Leo Gerard
Encyclopedia
Leo W. Gerard is a steelworker and a Canadian
and American
labor
leader. He was elected president of the United Steelworkers
(USW) in 2001, and is the second Canadian to head the union. He is also a vice president of the AFL-CIO
.
, at the time an unincorporated suburb of Sudbury. His father, Wilfred Gerard, was a miner at the Creighton Mine and a key organizer with the International Mine Mill and Smelter Workers' Union
(which merged with the United Steelworkers in 1967). He grew up in Sudbury. Taught that unions were supposed to be engaged on social issues
and not just collective bargaining
, Gerard often listened in on union meetings conducted in the family home. He handed out leaflets on the eve of a strike at the age of 11, and accompanied his father on a union organizing drive at the age of 13.
After graduating from high school, Gerard took a job at the Inco nickel smelter in Sudbury, unclogging tuyeres with a sledgehammer. He was elected steward and then chief steward of the 7,000-member Local 6500. He enrolled at Laurentian University
, studying economics
and planning to be an economics professor. He quit college in 1977 when he was just a few credits short of graduation, and took a job as a staff representative for the international union.
He married his high school sweetheart, Susan, and they have two daughters.
Gerard rose steadily within the Steelworkers union hierarchy over the next two decades. He was elected director of USW District 6 in 1985 and re-elected in 1989, and was appointed national director of the Canadian division of the USW in August 1991. He was elected secretary-treasurer of the international union in 1993, and again in 1997. While USW secretary-treasurer, Gerard instituted a number of important administrative initiatives. He implemented cost-saving and revenue-generating initiatives, reorganized the secretary-treasurer's office, created an information technology department, developed a new union-to-member communications network, restructured member and local union servicing, and reinvigorated the union's organizing efforts.
Gerard eventually returned to Laurentian University and received a bachelor's degree
in economics
and politics
. The university awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1994.
resigned effective February 28, 2001, seven months before his term of office was to end. The Steelworkers' executive council appointed Gerard his successor on February 21. Gerard quickly assembled a slate of supporters (many of them incumbent officers in the international union), and announced he would run for the presidency in the union's regularly scheduled elections in November 2001. He was elected without opposition to four-year terms in 2001, 2005 and 2009. Gerard was the second Canadian to head the United Steelworkers, after Lynn R. Williams
(1983-1994).
In his first two terms in office, Gerard oversaw in a significant number of union mergers with the USW. The USW merged with the 12,000-member American Flint Glass Workers Union in 2003, the 50,000-member Industrial, Wood and Allied Workers of Canada
in 2004, 3,000 former members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees in Canada in 2004, and the 1,150-member Independent Steelworkers Union in 2007. But the most important merger was in 2005 with the 250,000-member Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union
(PACE), a merger which made the USW the largest industrial union in North America.
Gerard has adopted a global perspective on unionization. Beginning in 2003, he has signed strategical alliances pledging mutual support on workers' rights, organizing, and collective bargaining with the World Aluminum Conference of the International Metalworkers' Federation
, Australian Workers' Union
, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
of Australia, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic
, Confederação Nacional dos Metalúrgicos of Brazil, and the Canadian Region of the Communications Workers of America
. In 2005, Gerard negotiated a strategic alliance with the million-member Amicus
, the United Kingdom
's second-largest trade union and the largest private sector union. Two years later, this strategic alliance led to a merger between the USW and Amicus' successor, the 1.8 million-member Unite
. The two unions adopted a new name, Workers Uniting
, although both unions will retain their individual identities for at least a few years.
He returned to Sudbury for a visit in 2008 after an arson incident burned down the historic Sudbury Steelworkers Hall
, where he had gotten his start as an organizer with Local 6500, and told the city's media that seeing the burned building was one of the most traumatic events of his life. Steel's head office subsequently donated $10,000 to the city's police force as a reward for any information that led to an arrest.
Gerard suffered a blood clot (thrombus
) in his heart in February 2008, and successfully underwent heart surgery to remove the blockage.
(ICEM). A member of the executive committee of the International Metalworkers' Federation
, he co-chaired the federation's World Aluminum Conference in 2003.
Gerard is a member of two federal government commissions, the U.S.-China China Economic and Security Review Commission and the National Commission on Energy Policy.
Gerard was elected a vice president of the AFL-CIO in 2001, elected to the AFL-CIO Executive Council in 2001, and appointed to serve on the labor federation's Executive Committee in February 2003. He was instrumental in the formation of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, and was named chair of the AFL-CIO's Public Policy Committee in March 2005.
He also is a member of the Apollo Alliance
, a group which works toward North American energy independence
and cleaner and more efficient energy alternatives.
, Battle in Seattle
by Stuart Townsend
. Gerard and USW vice president Tom Conway are seen dragging two large concrete planters
into an intersection near the Washington State Convention and Trade Center
during the 1999 WTO protests
in an attempt to help protesters block access to the WTO meetings. Gerard and Conway came under fire by Seattle police during the incident.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
labor
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
leader. He was elected president of the United Steelworkers
United Steelworkers
The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union is the largest industrial labor union in North America, with 705,000 members. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, U.S., the United Steelworkers represents workers in the United...
