Workers Leading the Way

Leslie is joined by Tom Conway, President of the United Steelworkers (USW), North America’s largest industrial union.
They’re 1.2 million members and retirees strong in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. They proudly represent men and women who work in nearly every industry there is.

The two have a broad conversation about how workers are leading the way in the United States as our society is facing big challenges, from rampant economic inequality to the continuing human and economic toll of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and more.

Here are the subtopics that they covered during the interview, with a big focus on how workers and their unions are taking matters into their own hands to improve their lives, and fight for social and economic justice on a wider scale:

Organizing unions is one of the surest ways to improve wages, ensure safer working conditions and have a voice on the job, and workers in a wide variety of sectors are organizing to draw on their collective power.

- Last fall, 700 workers at Bobcat in Bismarck, N.D., voted to join the USW, and just last week 200 more at a Bobcat facility in Rogers, Minn., did the same.
- Football players in the USFL organized with the USW last year. This year, they overwhelmingly ratified a first contract to help provide safety and stability to their jobs. Now, players in the XFL are also looking to join the USW.

Workers and their unions are leading the way on trade, working to contain bad actors like Russia and China, and foster growth in domestic industries.

Workers are also using their activism to roll back bad laws, like the historic repeal of the so-called right-to-work (RTW) law in Michigan.

USW members have been on the vanguard fighting for less-publicized but equally needed legislation, including bills to help veterans.

The website for the USW is USW.org and their handle on both Twitter and Instagram is @steelworkers.