Delegates Call Organizing Essential to Just and Equitable Society 

Convention delegates on Tuesday celebrated the USW’s groundbreaking organizing victories and adopted a blueprint for extending the benefits of union members to more workers. 

Delegates gave a rousing welcome to members who joined the USW since the 2022 convention. This included 1,500 workers at the Blue Bird bus company in Fort Valley, Ga., who defied the U.S. South’s long hostility to unions and went on to bargain a life-changing first contract.

“Change starts from within,” observed Dee Thomas, a worker at Blue Bird and delegate from Local 697 who rose in support of organizing efforts. “I believe that everybody deserves the same opportunity to organize on the job.” 

Delegates also watched a video recounting how District 6 members organized thousands of security guards in recent years, helping to transform a shadow work force into a respected group of workers with higher pay and better benefits. 

“We are improving the lives of the people who are coming up behind us,” Local 9597 President Sherry Charette said on the video, noting the dental benefits in her USW contract enabled her to get a crown “for the first time ever.” 

Many workers overcame employer opposition and other challenges to organize. But the stakes couldn’t be higher, delegates noted, with unions providing the only true firewall against corporate power, shareholder greed and widening inequality. 

Delegates passed a resolution to guide the USW’s future organizing efforts and build a “more just and equitable society.” 

The plan includes additional organizing in core sectors while growing the USW’s representation of workers in new industries, with a special emphasis on larger workplaces and key geographic areas. 

It also calls for the union to redouble internal organizing, ensuring members remain engaged. In addition, given the power of workers communicating directly with other workers, the resolution directed the USW to continue late International President Tom Conway’s initiative to train members as organizers and send them into the field to bring the union to others.

Chris Frydenger, president of Local 7-838 in Decatur, Ill., told fellow delegates about his work helping to organize thousands of new members at the University of Pittsburgh and declared: “I’ll remember this for the rest of my life.” 

The resolution further calls for the USW to focus on groups eager for representation, “such as younger workers, women, people of color, and new immigrants to both Canada and the United States.” 

“Let’s build a movement where no worker is invisible,” urged Parvinder Kaur, a delegate and president of Local 5296 in Mississauga, Ont. “When we stand together, every sector gets stronger.”