Merrillville Indiana USW Rally "Keep it Made in America"

On May 11 hundreds of Steelworkers rallied in Merrillville Indiana demanding that manufacturing jobs be maintained in America.

Lonnie Randolf, Indiana State Representative and Tom Conway, United Steelworkers Vice President speaking:

Las Vegas Taxi Drivers protest

Day 2 of the Steelworkers Convention begins with a massive demonstration of over 3000 demanding a new contract for union Las Vegas taxi drivers. The Taxi Alliance workers have been working without a contract since last December. The taxi companies are stonewalling on issues including livable wages, long hours and targeting union drivers for firing.

The Las Vegas Alliance for Taxi and Limousine Drivers is a coalition of more than 5000 drivers who are members of Steelworker local 711A and members of ITPE local 4873.

A highlight of the picketing was a steady stream of taxi drivers on the boulevard with horns blaring as the pickets cheered.

Steelworkers Convention Blast Off – Las Vegas

Leo Gerard, President of the USW, kicked off the convention with a powerful speech. More on the content in a later blog, but the response of the delegates is as much the story.

This is a fired up convention, rowdy, fiesty, pumped, ready, and eager to fight – determined to take back our country for working people – determined to elect Barack Obama and a new Congress – and determined to fight for health care, the Employee Free Choice Act, to protect Social Security and pension and on and on.....

There is fighting momentum here that will go far beyond the November 2008 elections.

I think a delegate I talked to summed it up the best, “It's like this convention is taking a strike vote,” she said. “It's like the union leadership just told us we have no choice but to strike and the membership roared back, 'let's go now!'”

Of particular note was the response to a section of Gerard's keynote where he took a sharp, hard line on looming contract negotiations in the steel and oil industries. He received enthusiastic standing ovations when he said, “We need to fight! We need to be willing to fight!”

Steelworkers on the Move - Blog from Las Vegas

Sitting with over 150 retiree activists at the SOAR (Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees) conference in Las Vegas. Our conference preceeds the United Steelworkers (USW) Convention that starts on Monday.

The atmosphere is electric. The mood and militancy here shows clearly that labor is very much a part of the general upsurge that promises big changes for working people starting after Nov 4, 2008 elections.

The energy here is aimed at what we can win after we win in November: universal health care, the Employee Free Choice Act, re-regulation of industry, protecting social security, creating jobs, ending unfair corporate trade policies, and on and on – fired up retirees don't need to be given issues – we got issues and fighting momentum...

One of the most inspiring speakers was Leo Gerard, president of the Steelworkers. He gave the SOAR delegates an exciting preview of next weeks USW convention.

Gerard likened the possibilities for change today to the elections of Franklin D. Roosevelt for his second term, the election of John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson's defeat of Barry Goldwater in 1964. He called it our time, a transformative time, a time for basic change with the election of Barack Obama and a new Congress.

Gerard also said that this USW convention will make history in three ways: 1. The founding of the first global transatlantic union, 2. a critical dues increase that will be emarked for struggle and fightback in the union's Strike and Defence Fund, and 3. the creation of a new executive board position (Vice President at Large) to be filled by a woman steelworker. Stay tuned.

More on all this later.