United Steelworkers Press Releases Feed

  • Homecare, hospice workers overcome anti-union campaign to become USW members
    The 35 homecare and hospice workers at Fairview Range Medical Center in Hibbing, Minn., voted to join the USW last Thurs., May 25. The group includes registered nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, social workers, case managers, home health aides, licensed practical nurses, workers in scheduling and billing, and one chaplain. The workers decided to organize to raise pay in order to attract and retain quality staff so their patients get the best care possible. "Our patients have more acute need than even five years ago, and we have less and less workers to care for them," said Sarah Lamppa, a social worker who spearheaded the union effort. "We need to draw in quality workers who want to stay so our patients get the best care possible, and get our wages to a more competitive place."  Management held anti-union meetings, conducted 1:1s with some employees, and tried to bribe workers with "longevity" raises during the organizing campaign. The employer also delayed the vote to buy themselves more time to bust the union campaign by arguing to the National Labor Relations Board that the unit should include the employees at International Falls, a location far from Fairview hospice with very little interchange of work.  The workers combatted the anti-union campaign by being open and honest with anyone who wanted more information. The organizing committee also held meetings that everyone was invited to, rebutted management's rhetoric, and showed examples of bargaining surveys while waiting for the NLRB to issue a decision on the unit composition.  The new members are excited to start bargaining their first contract and will join amalgamated Local 9349. — Jun 5
  • Paducah Women of Steel Lead Community Engagement and Empowerment
    The Women of Steel (WOS) group from USW Local 550 in Paducah, Ky., is making strides to support the tight-knit Western Kentucky community while promoting greater women's participation and leadership in the nuclear industry. Leading the charge as WOS Director since August 2022, Jacquie Wright, a radiation control technician at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion plant, hopes the WOS group can help empower women in an industry traditionally dominated by men and encourage more women to apply for jobs at the plant. “Local 550’s female membership is 20 percent,” said Wright. “I sure hope we can increase that number.” Giving back In less than a year, the WOS group raised significant funds for charities like Toys for Tots, Book for Hope, Starfish Ministry, Sunrise Children's Services, and Cassidy's Cause, generating over $7,000 through their inaugural site-wide partnership luncheon and bake sale. Building upon their accomplishments, the Women of Steel intend to transform the initiative into an annual event. The group of around 50 active members also receives support from male volunteers who are proud members of USW Local 550. Beyond fundraising, the WOS group engages in community outreach, assembling essential toiletry bags for the homeless and organizing a charity golf scramble and basketball tournament to raise funds and foster participation among Local 550 members. Empowering next generations With a rich background of 28 years in the medical field where she specialized in radiation control, Wright acknowledges the USW’s vital role in advocating for workers’ safety, and she firmly believes that the Women of Steel can make a lasting impact on addressing the gender imbalance within the atomic industry. “We want the numbers of women in the field to go up, and we want women to know that there are jobs in radiation control that they can do just like the men can do,” said Wright. Wright recently participated in a local high school career day, demonstrating how to use radiation control instruments and enlightening students about the opportunities available to them, and to women in particular, in the atomic industry. USW Local 550, in conjunction with the Tony Mazzocchi Center and the local community, developed a Radiation Control Technician training program that has been instrumental in filling a void of radiation technicians at DOE sites across the country. “This training program gives students a unique opportunity to obtain an education in a non-traditional setting while making a competitive wage,” said Wright. Wright and her dedicated USW co-workers demonstrate unwavering commitment to public and worker safety through their diligent testing and proper handling of radiological waste at the site. Now, their efforts extend beyond safety as they embrace equity and community engagement, amplifying their impact and driving positive change within the nuclear industry. — May 23
  • Workers at Idaho National Lab Reach Major Nuclear Milestones
