2025 Officers' Report

Brothers and Sisters,

Amfuel management tried for four years to extract dozens of concessions from its work force in Magnolia, Ark., driving the 200 members of Local 607L to the brink of an unfair labor practice strike last year.

The proposed language, including abolishing seniority, reducing vacation pay and eliminating the grievance process, would have knocked workers backward and rendered them vulnerable to management’s whims.

In response, USW members banded closer together and got even more organized. They planned a toy drive, picnic, holiday party and other events to help sustain unity. They wore union-issued T-shirts to build morale, handed out flyers to keep everyone up to date and filed unfair labor practice charges to thwart management’s bullying.

They relied on each other and on the support of other area locals, and in the end, they bargained a contract that delivered life-changing raises, additional holidays and other benefit enhancements.

They demonstrated what it means to be all in on solidarity, how we as union members hold nothing back as we squarely face the challenges that come at us every day.

And make no mistake, we face a slew of challenges.

Most urgently, we’re witnessing a massive redistribution of wealth and power.

We’re confronting the billionaires set loose to pillage our government and economy, and we’re fighting back against efforts to give huge tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy at the expense of the working class.

As union members, we closed ranks as the U.S. president declared a reckless, unfounded trade war with one of the country’s closest partners, undermining economic security for both American and Canadian members.

We’ve also seen threats to the very foundation of our democracy, an unprecedented consolidation of power in the hands of a few extremely wealthy individuals seeking to strip working people of their voices.

But as a union, we don’t just choose the easy fights, the ones we know we’re going to win. We fight for what’s right for workers and their families no matter the odds.

And we don’t give up. Sometimes it takes months, years, even decades, to win. But we keep at it, building from the ground up if necessary.

That’s what it means to be all in.

First and foremost, our union is all in on bargaining, dedicating a wide range of resources—in the headquarters, the Canadian National Office and the districts—toward achieving and enforcing strong collective bargaining agreements. That is our primary mission.

But winning fair contracts also requires fighting on other fronts.

Our union was all in on workers’ rights as we pushed for anti-scab legislation in Canada. This victory was the culmination of decades of relentless struggle, our union working alongside the broader labor ovement to restore greater balance to collective bargaining.

The legislation, which will come into force on June 20, 2025, bans federally regulated employers from using replacement workers in the case of a labor dispute. This will make us stronger at the bargaining table, and it will help level the field when employers impose a lockout or force a strike.

Being all in also means that there’s room for everyone in our union and that we’re all stronger when more workers exercise their right to collectively bargain.

No one understood this idea better than our late International President Tom Conway. He developed an initiative to identify and train member-organizers so that other workers could hear firsthand about the benefits of joining our union.

This type of grassroots, worker-to-worker communication helped our union notch a number of notable victories, including welcoming the 1,500 new members from the school bus maker Blue Bird into the USW in the spring of 2023.

We all have a role to play in our union, and by going all in on worker empowerment, we armed USW activists across North America with needed resources and educational opportunities.

We galvanized our Women of Steel and Next Generation programs with ambitious agendas that will help us build stronger ties with our communities, make our workplaces fairer and more equitable, and enable us to even more effectively lead social and economic change.

Our Veterans of Steel committees have been tirelessly advocating for common-sense legislation requiring employers to post notices outlining the education, health care, housing assistance and other benefits available to current and former service members. So far, they’ve been able to get this USW-authored bill enacted in 12 states—and they’re still going.

The USW takes great pride in fighting for secure, dignified retirements, and in the decades since our founding, our retirees have proven to be some of our most dedicated activists.

SOAR members went all in alongside our Rapid Response activists and others in beating back calls to weaken our social safety net through cuts to essential programs like Medicare and Social Security.

And they rallied around our siblings working on street crews, in water treatment plants and in other public-sector jobs. In January, these public servants celebrated the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act, enabling them to access the full retirement benefits they earned.

Our union has always been at the forefront of workplace health and safety, and that sustained commitment led in recent years to a number of historic advancements, including new safeguards against silica exposure.

Also, after USW members at National Steel Car in Hamilton, Ontario, witnessed three workplace fatalities in a span of 21 months, they approached their contract bargaining with a renewed sense of urgency.

The nearly 1,500 members of Local 7135 went all in, spending more than five weeks on strike in the summer of 2023. In the end, their commitment paid off with a contract that not only made huge gains in pay and benefits, but also featured pivotal improvements in health and safety, including adding another health and safety representative.

As locals reported growing levels of stress, anxiety and burnout amongst members, our union also doubled down on holistic worker health. Together we’re meeting the moment. We’re bargaining for limits on forced overtime, more predictable schedules and family-friendly policies affording workers work-life balance.

Through a number of initiatives, including our ERT program, the Tony Mazzocchi Center, and our Education and Membership Development Department, we’re providing new resources to address workers’ mental as well as physical health so members can thrive on and off the job.

And we’re making strides when it comes to equality, justice and dignity in the workplace, including promoting equity for Indigenous members and their communities, advancing anti-harassment and anti-violence policies, creating 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion tools and more.

Looking to the future, it’s clear that we must continue to be bold. We must take on more of the hard fights for family-sustaining wages, affordable health care, dignified retirements, safe workplaces, fair trade and more. We must be willing to confront these challenges over and over again.

We must be all in—on activism, on education, on empowerment, on organizing, on workers’ rights.

In short, we must be all in on solidarity.

David McCall
International President

Myles Sullivan
International Secretary-Treasurer

Emil Ramirez
International Vice President (Administration)

Kevin Mapp
International Vice President (Human Affairs)

Marty Warren
National Director for Canada

Luis Mendoza
International Vice President

Roxanne Brown
International Vice President