By Tom Conway USW International President Workers at Blue Bird Corp. in Fort Valley, Ga., launched a union drive to secure better wages, work-life balance and a voice on the job. The company resisted them. History defied them. Geography worked against them. But they stood together, believed in themselves and…

By Tom Conway USW International President Chad Newcome confided little to his wife over the years about the failing pension fund that threatened their dreams, wanting to spare her the anxiety that haunted him day and night. But two years ago, after congressional Democrats passed legislation saving dozens of multiemployer…

By Tom Conway USW International President He was known to be aggressive and argumentative, the kind of patron who made others at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh branch uneasy. But one day last year, the man walked into the building in a much darker mood, harassed a librarian and threatened…

By Tom Conway USW International President Dominick Sapien’s patient threw up during cardiac arrest several months ago, and he instinctively grabbed a suction tool to clear the man’s airway. The device failed to turn on, so Sapien picked up another. When it also failed, he reached for a third. When…

By Tom Conway USW International President Gregory Washington joined the Marines at 18 and fought in the Gulf War, only to return — traumatized, unemployed, adrift — to an America that seemed as unfamiliar and daunting to him as the places he encountered overseas. It took Washington years to find…

By Tom Conway USW International President Among the handful of neurologically impaired patients in Judy Danella’s care one day last week were three so ill that they struggled just to swallow. She fed each of them in turn, delivering spoonful after spoonful of pureed food, patiently nourishing them toward better…

By Tom Conway USW International President The United Steelworkers (USW) mounted tireless battles for fair trade and other lifelines that helped to keep McLouth Steel open during the 1980s, enabling Jay McMurran and thousands of other Michigan workers to raise families and build pensions amid one of the nation’s worst…

By Tom Conway USW International President Hundreds of Boston school bus drivers stood to lose their jobs when COVID-19 closed the city’s schools in 2020. But instead of giving up on drivers, André François and other leaders of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 8751 collaborated with with Marty Walsh, then the…

By Tom Conway USW International President Brad Greve said he and other expedition leaders repeatedly told the group of Boy Scouts to watch out for a section of stream where the water picked up speed and swept over rapids into the lake below. But two of the boys forgot the…