United Steelworkers (USW)

United Steelworkers of America is 1.2 million working and retired members throughout the United States and Canada, working together to improve our jobs; to build a better future for our families; and to promote fairness, justice and equality both on the job and in our societies.

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, the USW is the largest industrial union in North America. Members work in just about every sector of the North American economy, from metals and mining and manufacturing, to health care and various services in both the public and private sectors.

USW has a long history of environmental support, beginning with its effort to pass the Clean Air Act. And through its merger with PACE, it inherits the strong environmental tradition of the former Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers, the union that helped pioneer blue-green partnerships-from the vindication of Karen Silkwood (the nuclear worker who was killed while fighting for safety); to the strike against the chemical company, BASF in the 1980s, which spawned a series of environmental groups in Louisiana.  In 2006, the union published an environmental policy statement called Securing Our Children's World. It recognizes global warming as the number one environmental challenge facing the world and calls for massive investments in renewable energy and efficiency creating millions of new jobs. The USW policy also calls for protecting the Arctic Wildlife Refuge and winning real "chemical security" through the substitution of toxics.

For more information about the USW, visit the union's web site.

USW Associate Member Program

The Steelworkers' Associate Membership program opens up the union's membership to individual workers and activists no matter where they work or what they do.  Find out more or sign up today.