Who We Are � Milestones in USW History
1990s
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."
