When chronic short-staffing threatened her well-being and that of her patients, Local 9201-01 President Sarah Hardnett fought back with the support of the Rapid Response Department.
Hardnett, a certified nursing assistant at an Alabama care home, shared her story in a Rapid Response email blast that called for improved staffing across the long-term care industry and urged union members to contact federal officials about the crisis.
These efforts shined a light on nursing home owners who skimp on staff and on workers who face steep challenges caring for patients, ultimately helping to win the nation’s first mandatory staffing ratios for nursing homes and similar facilities.
The USW created Rapid Response 30 years ago to secure pro-worker laws, policies and other victories just like this.
Rapid Response revolutionized labor advocacy, harnessing the power of grassroots unionism like never before. The department and a network of activists continue to drive groundbreaking improvements in safety, retirement security and economic fairness, with some big victories, such as the safe staffing ratios mandated by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, coming since the last convention.
When elected officials pass legislation, enact policies or make other decisions supporting workers, we lighten the load at the bargaining table, allowing local unions to strive for even greater goals during contract negotiations.
Employers and trade groups often oppose our common-sense objectives, just as the nursing home industry attempted to thwart staffing safeguards.
In these cases, Rapid Response relies on members’ stories, like Hardnett’s, to humanize complex issues and lay bare the stakes. Then we use emailed InfoAlerts and ActionCalls, along with postcard-writing campaigns, rallies and many other tools, to galvanize our ranks, amplify our messages and get results.
The USW created Rapid Response 30 years ago to secure pro- worker laws, policies and other victories.
Fighting for Social Security
Along with other unions, the USW represents workers who serve as paramedics, operate libraries, clear streets of snow, maintain water systems and otherwise keep our communities running.
These workers fulfill an essential mission, yet Congress voted four decades ago to cut Social Security benefits for public servants also earning government pensions.
The House of Representatives voted in November 2024 to correct this injustice and restore the workers’ benefits. But as the end of the year approached without Senate action, our activists stepped up to push the legislation over the finish line.
Rapid Response issued an ActionCall explaining the need to bring the bill to a vote and urging members and retirees to contact their senators to demand action. The Senate ultimately passed the bill, and President Joe Biden quickly signed it into law, ending the discriminatory treatment of millions of public workers and ensuring they receive the full benefits they deserve.
This victory marked Rapid Response’s second successful fight for retirement security in as many years.
In 2023, some members of Congress threatened cuts to Social Security and Medicare, among other key programs, during debate over the national debt ceiling.
Rapid Response crafted a resolution—titled “No Cuts to Retirement Security”—and provided it to local unions and Steelworkers Organization of Active Retiree (SOAR) chapters for consideration. Thousands of locals and retiree units adopted the measure, then flooded congressional offices with copies.
Many SOAR chapters went even further. Retirees posed for photographs with the resolution and circulated the images to make sure lawmakers knew to keep their hands off of these lifelines.
Our efforts helped to keep Social Security and Medicare intact. We will continue to stand watch and ensure they meet the needs of future generations.
Putting Boots on the Ground
The Rapid Response, Legislative and Policy Conference annually draws hundreds of activists to Washington, D.C., for three days of training, information-sharing and action.
The 2023 conference marked the first in-person gathering since the pandemic. It featured robust levels of participation and engagement, which we were pleased to see again in 2024.
On “Lobby Day,” the final day of each conference, participants descended on the Capitol for dozens of small-group meetings with representatives, senators and congressional staff to discuss pressing issues. Our activists scored hundreds of sit-downs, including time with top congressional leaders.
While the conferences cover many topics, they often include a special focus on trade, with members in recent years learning about the USW’s efforts to rebuild the domestic shipbuilding industry and leverage the trade complaint process to create or save jobs.
Jill Stough, Rapid Response coordinator for Local 7248, drove home the importance of these battles during a panel discussion in 2023. She outlined the union’s fight against the illegal imports of brass rod that threatened her job and those of hundreds of co-workers at the Wieland Chase plant in northwestern Ohio.
Fortunately, we ended up winning that battle. The Commerce Department ultimately set duties on trade cheaters from numerous countries, helping to level the playing field for workers at Wieland Chase.
In 2024, conference participants took to the streets for a rally calling on Congress to bring back Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), a program that provided job-training and other support to workers who lost jobs or income because of unfair trade. Congress inexplicably allowed the decades-old, highly successful program to lapse in 2022.
Rapid Response continues to advocate for the renewal of TAA and a revitalized commercial shipbuilding industry.
Driving Change in Statehouses
Rapid Response long focused on federal issues, but we found it necessary in recent years to ramp up state-level action to beat back anti-labor legislation in some parts of the country and lock down worker rights in others.
Two years ago, for example, the USW celebrated a monumental achievement in Michigan—the repeal of the state’s falsely named right-to work (RTW) law that a lame-duck legislature rammed through more than a decade earlier.
RTW laws, a gift to corporations, force unions to represent workers in a bargaining unit even if they refuse to join or pay for services. These laws intentionally starve unions of resources and divide workers, undermining the solidarity pivotal to holding employers accountable.
Rapid Response spent years working with district, local union and SOAR activists, along with other unions and our allies, to build the pro-worker majorities in the Michigan legislature needed to restore workers’ rights.
And when those new majorities took office in January 2023, we put repeal of RTW at the top of the agenda. We eradicated RTW with relentless lobbying, letter-writing and direct outreach by union members.
It was the first repeal of RTW legislation in 60 years—a testament to the strength of collective action. This victory not only restored dignity to Michigan workers but also sent a powerful message about the resilience of the labor movement.
In 2022, Rapid Response contributed to another big win. We helped to turn out Illinois voters and pass a historic constitutional amendment that not only guarantees workers the right to organize and bargain collectively but bans state or local laws seeking to restrict negotiations over critical issues.
USW members and retirees played a pivotal role in this victory through phone-banking, door-to-door canvassing and social media campaigns that rallied community support. Even better, this victory set the stage for similar initiatives in other states.
To that end, Rapid Response hosts activist training at district conferences. We also coordinate state lobby days across multiple districts, bringing small groups of activists together to advocate for expanded unemployment compensation programs, fairer workers compensation systems an other essentials.
Supporting Our Veterans
Delegates at the 2022 convention adopted a resolution requiring every local to establish a Veterans of Steel committee to better support union members who served, or continue to serve, in the military.
The resolution prompted the union to launch other initiatives for these workers as well, including a push for state laws requiring employers to post notices outlining the education, health care, housing assistance and other benefits available to current and former service members.
Rapid Response so far has helped to get this USW-authored workplace posting bill enacted in 12 states.
It’s vital work. Studies show that many veterans never avail themselves of services they earned, either because they don’t know about them or struggle to access them.
Forging Ahead
As we mark Rapid Response’s 30th anniversary, it’s important both to reflect on how far we’ve come and recommit ourselves to the work ahead.
What began as an initiative to address legislative challenges grew into a broader, more powerful movement that united union members and retirees for transformative change at every level of government.
The challenges we face—from economic inequality to threats to workers’ rights—require continued vigilance and action.
Rapid Response will continue to build its network to ensure that we remain at the forefront of these battles and keep changing lives, one hard-won victory at a time.