The USW leverages all of its resources across local unions, districts and the International to achieve one overarching goal—bargaining agreements that empower our members to build better lives.
Over the past three years, we succeeded time and again, winning record wage increases, high-quality health care and enhanced retirement security.
But we also broke new ground and achieved innovative gains that address our members’ evolving demands and needs. Among other examples, we pushed bosses into accepting fairer wage structures, safeguards for work-life balance, paid leave and precedent-setting advancements in health, safety and environment.
Solidarity drives this transformative bargaining. Employers understand that USW members have each other’s backs and that we sacrifice for each other. They know we will stand together for fair treatment, no matter how difficult the fight.
“We’re going to keep pushing the envelope, support local unions in thinking outside the box and ensure workers build the contracts they need to live their best lives,” said International President David McCall.
“Members and employers also know that we’re going to enforce every provision of every contract every time,” added McCall. “We do not let management violate our rights to wriggle out of the commitments they made to us.”
Here is a snapshot of some of our pioneering wins since the last convention.
Beating Back Exploitation
Workers at Ingredion in Bedford Park, Ill., went to the table last year with a message for management: An injury to one is an injury to all.
The 250 members of Local 7-507 stood together during tough negotiations, even voting down one proposal, until the company agreed to entirely abolish a two-tiered wage system that paid newer workers less than veteran counterparts for doing the same work.
“That was the main thing the members wanted,” recalled local President Derrick Davis.
Companies like tiered wage and benefit structures because they exploit and polarize workers.
But more and more union workers are flipping the script. They’re unifying around a potentially divisive issue, using the power of solidarity to beat back injustice and choosing to stand together for collective prosperity.
In some cases, veteran workers accept lower raises to help others catch up.
Besides workers at Ingredion, union members at Bridgestone, Georgia-Pacific, Goodyear, International Paper, Travis Pattern and Foundry, and Siemens Healthineers all eliminated or narrowed wage or benefit gaps since the previous convention.
Workers at Cooper Tire and Mueller Valve, among others, also eliminated these systems in recent years.
“This is unionism at its finest,” noted International Vice President Luis Mendoza, who oversees the union’s paper sector and led the fight against tiered systems at dozens of mills and converters. “We can win any battle together.”
Innovating for Safety
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined Ahlstrom about $34,000 for safety violations at the Kaukauna, Wis., mill in 2023.
While OSHA requires employers to fix cited hazards, Local 7-2-20 members wanted more meaningful change.
They began thinking of creative alternatives and ultimately devised a forward-looking and potentially life-saving solution: They persuaded OSHA to reduce the fines by about $14,000 and secured Ahlstrom’s commitment to invest that money in safety enhancements chosen by a union-management safety committee.
Forging New Industries
The USW played a crucial role in landing hundreds of millions in federal funds for an expansion at Eos Energy Enterprises in Turtle Creek, Pa., where members make giant batteries for renewable energy storage.
The members’ organizing campaign, which included outreach to elected officials and local media, emphasized the need for working people to have a seat at the table at companies subsidized with taxpayer funds. The workers’ first contract, ratified in February 2025, featured significant wage increases and benefit enhancements.
But union members also wanted to highlight in a very visible way the USW’s leadership of an emerging industry and their own contributions to a growing company. So they secured language requiring Eos to put the USW logo on their uniforms.
Fighting Excessive Overtime
More and more workers want predictable schedules that allow them to spend time with their families or plan activities away from the job, according to studies by the Economic Policy Institute, Pew Research Center and other organizations.
USW members are among those seeking greater work-life balance, and the union stepped up efforts since the last convention to eliminate mandatory and excessive overtime.
Overtime also poses a safety issue. Workers forced into unreasonably long hours pose a danger to themselves, their co-workers and those they encounter on the roads while commuting.
With all of these issues in mind, Local 819 members at Pactiv Evergreen in Turlock, Calif., last year ratified a contract that not only limits the amount of daily overtime but ensures workers receive at least eight hours off between shifts.
The agreement also provided workers with a personal floating holiday and established a labor-management safety committee.
The union continues to battle overtime across the paper industry and other sectors. In Maine, for example, union members have supported state-level legislation that would force paper companies to limit overtime hours.
Preserving Jobs
Local 12775 members at Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) go into every round of bargaining determined to preserve no-layoff language that’s safeguarded their jobs for decades.
That’s especially important this year, local Vice President Vern Beck explained, noting the language applies to union members with at least five years’ experience.
NIPSCO plans to close its Schahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield by the end of the year, affecting about 120 union members. When that happens, they’ll be transferred into other positions or locations now staffed with outside contractors.
As the utility makes greater use of renewable energy, the USW intends to maintain its role in serving hundreds of thousands of consumers. The local’s latest contract, ratified three years ago, created solar technician positions and set the stage for the creation of union-represented data monitoring positions for the solar farm.
Making Time for Parenting
Marshal Cummings saved up vacation time a few years ago in anticipation of the birth of his son.
But when the baby came weeks earlier than expected, requiring a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit at a hospital 170 miles away, Cummings found he didn’t have enough paid time off to cover his growing family’s needs.
Co-workers at the Genesis Alkali mine in Green River, Wyo., encountered similar hardships, especially new hires unable to draw on much vacation.
