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USW Appoints New Director for District 2

For Immediate Release                                          February 8, 2008

PITTSBURGH – The International Executive Board of the United Steelworkers (USW) has appointed Michael Bolton as director of the union’s District 2 to succeed Jon Geenen, who has been named international vice president with responsibility for national paper industry bargaining.

Bolton, 56, of Sherwood, Wis., is currently sub-district director of USW District 2 based in Menasha, Wis., where he is responsible for a region encompassing North Central Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

His appointment as district director will take effect March 1 with the retirement of Vice President Dick LaCosse, who currently leads paper industry bargaining for the USW, and Geenen’s move to international vice president.

Bolton began his career in 1976 in Marshalltown, Iowa, where he was a machine operator for Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) and became active with the United Paperworkers International Union (UPIU) and its successor union, the former Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy (PACE) international union, which  merged with the USW in 2005. He became a union staff member in 1987 and a sub-district director in 2005.

Bolton praised Geenen for making “great strides” in bringing together the members in District 2, and pledged to continue that tradition of activism on behalf of the USW’s members.

“As our director, he brought us together as one district and put us on a path to success,’’ Bolton said of Geenen. “But we cannot be satisfied with where we are. We still have a lot to do.

“We must continue our efforts to mobilize and energize our members, and work together to make our workplaces safe. We have to continue to seek justice for those who have had it denied to them.

“We do not do this work just for ourselves,’’ Bolton added. “We also do it for those who come behind us, for our children and our grandchildren. I am confident that working together we will be the activist union our members expect and deserve.”

Contact:  Jim McKay (412) 562-2441

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