Gaylan Z. Prescott

Director District 12

The USW International Executive Board named Gaylan Z. Prescott the District 12 Director in December 2019, following the death of Director Robert LaVenture. Prescott had served as Assistant to LaVenture for nearly two years. In 2021, Prescott was elected to the post.

After graduating from high school in Kelso, Wash., Prescott attended community college, completed EMT certification, and worked alongside migrant farm workers in the Yakima Valley.

He then followed in the footsteps of his father and other family members, working for nearly 20 years at Reynolds Metals Co. producing primary aluminum from alumina in the pot rooms and casting aluminum ingots in the casting facilities at the company’s Longview Reduction Plant.

Prescott was originally a member of the Aluminum, Brick and Glass Workers (ABG) International Union, which merged with the USW.

Prescott launched his career as a union activist in 1986 as a shop steward at Reynolds. In 1990, he was elected to his first of three terms as president of the Longview Federated Aluminum Council, which represented about 750 workers in multiple unions throughout the facility. He was elected to the ABG Executive Council just before the merger with the Steelworkers. 

In January 1999, the USW hired Prescott to assist 2,900 members locked out at five Kaiser Aluminum plants in Washington, Ohio and Louisiana, in what proved to be one of the most contentious work stoppages in union history. The USW named Prescott a Staff Representative in December 1999 and assigned him to oversee District 12’s Sub-District 3 in 2012.

Prescott served on the board of the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment, an early labor-environmental partnership. He has chaired the board of the Western Independent Shops Pension Plan for 15 years. 

The District 12 headquarters is in Castle Rock, Colo.