By: Mick Lowe
On March 1st, 53 year-old Leo Gerard of Sudbury will take the oath of office as International President of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), making him the second Canadian ever to take the helm of the 700,000 member union.
Currently secretary-treasurer of the Pittsburgh-based union, Gerard maintains a gruelling, globe-girdling schedule. Straight Goods senior correspondent Mick Lowe caught up with him twice by phone last week for a tour d'horizon of union affairs and much else.
SG: You've lived in Pittsburgh since becoming USWA Secretary Treasurer in 1993. So where's home these days?
Oh, Sudbury's still home, definitely. As soon as school's out for the summer in Pittsburgh my wife and daughters move back to Sudbury and the lake for the summer holidays, and I get up as often as I can.
SG: Are you a citizen of both countries now?
No. Just Canada.
SG: How will Canadian Steelworkers benefit from having a Canadian as the head of their international union?
I think it'll mainly make a difference on the other side. Yesterday I was in New Orleans meeting with our locals and the management of Goodyear, and I was able to draw everyone's attention to a strike we have going on in Quebec with one of our office and tech units there. Hopefully that helped to bring a sense of urgency to the situation that might not otherwise have been there.
SG: What's the current distribution of members on either side of the line?
We're at around 700,000 right now, with 190,000 of those in Canada. We have nine U.S. districts and three Canadian districts, plus four International Executive officers and the Canadian director at the Board Level. That's a total of 17, five of whom are Canadian, so we're pretty well represented at meetings down here in Pittsburgh.
SG: There was a move afoot a few years ago to merge the USWA with the United Auto Workers and the Machinists' Union in the States, which would have considerably reduced Canadian influence on a pro rata basis, in the new larger, union. What's happening with that initiative?
I wouldn't call it dead, but it's no longer imminent, either. We still work together on a number of projects, but I don't think the formal merger will be proceeding any time soon.
SG: There's been a fair bit of debate within the Canadian Steelworkers' recently about the need of a Canadian Council within the union, or greater Canadian autonomy. Where do you stand on that?
Well, I'm the one who wrote the resolution, which was passed at the International Convention, calling for a task force to study this issue. The problem is that we're an organization based on strong districts. The Canadian Director and the National Office tend to wind up as a servicing arm for the Districts. When I was national director I didn't like that. So what's needed is for the District Directors in Canada to collaborate better with the National Office. It's really up to [Canadian Director] Lawrence McBrearty and the Canadian District Directors to get the task force up and running. I hope it'll happen soon.
SG: Ed Broadbent has recently called for the convening of a national conference to discuss the future and direction of the NDP. If he invited you, would you attend?
Probably, though I'd want to talk to the Canadian District Directors and National Director about it first. I think it's tremendously important that we have a strong social democratic party in Canada, that's something I see the lack of every day in the U.S. If there's an effort being made to renew the movement I'm all for that. The world has changed around us, and we have to find ways to reflect the society that we're dealing in.
SG: Travelling back and forth on a regular basis must give you some interesting insights into U.S.-Canadian relations.
For sure. Every time I come home, it's amazing how parts of Canada feel more like parts of Milwaukee or Chicago or Detroit. I see what the right's doing up there, and there's nothing new in Canada that's not already in the States. The whole move toward private schools and school vouchers, for example. But you have to give them credit; the right's consistent. I think we'd be fooling ourselves to think this is not a problem. On the left we've lacked strong solidarity. We've got five different people bringing five different messages.
SG: Speaking of the lack of solidarity, what's your feeling these days about the strained relations, to put it mildly, between the Canadian Auto Workers and the Canadian Labour Congress?
I'm offended at what's gone on. This was an attempt to steal someone else's members. It has to be resolved by the Service Employees Union [whose members were recruited by the CAW], the CAW, and the CLC. But it goes deeper than that. There must be solidarity within the labour movement about fundamental questions like what kind of society we want. There has to be a better way to run an economy for working people than what's been done.
SG: Watching the American Presidential elections, I had the sense that we in Canada might have something to learn...?
You mean that the Americans can't count? (Laughs.)
SG: No, I mean the stuff about the AFL-CIO phone banks, and data bases being passed out west across the time zones as the polls closed.
Listen, I was more involved in the Presidential election this time than four years ago because it was a real walk for Clinton back then. We had phone banks based right here in Pittsburgh that reached out to 500,000 Steelworker members, spouses and retirees in southwestern Pennsylvania. On nights when I was in town I'd go in and help out, and I was amazed at how many people we contacted compared to going door to door. I'd often talk to fifty people in one evening. And did we ever pull the vote! In Pennsylvania, where labour represents 16.7 percent of eligible voters, we turned out 33 per cent of the total vote. In Michigan it was even higher - 43 percent. I really think the NDP in Canada can learn from these techniques.
Posted, January 22, 2001
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