(USW) in 2001, and is the second Canadian to head the union. He is also a vice president of the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
.
Early life and career
Gerard was born in 1947 in Creighton Mine, OntarioOntario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, at the time an unincorporated suburb of Sudbury. His father, Wilfred Gerard, was a miner at the Creighton Mine and a key organizer with the International Mine Mill and Smelter Workers' Union
Western Federation of Miners
The Western Federation of Miners was a radical labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into sharp conflicts – and often pitched battles...
(which merged with the United Steelworkers in 1967). He grew up in Sudbury. Taught that unions were supposed to be engaged on social issues
Social Movement Unionism
Social Movement Unionism is a trend of theory and practice in contemporary trade unionism. Strongly associated with the labour movements of developing countries, Social Movement Unionism is distinct from many other models of trade unionism because it concerns itself with more than organising...
and not just collective bargaining
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...
, Gerard often listened in on union meetings conducted in the family home. He handed out leaflets on the eve of a strike at the age of 11, and accompanied his father on a union organizing drive at the age of 13.
After graduating from high school, Gerard took a job at the Inco nickel smelter in Sudbury, unclogging tuyeres with a sledgehammer. He was elected steward and then chief steward of the 7,000-member Local 6500. He enrolled at Laurentian University
Laurentian University
Laurentian University , was incorporated on March 28, 1960, is a mid-sized bilingual university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada....
, studying economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
and planning to be an economics professor. He quit college in 1977 when he was just a few credits short of graduation, and took a job as a staff representative for the international union.
He married his high school sweetheart, Susan, and they have two daughters.
Gerard rose steadily within the Steelworkers union hierarchy over the next two decades. He was elected director of USW District 6 in 1985 and re-elected in 1989, and was appointed national director of the Canadian division of the USW in August 1991. He was elected secretary-treasurer of the international union in 1993, and again in 1997. While USW secretary-treasurer, Gerard instituted a number of important administrative initiatives. He implemented cost-saving and revenue-generating initiatives, reorganized the secretary-treasurer's office, created an information technology department, developed a new union-to-member communications network, restructured member and local union servicing, and reinvigorated the union's organizing efforts.
Gerard eventually returned to Laurentian University and received a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
and politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
. The university awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1994.
USW presidency
Concerned that his age hindered the USW's ability to deal effectively with the problems confronting workers, President George BeckerGeorge Becker
George Becker was a steelworker, American labor leader and president of the United Steelworkers from 1993 to 2001. During his tenure as president of the Steelworkers, Becker also served as a vice president of the AFL-CIO.-Early life:Becker was born in 1928 in Madison, Illinois, to George and...
resigned effective February 28, 2001, seven months before his term of office was to end. The Steelworkers' executive council appointed Gerard his successor on February 21. Gerard quickly assembled a slate of supporters (many of them incumbent officers in the international union), and announced he would run for the presidency in the union's regularly scheduled elections in November 2001. He was elected without opposition to four-year terms in 2001, 2005 and 2009. Gerard was the second Canadian to head the United Steelworkers, after Lynn R. Williams
Lynn R. Williams
Lynn Russell Williams, OC is a former American labour leader that became a U.S.W.A. member in 1947 while employed by John Inglis Co. Local 2900 in Toronto Ontario and rose through the ranks to become International President of the United Steelworkers from 1983 to 1994...
(1983-1994).
In his first two terms in office, Gerard oversaw in a significant number of union mergers with the USW. The USW merged with the 12,000-member American Flint Glass Workers Union in 2003, the 50,000-member Industrial, Wood and Allied Workers of Canada
International Woodworkers of America
International Woodworkers of America was an industrial union of lumbermen, sawmill workers, timber transportation workers and others formed in 1937....
in 2004, 3,000 former members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees in Canada in 2004, and the 1,150-member Independent Steelworkers Union in 2007. But the most important merger was in 2005 with the 250,000-member Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union
Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union
The Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union was an international union that represented workers in the United States and Canada...
(PACE), a merger which made the USW the largest industrial union in North America.
Gerard has adopted a global perspective on unionization. Beginning in 2003, he has signed strategical alliances pledging mutual support on workers' rights, organizing, and collective bargaining with the World Aluminum Conference of the International Metalworkers' Federation
International Metalworkers' Federation
International Metalworkers' Federation is a global union federation of metalworkers' trade unions, founded in Zürich, Switzerland in August 1893...
, Australian Workers' Union
Australian Workers' Union
The Australian Workers' Union is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s, and currently has approximately 135,000 members...
, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union is Australia's main trade union in construction, forestry and furnishing products, mining and energy production....
of Australia, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic
National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic
The National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic is a union of coal and copper miners, as well as iron and steel workers, in Mexico. It was founded in 1934, and in 1936 it became an affiliate of the newly formed Confederation of Mexican Workers .The SNTMMSRM's leaders were...
