USW@Work: Summer 2025

After Historic Wins, Blue Bird Workers Look to Future

Three years ago, Ciera McClinton and many of her co-workers at Blue Bird Corp. were struggling at times to make ends meet and facing issues of favoritism, forced overtime and other unfair conditions on the job.

Now, the more than 1,500 members of Local 697 have a union contract – including wage increases, expanded benefits, improved scheduling and job security – that changed the lives of the workers at the school bus factory in Fort Valley, Ga.

Read more on page 4

Scheme to Gut Federal Watchdogs Puts Workers at Risk

When an explosion at the BP-Husky refinery in Oregon, Ohio, took the lives of Max and Ben Morrissey – siblings by blood and USW membership – in September 2022, workers knew that a full investigation of the tragedy was the best way to honor them while making their workplace safer.

Members of Local 1-346 looked to the one federal agency with the skill and tenacity to do so – the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, known as the CSB.

The CSB investigates chemical-related incidents, issues detailed reports on what went wrong, and recommends steps to prevent future disasters. Since its inception in 1998, the agency has investigated nearly 180 incidents that included more than 200 fatalities and billions of dollars in damage to workplaces and communities.

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USW Hosts AFL-CIO Bus Tour Promoting Unions, Fighting Trump

USW members helped the AFL-CIO kick off a pro-union bus tour in July with rallies in Pittsburgh and Newport News, Va., denouncing the Trump administration’s attacks on labor rights, safety, Medicaid and veterans’ services.

The 26-state bus tour—“It’s Better in a Union: Fighting for Freedom, Fairness & Security”—marshaled the power of solidarity while sending a clear message to Trump and his Republican lackeys in Congress: Working people are fed up and fighting back.

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20 Years Have Passed Since Members Approved WOS Constitutional Amendment

Bonnie Carey has been a Woman of Steel since 1978, when she went to work at the massive aluminum mill in Davenport, Iowa.

In a male-dominated environment, she became the first woman to operate computer-numerical-control (CNC) mills at the plant and became a safety trainer, instructing others on how to operate trucks and overhead cranes.

Carey became an activist through the union’s Rapid Response and Women of Steel programs, serving as a coordinator for both groups until she retired in 2009. Her activism didn’t stop there, as she went on to form SOAR Chapter 11-4 and to represent District 11 on the SOAR Executive Board, a position in which she still serves.

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Trump Administration Claws Back Funding, Stunting Growth

USW members at the Libbey Glass plant in Toledo, Ohio, celebrated last year when President Joe Biden’s administration awarded the company up to $45.1 million from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to build a pair of hybrid electric furnaces.

No longer, the workers believed, would they have to jury-rig aging, outdated equipment to maintain production at the century-old plant, a linchpin of Toledo’s economy.

The innovative new furnaces – designed to reduce emissions, increase efficiency and usher in a new era of glassmaking – promised long-term stability for their plant and a giant leap forward for American manufacturing.

Workers quickly undertook the first steps in the complex construction project. And then in May, Donald Trump stabbed them all in the back.

Read more on page 24