NEWS from the United Steelworkers of America
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 14, 2000

Becker Announces Retirement as USWA President; Executive Board Selects Gerard as Successor

    PITTSBURGH, Dec. 14 -- George Becker, President of the United
Steelworkers of America (USWA), has announced that he will step down from his
office on February 28 of next year.  At Becker's recommendation, the USWA
Executive Board Tuesday unanimously chose the union's Secretary-Treasurer, Leo
Gerard, to succeed him.
    Becker will remain as president until the end of February.  The Executive
Board took action at this time to facilitate a smooth transition.
    In a communique sent to the union's 700,000 members in the U.S. and
Canada, Becker, who has served as USWA President since 1994, said, "I'm in
good health and I have enjoyed serving as your President more than any other
endeavor in my lifetime, but I know in my heart that it's time to make a
change."
    At Becker's recommendation, the USWA also unanimously chose Jim English to
succeed Gerard as Secretary-Treasurer.  English, who had served as Executive
Assistant to the President during much of Becker's administration, has more
recently served as the union's General Counsel.
    "It will be a great privilege to serve our members as President," Gerard
said, "and a daunting challenge to follow in the footsteps of a leader who has
been absolutely relentless in fighting for the rights of workers, not only
here and in Canada, but throughout the world."
    Gerard, 53, specifically cited Becker's leadership in restructuring the
union into fewer administrative districts, in forging mergers with the United
Rubber Workers (URW) and the Aluminum, Brick and Glass Workers International
Union (ABG), in twice defeating fast track legislation, and as the most
powerful voice in Labor's burgeoning movement to include labor rights and
environmental accords in trade agreements.
    Becker's leadership in mobilizing campaigns to challenge worker lockouts
and the use of permanent replacements by what the union terms "renegade
corporations" is also widely recognized as a significant turning point in the
recent revitalization of the Labor Movement.
    "The dynamism and innovation George showed in winning the struggle for the
aluminum workers who had been permanently replaced at Ravenswood, West
Virginia," said USWA Vice President of Administration Richard Davis, "set a
new standard of activism for unions in combating the assault on workers'
rights."
    The 1,700 union workers at Ravenswood were returned to work and the
"scabs" who had replaced them were all fired as a result of the union's
successful campaign -- the first such union victory after the firing of the
striking Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) during the
1980s.
    Becker built on the Ravenswood victory by successfully overcoming
Bridgestone Firestone's lockout and permanent replacement of its workforce in
1994, following the Steelworkers' merger with the URW.  Again, the
Steelworkers restored its members' jobs.
    More recently, Becker has been instrumental in forging a unique alliance
between the USWA and steel industry leaders, called Stand Up For Steel, to
combat the massive flood of foreign steel being dumped on U.S. and Canadian
markets in violation of national trade laws.
    He has also been in the forefront of developing and strengthening
worldwide networks of unions within industries such as rubber and steel as a
means of strengthening Labor's voice in the face of the growing power of
global corporations.
    Becker, 72, has been a Steelworker for most of his working life.  He hails
from Granite City, Illinois, where he was the son of a steelworker and
literally grew up across the street from Granite City Steel, where he first
went to work.
    Becker enjoys unprecedented popularity among the Steelworkers' rank and
file, owing to his relentless advocacy of workers' rights and a lifetime of
hands on experience rising through the union's ranks, including stints as a
Local Union President, an International Staff Representative, a member of the
International's Health and Safety Department, an Assistant to USWA Presidents
Lloyd McBride and Lynn Williams, and as the union's Vice President of
Administration under Williams.
    "George will be handing over a legacy of unshakable integrity and
commitment to the rights of working families," Gerard said.  "He has done as
much as any president in our history to strengthen our union.  Everything
about his leadership challenges us to strengthen it even more."
    Gerard, the son of a union organizer, worked in an INCO smelter in
Sudbury, Canada, and served as Director of District 6 and as Director of the
union's Canadian National Office before being elected Secretary-Treasurer in
1994.

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