page_title: Leo Gerard
section_title: USW presidency
hierarchical_section_title: Leo Gerard / USW presidency
caption_attribution_description: Leo Gerard, President of the International Steelworkers, discusses jobs with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak during a round table event at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA, on Friday, September 16, 2011. (Photo by Christopher Rolinson/StartPoint Media, Inc.)
context_page_description: Leo W. Gerard is a retired steelworker and Canadian and American labor leader. He was elected president of the United Steelworkers in 2001, becoming the second Canadian to head the union. He served in the role until July 2019. He is also served on the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO.
context_section_description: Concerned that his age hindered the USW's ability to deal effectively with the problems confronting workers, President George Becker 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.
  Gerard retired in 2019, and was replaced by Thomas M. Conway as International President.
caption: Leo Gerard discusses jobs with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA, Sept. 16, 2011
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4256", "Image ImageLength": "2832", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "Leo Gerard, President of the International Steelworkers, discusses jobs with Secretary of Agriculture  Tom Vilsak during a round table event at Point Park University in Pittsburgh Firday, Sept 16, 2011. (Christopher Rolinson/StartPoint Media, Inc.)", "Image Model": "NIKON D700", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2011:09:16 16:51:43", "Image Artist": "Christopher Rolinson", "Image Copyright": "These images were provided by Christopher Rolinson/StartPoint Media, Inc. copyright free to the USDA and confirmed by telephone call Friday, September 16, 2011 at 1635 EST by Ken Hammond USDA photography division.", "Image ExifOffset": "776", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1522", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4824", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/90", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:09:16 11:30:53", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:09:16 11:30:53", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "6491853/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "1485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "4/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "300", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "16", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "16", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2875", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2459", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "300", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "2412459", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[300, 300, 14/5, 14/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "300.0 mm f/2.8"}