UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA
Five Gateway Center
Pittsburgh PA 15222

April 28, 2000

To: All Steelworkers
From: George Becker
Subject: A Message From Pittsburgh

Bring your child to work day. Yesterday was bring your daughter to work day. But here in headquarters we don’t think daughters should have all the fun so all children of Steelworker headquarters employees are invited. And 50 came. In addition to learning about the union they made signs and had a rally against PNTR for China. It was a great rally and was covered by the local newspapers and one local TV station.

Kaiser Lockout. Our locked out Kaiser members received some good news this week. The NLRB in Washington DC decided to issue an unfair labor practice complaint against the company. The complaint will charge that the company’s lockout violated U.S. labor laws. The remedy for Kaiser’s unlawful action is full back pay and benefits retroactive to Jan. 14, 1999. Of course, we fully expect the company to fight it, but if they persist and we are ultimately successful it will mean millions of dollars in back pay.

Workers Memorial Day. Today is Workers Memorial Day in the U.S. and National Day of Mourning in Canada. Here at headquarters there will be a ceremony sponsored by Local 3657 in which I will participate. Other events are planned throughout the U.S. In Canada from Wednesday to today Steelworkers across Canada have been talking to high school students about health and safety. The emphasis on education of youth is entirely appropriate. In one year in Ontario there were 18,000 young workers hurt on the job. Seven of them died. We must rededicate our efforts to prevent these accidents. In the words of Mother Jones, “Mourn for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”