USW@Work: Volume 19, Issue 3
FEATURES
USW Civil Rights Activists Focus on Collective Liberation
Nearly 500 USW members and activists rallied at the Transcending arch monument in Detroit on June 11, their chants demanding social and racial justice for all workers echoing through the downtown streets.
The “Time to Move” rally was part of the USW Civil and Human Rights Conference, held June 9-12 in the Motor City. Focused on the theme “I’ve Got the Movement in Me,” the gathering was the first of its kind since before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe, revealing long-standing racial and economic disparities.
Read more on page 12
Rapid Response Activists Deliver Message of Good Jobs and Fair Trade to Capitol Hill
Jessie Newson Jr. of Local 7686 led 700 of his fellow USW members on a march and rally in Washington, D.C., this spring as they called on Congress to restore the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, a crucial support system for displaced workers.
Newson learned in 2016 how vital TAA benefits can be when he, along with hundreds of his fellow members, endured the idling of the Missouri aluminum smelter where they worked, a casualty of unfair imports.
“TAA provided a lifeline for us,” he said. “It helped out union members in a very dark time.”
Read more on page 10
The Future of Steel
Chuck Perko is a fourth-generation steelworker who still wears his grandfather’s USW dues-payer’s pin. The president of Local 3267, he works at a mill in Pueblo, Colo., that has existed for more than 150 years.
The mill has employed thousands over those decades, providing an economic boom for the entire region. While Perko and his 1,000 USW colleagues in two local unions at EVRAZ Pueblo are rightly proud of that history, the future of their workplace is just as compelling as its past.
Construction for a state-of-the-art $900 million long rail mill is ongoing, and the facility is scheduled to begin operations early next year. The mill will have the capacity to produce quarter-mile-long sections of rail that can be used in high-speed train projects.
Read more on page 4
Union Members Serve Up Pyrex Glassware
When Heather Roberts travels outside of her small hometown of Charleroi, Pa., and tells people where she is from, more often than not, they recognize that it also is home to Pyrex, the iconic heat- and shatter-resistant glassware that has been a staple in American kitchens for generations.
Roberts is president of Local 53G, which includes more than 260 workers who produce the glass storage and mixing bowls, measuring cups and baking dishes for which the Pyrex brand has been known for more than a century.
“We take a lot of pride in what we do,” Roberts said of herself and her co-workers, which over the years have included her husband, mother, father-in-law, sister and numerous other relatives and neighbors.
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