care and transportation form a strategic alliance to increase solidarity and communication between the two unions, develop cross-national networks of unions with common employers and support cross-national organizing and bargaining.
September 1, 2005 - John Sellers retires. International Executive Board appoints Ron Hoover as Executive Vice President of the USW Rubber/Plastics Industry Conference (R/PIC).
October 6, 2005 - Steelworkers win a two-and-a-half-month strike against Teck Cominco Ltd. in Trail, BC. The campaign to win a decent contract included demonstrating at corporate headquarters in Vancouver and appearing province-wide on radio talk shows.
November 2005 - Passage through the Canadian Senate of the Wage Earner Protection Program Act marks the biggest victory so far in the USW campaign to amend the Bankruptcy Insolvency Act (BIA) and the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). Under the amendments, companies cannot ask judges to rewrite collective agreements in order to force concessions. Companies can no longer take the easy way out by ripping off workers and pensioners in order to satisfy bondholders.
November 21-25, 2005 - In the first joint effort of the USW-ACTRA strategic alliance, Canadian performers and Steelworkers lobby on Parliament Hill for key election issues ranging nom more support for Canadian film and TV to better protection for steel and softwood lumber.
November 22, 2005 - The slate of candidates for international office headed by President Leo W. Gerard wins election without opposition. It is the first time in the union's 63-year history that the entire International Executive Board is elected by consensus.
January 25, 2006 - Delegates to the union's National Paper Bargaining Conference unanimously approve a vision statement calling for renewed solidarity in national paper bargaining, and changing the percentage of votes needed to call for a strike to a simple majority.
March 1, 2006 - Installation of USW Officers and International Executive Board.
April 13, 2006 - USW wins guarantees of lifetime health care coverage and lower prescription costs for 6,100 former hourly employees of American National Can Co., American Can Co. or National Can Co. who retired prior to 1987.
May 26, 2006 - Members of the National Pharmacists Association (NPhA), representing approximately 1,100 registered pharmacists at Walgreens retail pharmacies in the Chicago area, as well as many other parts of northern Illinois and Northwestern Indiana, have voted overwhelmingly to affiliate with the United Steelworkers (USW).
June 7, 2006 - The United Steelworkers (USW) and the Sierra Club announced the formation of a strategic alliance to pursue a joint public policy agenda under the banner of Good Jobs, A Clean Environment, and A Safer World.
October 5, 2006 - Today 15,000 United Steelworkers struck Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.
October 31, 2006 - More than 40,000 United Steelworker retirees and spouses who lost health care coverage in the bankruptcies of four steel companies are getting financial help with their Medicare Part B premiums from an innovative trust fund bargained by the USW to assist them.
December 29, 2006 - USW members at Goodyear ratify new three-year contract as 86-day strike ends, less than one week after a USW-organized protest at 180 Goodyear tires stores in the U.S. and Canada.
February 4, 2007 - Former President George Becker, a second-generation steelworker who became the sixth international president of the United Steelworkers (USW), died Saturday at his home in Gibsonia, Pa. He was 78.
April 13, 2007 - USW International President, Leo W. Gerard and Mark Glyptis, former president of the Independent Steelworkers Union, signed a merger agreement for 1,150 members of the new USW Local 2911.
April 18, 2007 - The United Steelworkers (USW), Amicus and the Transportation & General Workers Union (T&GWU) of the United Kingdom, today announced a formal process to prepare the ground for the creation of the first Trans-Atlantic trade union.
July 17, 2007 - The United Steelworkers (USW) and the Canadian Region of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have signed a Strategic Alliance to work together on issues of common interest in Canada and globally. The CWA/SCA Canada Region represents about 9,000 workers in every aspect of media across Canada, including newspapers, broadcasting, news agencies and online media. Other members are in social work, interpretation services and light industry.
August 24, 2007 - Members of the United Steelworkers at 14 mills owned by International Paper, the largest producer in the industry, voted overwhelmingly yesterday to approve a four-year master agreement that improves wages and benefits and secures jobs with a successorship clause.
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