Jon Geenen
International Vice President
On March 1, 2008, Jon Geenen became the United Steelworker’s International Vice President with responsibility for national paper industry bargaining.
Jon Geenen began his career in 1977 as an industrial apprentice at the International Paper mill in Kaukauna, Wisc. He joined Local 20 of the United Paperworkers International Union, and served as bargaining committee chair, vice president and president. During the nine-year period he was active in his local, he assisted in the development of the union's IP strategic bargaining program.
In 1993 he was appointed to an international representative position in PACE Region X and serviced numerous paper facilities. As a rep., he organized workers at CBC Coating in Appleton, Wisc., and Stora Enso in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisc.
From 2003 to 2005 Geenen was the national director of paper bargaining and head of PACE's Rapid Response Education Network. He helped set in motion coordinated bargaining within the paper industry, and organized the first National Paper Bargaining conference in 2004. He also helped establish the Rapid Response Network at PACE, which was modeled after the Steelworkers' program.
The USW executive board appointed him to be the Region X Director in July of 2005.
Geenen also received appointments from Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle to serve on the Wisconsin Forestry Council and the Wisconsin International Trade Council.
He has a bachelor's degree in political economies of labor from the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md. In 2001 he received a master's degree in public administration, with a concentration in labor studies and organizational theory, from the University of Baltimore, Md.