    Workers at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) hit two major project milestones this spring. In March, workers at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) transferred the last spent nuclear fuel from a water-filled storage basin to a dry storage facility, completing the project at the Department of Energy (DOE) site nine months ahead of schedule. The project – which involved emptying the largest basin of wet nuclear fuel storage in the world – took nearly two decades to complete. Workers at INL also helped the facility achieve another major milestone on April 11 with the launch of a first-of-its-kind Integrative Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), a 53,000-square-foot facility for treating radioactive and hazardous liquid waste from underground tanks. The Office of Environmental Management first broke ground on the facility 16 years ago. “We just processed some of our first radioactive canisters,” said Jace Radford, a member of Local 12-652 who has been a Radiological Control Technician for six years at INL. “The changes and upgrades they’ve made to the site over the years have worked fantastically.” Those upgrades include the use of a robot decontamination system, which Radford said has worked extremely well to safely put clean canisters into underground storage vaults. Many of the workers at INL have worked on the IWTU project for years, which converts liquid waste to a solid material and requires careful handling of and monitoring for radioactive contamination. “We’re hitting milestones right now, and this could bring in a lot of work now that it’s running,” said Radford. “A lot of people are excited about it, and it’s been exciting for me because I’ve been really invested in this project for a while.” Radford attended the USW’s Health, Safety and Environment Conference in Pittsburgh in April, where he got to share his experience as a radiological control technician with other conference attendees as a worker-trainer for the USW’s Tony Mazzocchi Center. — May 23
  • The Oilworker: May 2023
    A Message From the NOBP Chair It is once again with a heavy heart that I share the news of a fallen USW Brother. Scott Higgins from Local 13-1 died in a fire at the Marathon Galveston Bay refinery on Monday, May 15. Two other workers were also hospitalized. Please keep his family, our Brothers and Sisters from Local 13-1 and all the others impacted by the fire in your thoughts and prayers. This is the most recent in a string of serious incidents in our industry, which, despite our sustained efforts, continues to struggle with health and safety. In just the past few weeks, four workers were hospitalized due to a gas leak at Marathon’s Wilmington Refinery in Los Angeles and nine more as a result of a massive fire in Deer Park at a Shell Chemical Plant. This rate of injury is unacceptable. It is imperative that, as a union, we are a central part of the investigations following these incidents so that we can ensure that we’re identifying the true root causes. We also push employers to not just take superficial corrective actions but also to follow through on deeper solutions so that we truly eliminate the hazards and prevent these sorts of incidents from happening again. Our industry had its best financial year ever in 2022 and followed up with an even stronger first quarter in 2023. Companies are flush with cash and should be making needed upgrades; they have absolutely no excuse for putting health and safety on the backburner. Many of you attended the recent USW Health, Safety and Environment conference, where we were able to share resources and recommit ourselves to continuing the fight to make health and safety the top priority in our plants. Now, we must continue to fight to ensure our employers don’t get away with putting profits ahead of safety. We must hold them accountable when they violate regulations, procedures or any other rules. If you are facing these or any challenges related to health and safety in your plant, please utilize all of the available USW resources including your USW and joint health and safety committees and your health and safety and process safety management representatives. These resources can provide immediate assistance as well as channeling support from the USW Health and Safety Department. On April 28, we marked Workers’ Memorial Day, a time when we remember those who were sickened or died on the job and renew our fight for safer workplaces. This past month made it clear how urgent these tasks remain. Please remain vigilant, look out for one another and stay safe. In solidarity, Mike SmithNOPB Chair[email protected] — May 18
  • The Foundation of Our Union: Activists Share Commitment to Healthier and Safer Workplaces
    It didn’t take Eva Diodati and her fellow Local 9562 members long to appreciate the value of union activism on health and safety. Just a few months after Diodati and about 300 fellow Carnegie Library workers voted to join the union, they were in the midst of bargaining their first contract in early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. Members negotiated with management of the 20-location system to ensure workers kept their jobs and continued to be paid through a four-month shutdown, then guaranteed that, when the libraries reopened, workers had proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and other safeguards in place. The local ratified its first contract in 2022. “Our primary goal has always been to look out for each other,” said member Sierra Baril, who, along with her USW colleagues, received the union’s Karen Silkwood Award for building solidarity through health and safety. Boosting Activism Baril, Diodati and other Local 9562 leaders led a discussion on the importance of local union health and safety activism at the 2023 USW Health, Safety and Environment Conference this April in Pittsburgh. That dialogue was one of the scores of workshops, training sessions, speeches and other events at the conference intended to bolster member education and activism on health and safety. Those efforts have already changed millions of lives for the better and