The United Steelworkers (USW) and the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) today jointly announced a new partnership between the organizations as they seek to build union-to-union relationships and as the NFLPA prepares for the possibility of a lockout next year.

The unions announced their collaboration aimed at building power for workers and cooperating on legislative and political projects along with other activities on the eve of the beginning of the 2009 NFL football season at the USW's international headquarters in the first of a series of discussions aimed at building solidarity between the players' union and blue collar workers across the country.

"I'm proud to welcome some of the world's finest professional athletes and their union to Pittsburgh as they kick-off this series of solidarity events," said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. "It doesn't matter whether you work on the shop floor or in a stadium filled with 80 thousand screaming fans, we must fight together for fairness and dignity for all workers ... more