SOAR Remembrance of USW President Leo W. Gerard

Julie Stein
SOAR Director

It is with great sadness, but also great honor, to reflect upon the recent passing of my good friend and our union’s longest serving International President, Leo W. Gerard.

Leo’s passing is an immeasurable loss for SOAR, our union, and our global labor movement. 

At the age of 18, Gerard joined our ranks at a nickel smelter in his hometown of Sudbury, Ontario. Throughout his 50-plus years of union activism, he served in many roles, including USW staff representative, district director, national director of Canada, and secretary-treasurer, before being elected international president in 2001.

As a rank-and-file papermaker, I first met Leo in 2006, following the PACE merger, when he hired me to be the then-District 2 Director Jon Geenen’s administrative assistant. I feel humbled by the leadership he embodied throughout my years of involvement in our union’s political operation, and into my current role with SOAR.   

Leo’s ability to connect with rank-and-file members, while also skillfully navigating the halls of Congress and never shying away from a press interview, was unmatched.   

Within our union, his impact is felt on countless programs that he either helped create or grow, including, but not limited to, Next Gen, Women of Steel, and SOAR, particularly where he led the charge, in 2012, to amend our bylaws so that the organization could open its membership to include “like-minded retirees.”

Upon his retirement in 2019, he immediately joined SOAR and became a member of the chapter located in Sudbury, Ontario.  However, he was a strong supporter of the soon-to-be-enacted bylaw change which would open its membership to those aged 45 and older.

Leo’s accomplishments are so vast that it is impossible to list them all. As I reflected on his legacy and read the fond memories of many union activists about him on social media, I came across a blog that Leo had written in 2013. Included in it was a quote that I thought must be shared as we find ourselves in the fight to preserve so much of what Leo helped protect throughout his lifetime.

“America can afford to feed its citizens and provide them with health insurance. It can provide decent public education, good roads, Social Security and Medicare. Americans can help each other succeed. Americans want to help each other so the whole country can move forward together. That is the American way.

Americans can’t let the cult of the selfish prevail. As they did in the 1930s when Americans created Social Security, facilitated unionization and strictly regulated banks, Americans must demand that the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share and that social welfare retain primacy over self-interest.”