will continue to do so if workers keep up the fight, said International President Tom Conway. “Nobody should be under the illusion that health and safety just takes care of itself,” Conway told the gathering of 2,000 USW and Communications Workers of America (CWA) activists at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. “These things happen because we work hard and we push it. That’s what makes us a union. That’s what pulls us together. You are the foundation of that. The health and safety work that we do is the foundation of our union.” Growing the Union That work also is the key to growing the union movement and ensuring it is strong enough to protect future generations of workers, said Steve Sallman, USW director of health, safety and environment. “We’re going to continue to build the union with member involvement and to make healthier and safer workplaces,” Sallman vowed as he welcomed his predecessor, Mike Wright, to the stage for an address that celebrated the success USW members and other activists have had in doing just that. From the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 1971 to “right to know” and process safety management rules, to workplace standards for exposure to toxic chemicals, silica, beryllium, and other hazardous substances, workers have won countless victories to improve safety and health, said Wright, who directed the USW’s work on those issues from 1984 to 2021. “I didn’t accomplish anything,” Wright said. “You accomplished so much, and we in the union accomplished so much.” Tragic Losses In some cases, those advancements came in the wake of tragedies that shed light on workplace hazards. That sobering fact was evident on day two of the five-day gathering, when participants memorialized co-workers who lost their lives on the job since the last conference in 2019. Members stood in reverent silence as 116 workers’ names scrolled on the screens before them, each one representing a life unnecessarily cut short by uncontrolled hazards. For District 10 Director Bernie Hall, the memorial was a powerful reminder that making safer workplaces is the most important fight union members have. When he was a budding union leader in 2010, an explosion at the factory where he worked took the lives of two USW members. It was a day that changed Hall and his siblings forever. “I don’t know how we got through it, but I know that we wouldn’t have without the membership and resources in our union,” he said. The Hidden Fight Marty Warren, national director for Canada, reminded the crowd that on-the-job deaths aren’t the only tragedies that workers experience. Diseases arising from unhealthy conditions also claim countless lives, Warren said.  “This is sometimes more hidden. It creeps up on us and affects us later in life,” he said. “The fight never ends for healthier and safer workplaces.” As the conference convened, Sallman asked the crowd how many members were attending the event for the first time, and about 70 percent of the hands in the room went up. Those first-timers included Local 183 members Julian Hernandez, Isabel Moreno, and Ann Marie Ruiz, who work at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, Calif. The trio said they hoped to use what they learned at the conference to build solidarity in their 750-member local. Effects of COVID Many workers are still suffering from the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ruiz said. That was part of the reason why this year, for the first time, the conference included a track of workshops and training sessions focused on health care. Hernandez, Local 183 Next Gen coordinator, said he hoped to return home and communicate the importance of health and safety to newer workers who may not know how much the union does for them. “If I can be a type of bridge to the next generation, that’s my motivation,” he said. In addition to union leaders, other officials addressing the conference included OSHA Director Douglas Parker; Christopher Williamson of the Mine Safety and Health Administration; U.S. Chemical Safety Board member Sylvia Johnson; and James Frederick, a longtime member of the USW health and safety department who has served since 2021 as deputy assistant secretary of labor for OSHA. Parker said the administration has an “absolute intolerance” for employers who disregard health and safety. “We have your backs,” he said. Health and Safety Awards The USW presents the I.W. Abel Award to individuals who act heroically to save or attempt to save a life in the workplace. The 2023 recipient was Amanda West of Local 507, at Evergreen Packaging, District 9. The USW presents the Karen Silkwood Award to local unions that build solidarity through health, safety and Environment work. The 2023 recipients included Local 9562 at the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh, District 10, and the health care workers of Local 9600 in Oroville, Calif. The A.Q. Evans Award is given to local unions for outstanding accomplishments in occupational safety and health. The 2023 recipients included:
    • USW Locals at Bridgestone/Firestone
    • Local 1011-9 at Safety-Kleen Systems, District 7
    • Local 6486 at Glencore and Canadian Electrolytic Zinc, District 5
    The J. William Lloyd Award is given to an individual or organization from outside the USW for outstanding service in the cause of worker safety and health. The 2023 recipient was Randy Rabinowitz, founder and executive director of the Occupational Safety and Health Law Project.     — May 12