USW@Work: Winter 2026

Brad Dalton first walked through the door at Milbank Manufacturing Co. in Kansas City at the age of 20, expecting that he would work there for a few years and then move on.

Nearly 30 years later, he is a fixture at the family-owned operation and a leader in his local union, mentoring the next generation of USW members at the nearly century-old Missouri company.

“It’s been very consistent,” Dalton said of his work at Milbank, noting that he only experienced one layoff in three decades, and even that was for less than a week.

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International President Leaves Behind Incomparable Legacy of Advocacy

David McCall was 18 years old when he joined Local 6787 and went to work as a millwright at Bethlehem Steel’s sprawling Burns Harbor Works in northwestern Indiana.

When he stepped down as the USW’s ninth international president on March 1, McCall left a nearly six-decade legacy of activism and advocacy on behalf of American workers and an indelible mark on the lives of countless USW members.

“It’s impossible to overstate the impact that Dave McCall has had on the Steelworkers’ union and the labor movement,” International Vice President Roxanne Brown said as she prepared to succeed McCall. “Dave has been fighting for justice and fairness since the day he went to work, and he’s given his heart and soul to our movement.”

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USW Activists Work Hard to Identify and Eliminate On-The-Job Hazards

In July 2025, Kerry Halter, president of Local 752L at the Cooper-Goodyear plant in Texarkana, Ark., invited a USW team to participate in a thorough inspection of the tire factory in hopes of addressing health and safety concerns at the place where he has worked for more than 30 years.

Along with representatives of Goodyear who happened to be at the plant the same day, Halter and other USW members conducted a walk-through of the sprawling factory, taking note of numerous potential hazards and reviewing the facility’s compliance with safety protocols and best practices for the site’s 1,800 union and salaried workers.

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Bill to Aid Former Service Members Named for Late President Conway

Veterans of Steel from across the country stood with USW leaders and U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio this winter in Washington, D.C., as the former Steelworkers organizer introduced a bill that would help veterans gain access to the benefits they earned through their service.

“Anyone who ever served, you wrote this country a blank check,” said Deluzio, himself a U.S. Navy veteran who served in the Iraq War. “In return, our government makes a sacred promise that you will have the care and the benefits that you earned and that you need.”

Making sure veterans can gain access to those necessary benefits is the goal behind the Thomas M. Conway Veterans Access to Resources in the Workplace Act, sponsored by Rep. Deluzio, along with Rep. Nick LaLota of New York. Sens. Angus King of Maine and Jim Banks of Indiana are co-sponsoring the bill in the U.S. Senate.

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Members Prepare for 2026 Conference, Lobby Day in Washington, D.C.

Five years ago, as the world was slowly beginning to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States was in dire need of a comprehensive federal program to upgrade its crumbling infrastructure. Leaders in Washington had promised one for several years but failed to deliver.

That’s when USW members – led by the union’s legion of Rapid Response activists – spoke up in huge numbers and demanded that Congress pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Thousands of Steelworkers’ phone calls, e-mails, letters and postcards were punctuated by the USW’s 2,300-mile “We Supply America” caravan.

That activism paid off in November 2021 when President Joe Biden signed the $1.2 trillion legislation, providing upgrades to the nation’s roads, bridges, public transit, water, internet, and energy systems, while creating tens of thousands of jobs at USW workplaces and elsewhere.

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