That all changed last year when Cummings, president of Local 13214, led a successful push to include four weeks of paid parental leave in a new contract.
Now, workers with at least 90 days on the job may take the time off—with full pay—to welcome a child through birth, adoption or fostering. Even better, they’re entitled to take the leave again every rolling 12 months.
“Being a parent is vital,” said Cummings, stressing the importance of bonding time for a child’s long-term development.
In a related win, the new agreement increased vacation time for newly hired and veteran workers, providing union members with even more flexibility for addressing family crises or milestones.
A growing number of locals across the union are winning similar battles. They’re fighting for increased paid family and medical leave, along with domestic violence leave that empowers union members to get away, and stay away, from abusers.
“This is life-changing work that reflects the USW’s core mission,” noted International Vice President (Human Affairs) Kevin Mapp. “We look out for one another both on and off the shop floor.”
workers want predictable schedules that allow them to spend time with their families.
Building Stronger Workplaces and Communities
Dominick Sapien once worked for a unionized paramedic service in California, and after taking a similar job in Wyoming a few years ago, he quickly realized his new co-workers needed representation as well.
He helped to organize about 30 paramedics and emergency medical technicians at Frontier Ambulance in 2023—the first workers in Wyoming to form a union in decades and possibly the first ever there to unionize in the health care sector.
The new members of Local 9012 followed up that victory with a first contract that significantly increased raises, stanched turnover and enhanced work force stability. The workers also used their voice to begin fighting for upgraded equipment and uniforms better suited to the frigid conditions they’re forced to endure on the job.
Professionalization of the ambulance service means better care for people in west-central Wyoming. But the contract also contains provisions enabling the paramedics and EMTs to share their expertise with other parts of the country.
Workers negotiated language enabling part-time workers to take on other missions while remaining part of Frontier Ambulance.
Kevin Cadogan recently returned from months serving as a “hotshot,” or wildland firefighter, in other states. Sapien’s wife and fellow paramedic, Jessica, may use the language to continue her work as a responder at Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster sites.
Preserving Jobs
Local 12775 members at Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) go into every round of bargaining determined to preserve no-layoff language that’s safeguarded their jobs for decades.
That’s especially important this year, local Vice President Vern Beck explained, noting the language applies to union members with at least five years’ experience.
NIPSCO plans to close its Schahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield by the end of the year, affecting about 120 union members. When that happens, they’ll be transferred into other positions or locations now staffed with outside contractors.
As the utility makes greater use of renewable energy, the USW intends to maintain its role in serving hundreds of thousands of consumers. The local’s latest contract, ratified three years ago, created solar technician positions and set the stage for the creation of union-represented data monitoring positions for the solar farm.
Safeguarding Sweat Equity
While negotiating wages, health care and retirement security, union members also keep their eyes fixed on the future and the need to keep facilities viable for generations to come.
For example, the USW’s latest contract with Cleveland-Cliffs, ratified in October 2022, requires billions in capital investments over four years. These upgrades across the Cliffs system will help thousands of USW members meet domestic demand and remain competitive with producers in other countries.
Capital investments also protect workers from companies that might otherwise abandon plants on a whim or run them to failure while wringing out profits.
“These investments protect workers’ sweat equity,” observed International Vice President (Administration) Emil Ramirez, who has bargained in aluminum, steel and numerous other industries. “We’re here for the long term. We expect employers to share that commitment and put skin in the game.”
Leveraging Unique Skills
Local 5000 members who crew cargo ships on the Great Lakes perform dangerous, highly skilled work that keeps them away from home for months at a time.
It isn’t for everyone, and with strong demand for shipping on the horizon, the local went into bargaining last year intent on a contract that would recognize their work and enable their employers to maintain a reliable work force.
The 400 workers ended up with their best deal in decades, with raises of 24 percent over five years along with bigger bonuses and other improvements, the local’s business agent, Tom Zidek, said.
Over the past few years, these union members saw two other developments helping to secure their futures—a speeded-up modernization of the Soo Locks, made possible thanks to the USW-backed national infrastructure bill, and the launch of the Mark W. Barker, the first new U.S.-built freighter on the Great Lakes since 1983.
Surmounting “Right-to-Work”
Falsely named “right-to-work” (RTW) laws, on the books in about two dozen states, require unions to represent workers in a bargaining unit regardless of whether they become members or pay even a nickel for services they receive.
Right-wing politicians enacted these laws at the behest of corporations and conservative groups to pit workers against each other and starve unions of the resources needed to fight for members.
Yet even in the face of this adversity, USW members in RTW states continue to maintain high membership levels and bargain good contracts.
Nathan Bradley, vice president of Local 00895, estimated that all but one or two workers at Valtris Specialty Chemicals in Fort Worth, Texas, belong to the USW. It’s been that way since workers there organized in 1999.
The local’s extensive communication efforts, such as bargaining surveys and the brief “toolbox meetings” held to update workers on issues that crop up, help to sustain engagement and confidence in the union. That unified front, in turn, enables workers to hold the company accountable.
“They know we’re here, and they know we mean business,” Bradley said of management, noting workers achieved a crucial win in the last contract when the company agreed to percentage wage increases instead of flat dollar amounts.