MICHAEL H. BOLTON, DIRECTOR

JANUARY, 2017 • VOLUME 7, ISSUE 1, PAGE 1

USW District 2USW District 2USW District 2 Council Steering CommitteeCouncil Steering CommitteeCouncil Steering Committee

The District 2 Council By-Laws established a District 2 Council Steering Committee comprised of a rank and file structure. It was set up to assist in the following:

Development of agenda for Council Conference.

● Planning of the District Council Conference Educational Conferences.

● District 2 strategic planning.

● Determining and assessing educational needs within the District.

Generating and leading activism and other purposes consistent with the mission and directives of District 2 and the USW.

The elected members of the Steering Committee are listed below by manufacturing sector. If you need to contact a Steering Committee Member, please do so by using the email provided below. 

NameNameName LU#LU#LU# SectorSectorSector Email AddressEmail AddressEmail Address

Hawley Warren 1299 Steel and Related

hwarren1299@comcast.net

Dennis DeMeyer Jr. 2-15 Paper djdemeyer54501@gmail.com

Kevin Bishop 1533 Amalgamated kbishop2219@gmail.com

Jesse Edwards 2-232 Automotive Related

Jesse_edwards2010@yahoo.com

Kent Holsing 12075 Chemical &

Energy Related kentholsing@gmail.com

Mary Jane Holland 9184 Health Care mjhlocal9184@att.net

John Mendyk 12934 Public JohnpMendyk@chartermi.net

Dave Page 1327 At Large dpage004@yahoo.com

Margaret Newton 5965 At Large peg.newton02@gmail.com

Jim Whitt 2-145 Allied Industrial whittjim@yahoo.com

DISTRICT 2 CONTACT IDISTRICT 2 CONTACT IDISTRICT 2 CONTACT INFORMATIONNFORMATIONNFORMATION

USW District 2 Office 1244A Midway Road Menasha, WI 54952 (920) 722-7630

Northern WI & MI Sub-District Office 1244A Midway Road Menasha, WI 54952 (920) 722-7630

Southern WI Sub-District Office 1126 South 70th Street Suite N509A West Allis, WI 53214 (414) 475-4560

Northern MI Sub-District Office 503 North Euclid Avenue Suite #10 - Euclid Plaza Bay City, MI 48706 (989) 667-0660

Southern MI Sub-District Office 20600 Eureka Road, Suite 300 Taylor, MI 48180 (734) 285-0367

— Continued on Page 2 —

In response to our call for permanence, the free traders on Capitol Hill dug in their heels and were prepared to not give an inch. Then Rapid Response issued an Action Call for members to call and e-mail their legislators urging them to support Buy American. In addition to calls and messages, Steelworkers staged actions at legislative offices across the country. The press coverage of those actions resulted in more calls from more constituents, showing Congress it wasn’t just Union people backing the policy. As a result of the pressure you brought on our representatives, and despite Ryan’s continued objection, we were able to secure a one-year extension of the law. Sure, it wasn’t what we had been asking for, but we live to fight another day and we are prepared to fight one day longer than the opposition is willing to.

The second lesson comes out of Lansing, where politicians were preparing to end defined benefit pensions for future public sector workers. Supported by the leadership of the House and Senate, and backed by the deep-pocketed DeVos Family, the pundits were convinced that Organized Labor didn’t have a shot at stopping legislators. However, Unions pulled together like never before to devise a strategy to defeat the right wing attack on workers. With a strategy in place, Labor launched a campaign to raise public awareness of Lansing’s power grab. Together, Unions and concerned public education supporters, made calls to lawmakers, visited their representatives’ offices at the Capitol and at District offices, and wrote letters to the editors of local papers explaining the effort underway to end dignity in retirement.

At the end of the day, the Union and public pressure paid off and the lame duck legislature opted to punt the issue to new legislators who will be seated after the first of the year. Again, it wasn’t the exact outcome we had hoped for, but, we are alive and were given more time to design a new attack and to develop new coalitions with organizations that support our position and will join in the fight with us. At the risk of being redundant, YOU DID THAT. Your calls and e-mails let lawmakers know that while we might not be public sector workers, we are Union members who believe that an injury to one worker is an injury to all. We are prepared to join our brothers and sisters in schools and local governments to fight to protect their hard won wages and benefits.