, Confederação Nacional dos Metalúrgicos of Brazil, and the Canadian Region of the Communications Workers of America
Communications Workers of America
Communications Workers of America is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States representing about 550,000 members in both the private and public sectors. The union has 27 locals in Canada via CWA-SCA Canada representing about 8,000 members...
. In 2005, Gerard negotiated a strategic alliance with the million-member Amicus
Amicus
Amicus was the United Kingdom's second-largest trade union, and the largest private sector union, formed by the merger of Manufacturing Science and Finance, the AEEU agreed in 2001, and two smaller unions, UNIFI and the GPMU...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's second-largest trade union and the largest private sector union. Two years later, this strategic alliance led to a merger between the USW and Amicus' successor, the 1.8 million-member Unite
Unite the Union
Unite – the Union, known as Unite, is a British and Irish trade union, formed on 1 May 2007, by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union...
. The two unions adopted a new name, Workers Uniting
Workers Uniting
Workers Uniting is a trans-Atlantic trade union created in 2008 by a merger of Unite the Union of the United Kingdom and Ireland with the U.S.-based United Steelworkers union . Both unions still retain individual branding and leadership.The merged union has a membership of three million members....
, although both unions will retain their individual identities for at least a few years.
He returned to Sudbury for a visit in 2008 after an arson incident burned down the historic Sudbury Steelworkers Hall
Sudbury Steelworkers Hall
The Sudbury Steelworkers Hall was a historic labour union hall in Sudbury, Ontario, which was destroyed by a fire on September 19, 2008.-History:...
, where he had gotten his start as an organizer with Local 6500, and told the city's media that seeing the burned building was one of the most traumatic events of his life. Steel's head office subsequently donated $10,000 to the city's police force as a reward for any information that led to an arrest.
Gerard suffered a blood clot (thrombus
Thrombus
A thrombus , or blood clot, is the final product of the blood coagulation step in hemostasis. It is achieved via the aggregation of platelets that form a platelet plug, and the activation of the humoral coagulation system...
) in his heart in February 2008, and successfully underwent heart surgery to remove the blockage.
Other roles
In 2002, he chaired the Second World Rubber Industries Conference in São Paulo, Brazil and served as chair of the Rubber Sector of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' UnionsInternational Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions
International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions is a global union federation of trade unions. As of November 2007, ICEM represented 467 industrial trade unions in 132 countries, claiming a membership of over 20 million workers.The organization represents workers...
(ICEM). A member of the executive committee of the International Metalworkers' Federation
International Metalworkers' Federation
International Metalworkers' Federation is a global union federation of metalworkers' trade unions, founded in Zürich, Switzerland in August 1893...
, he co-chaired the federation's World Aluminum Conference in 2003.
Gerard is a member of two federal government commissions, the U.S.-China China Economic and Security Review Commission and the National Commission on Energy Policy.
Gerard was elected a vice president of the AFL-CIO in 2001, elected to the AFL-CIO Executive Council in 2001, and appointed to serve on the labor federation's Executive Committee in February 2003. He was instrumental in the formation of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, and was named chair of the AFL-CIO's Public Policy Committee in March 2005.
He also is a member of the Apollo Alliance
Apollo Alliance
The Apollo Alliance is a project organized by the Institute for America's Future and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy. The Alliance is a project of the Tides Center....
, a group which works toward North American energy independence
North American energy independence
North American energy independence is a stated goal of those who believe that the North American nations - the USA, Canada and Mexico - must reduce their reliance on oil purchased from outside the continent....
and cleaner and more efficient energy alternatives.
In popular culture
News footage of Gerard is included in the 2008 documentaryDocumentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, Battle in Seattle
Battle in Seattle
Battle in Seattle is a 2007 film and the directorial debut of actor Stuart Townsend. It is based on the protest activity at the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999...
by Stuart Townsend
Stuart Townsend
Stuart Townsend is an Irish actor and director. His most notable portrayals are of the characters Lestat de Lioncourt in the 2002 film adaptation of Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned, and Dorian Gray in the 2003 film adaptation of Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.-Early life and...
. Gerard and USW vice president Tom Conway are seen dragging two large concrete planters
Jardiniere
Jardinière is a French word, from the feminine form of "gardener." Jardinière has three meanings:#The first meaning of jardinière is also a large stand, pot, urn, or receptacle upon which, or into which, plants may be placed. Jardinieres tend to be highly decorative...
into an intersection near the Washington State Convention and Trade Center
Washington State Convention and Trade Center
The Washington State Convention Center is a convention center located next to and over Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle, Washington, adjacent to Freeway Park. Planning for its construction began in 1982; construction began in 1985, and the center opened on June 18, 1988. An expansion that doubled...
during the 1999 WTO protests
WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity
Protest activity surrounding the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, which was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations, occurred on November 30, 1999 , when the World Trade Organization convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington,...
in an attempt to help protesters block access to the WTO meetings. Gerard and Conway came under fire by Seattle police during the incident.