Leo Gerard, United Steelworkers' longest-tenured leader, dies at 78

Leo Gerard spent nearly two decades running the United Steelworkers, a Pittsburgh-based union with profound ties to American industry, but it was his frequent gaze abroad that labor figures say best defined his leadership.

He set the tone early in his tenure, backing Liberian rubber workers in their fight for better working conditions and striking a strategic alliance with one of the United Kingdom’s largest trade unions.

“Leo’s legacy will be uniting workers from around the world,” United Steelworkers District 10 Director Bernie Hall, who Gerard hired in 2011, told TribLive on Monday.

Gerard, who was the union’s longest-serving leader, died Sunday at age 78.

His obituary did not list a cause of death.

He was born in the Canadian province of Ontario, where he would take a job as a nickel smelter at 18 and kick off a lifetime of involvement with the United Steelworkers.

He went on to serve as a staff representative, district director, national director of Canada and secretary-treasurer before being elected international president in 2001.

One of his most significant actions while president was undertaking the 2005 merger of the United Steelworkers with the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union. They combined to make the largest industrial union in North America.

“His strategy of building his union through mergers with smaller unions was very effective and ensured the Steelworkers would continue to be a significant force in American labor,” said Paul Clark, a professor of labor and employment relations at Penn State University.

Today, the United Steelworkers has about 850,000 members.

The union also credits him in assisting with the creation of the Blue-Green Alliance in 2006, a cooperation between labor and environmental organizations, as well as the 50-million member IndustriALL Global Union. It was a bold move, since much of the labor movement was skeptical of environmentalists at the time, according to Clark.

When the global financial crisis hit in 2008, Gerard leveraged trade complaints against foreign companies to help protect domestic industry through the downturn.

“Leo became the preeminent labor trade expert, not because he wanted to, but because he had to,” said Roxanne Brown, the union’s international vice president. “Presidents came to Leo for his knowledge on trade and economic policy.”

He retired in 2019 and was succeeded by Tom Conway. After four years in the role, Conway died and current international president David McCall took his place.

“Leo Gerard spent his entire life fighting for workers across the world, and his impact on the USW, and the global labor movement, has been immeasurable,” McCall said in a statement.

Darrin Kelly, president of the Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council, described Gerard as a “larger than life” figure who led with humility. When Kelly, 50, was early in his career, Gerard took the time to listen to him, he said.

“He didn’t care whether somebody has 30 years in the labor movement or two weeks,” Kelly said. “He treated everyone with the same amount of respect.”

And though Gerard put extra emphasis on the international part of his title, Kelly said he always made time to advance the interests of organized labor in Western Pennsylvania.

Brown recalled similar experiences as Kelly from when she was a young staffer. She’d be next to Gerard at meetings in Washington, D.C. with then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi or the heads of powerful nonprofits, when Gerard would suddenly seek her input.

“He’d turn to me and say, ‘Rox, anything you want to add?’”

One thing she learned from Gerard, she said, was to always take an opportunity to speak.

In a statement, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond said Gerard’s “toughness, grit and fortitude” helped drive a period of significant growth for their union, which is affiliated with the United Steelworkers.

“He cut an imposing figure, but for those of us fortunate enough to know him, what we remember most is his heart — endlessly compassionate and empathetic, especially toward the working class he came from and tirelessly advocated for throughout his life,” Shuler and Redmond said.

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, a former state representative from McKeesport, remember Gerard fondly.

“The labor movement has lost a giant – someone who had presidents on speed dial, but never lost touch with the workers he represented and fought for them tooth and nail,” Davis said in a statement.

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, posted on X about Gerard’s legacy.

“Leo dedicated his life to standing up for steelworkers, for unions, and for the union way of life,” Fetterman wrote.