The two victories I described above should stand as an inspiration to all District 2 Rapid Response Networks to renew their commitment to the program. Upon the retirement of District 2 Rapid Response Coordinator, Jay McMurran, I am appointing Sue Browne of USW Local 5965 in Hastings, MI, to fill that position. Sue and I will be working closely together to identify Rapid Response Networks at each Local, providing those networks proper

A Message from Michael Bolton

is published by the

United Steelworkers District 2 AFL-CIO·CLC

MICHAEL H. BOLTON, Director 1244A Midway Rd., Menasha, WI 54952

(920) 722-7630

Contributors to this issue include:

Lori Gutekunst, Jay McMurran, Tammy Duncan, Ross Winklbauer, Heath Ver Bockel, Steve Donovan, Chris Haddock, Brad Dorff, Jim Allen, Kent Holsing, Chris Borowicz, Tony Pascarella, USW Media Dept.,

History Channel.com, Cheboygan Daily Tribune

Articles and photos are welcome and should be sent to:

Art Kroll, Editor, District 2 News 20600 Eureka Road, Suite 300, Taylor, MI 48180

d2@usw.org • 734-285-0367

JANUARY 27, 2017, is the deadline for submissions for the next issue.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish District 2 Steelworkers and their families a very healthy, happy, prosperous and SAFE New Year. I begin each year with the same thought, “That this will be the year that no District 2 member will lose their life as the result of a workplace accident.”

In 2016, District 2 went the entire year without a fatality in the workplace. Sadly, we did have some serious injuries. With these accidents, one thing all of them had in common is that they could have, and should have, been prevented. As we enter 2017, I would like to challenge each District 2 Steelworker to pledge to work with their Local Union to make this year the one that no members die on the job.

All of us go to work every day to earn a living to provide the best lives possible for our families and ourselves. But we also have an obligation to those same loved ones to arrive home safely each day. We owe it to them to avoid taking short cuts and to stop letting our minds drift. We must bring unsafe conditions to the attention of management or our Local Union Safety Committee. Being employed in a healthy and safe environment is no accident. WE have to work at it; and we have to work together. Please make safety your number one goal at all times. It could help save the life of a co-worker. Better still, it might just save the life of your children’s mom or dad.

During the lame duck legislative sessions held in Lansing and Washington D.C., we learned a couple of valuable lessons as 2016 was coming to a close. The lesson was simple --- YOUR CALLS AND E-MAIL MESSAGES REALLY DO MAKE THE DIFFERENCE.

The first example comes out of the U.S. Congress where the House and Senate were taking up renewal of “Buy American” legislation. We Steelworkers have been fighting for years to keep this policy in place, which requires government entities to purchase American materials and services on all public projects funded by tax payer dollars. We support Buy American not just for the principal, but it’s also a very good way to maintain and create good paying jobs for American workers. Each year, because of threatened action from the World Trade Organization (WTO), it has been getting more difficult to pass the legislation. This year’s effort was even harder because House Speaker, Paul Ryan, was actively pushing for its defeat and due to the fact that in order to avoid ritual of fighting for its renewal, we were asking Congress to make Buy American permanent. policy.

JANUARY, 2017 • VOLUME 7, ISSUE 1, PAGE 2

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www.facebook.com/USWDistrict2

United Steelworkers District 2 AFL-CIO·CLC

MICHAEL H. BOLTON, Director, 1244A Midway Road, Menasha, WI 54952 (920) 722-7630

training and developing methods to improve both the number of Locals involved in each Action Call, and also the number of Local Union members participating in those Actions. Because of the need to give out attention to statewide attacks such as Right to Work and restrictions on collective bargaining rights on public sector members, we were forced to put off some of the basic things that go into making Rapid Response the program it was designed to be. However, it is important to our success to find a way to get back to basics as soon as possible. It’s my hope that you will welcome Sue to your Local Unions and that you will dedicate yourselves to working with her to make our Rapid Response Program the flagship of our Union.

I’ve always felt that Rapid Response is one of the most important programs our International maintains. However, as we prepare to enter the Donald Trump era, the program has become even more critical. The President-elect’s choices for his cabinet read like a who’s who in anti-worker, anti-Union billionaires in America. Especially his pick for Labor Secretary, Andy Puzder, a fast food mogul Trump has pledged to lean on for his knowledge of creating jobs. Can you say, “How would you like that burger cooked today?”

Seriously, from an Education Secretary who never attended a day of public school to an Interior Secretary whose motto is “Drill Baby Drill”, and a Secretary of State with over $200 million in stocks in a Russian oil subsidiary, Trump has selected policy makers who are short on experience and big on right wing ideology. We are going to have our work cut out for us over the next two years and it is going to take all of us pulling together to protect our Union and collective bargaining rights. There will also be new fights we will have to engage in. For the first time in years, Republicans control the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government and they have their sights set on Social Security, Medicare and other safety nets established for workers like OSHA and the National Labor Relations Board. We have to be ready for whatever challenge is placed before us; and, at times, be capable of clearing multiple hurdles all at once. Nevertheless, it’s like I always say, District 2 Steelworkers will never back down from a fight that is just.

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USW Local 1299 delivered over 100 toys, food and a check for over $500 to USW Local 133 in South Shore, Kentucky, December 17th. It took 12 hours, round trip to drive to help all 103 members of the local. They have been on strike since October 10th against the company HWI.

Pictured right to left: Jim Allen, President USW Local 1299; Craig Hunt, President USW Local 133; Bonnie Burke, Unit Chairperson USW Local 1299-7; and Mike Scott, Financial Secretary for United Steelworkers Local 133.

Not So Funny Political Cartoons

USW Local 1299 Help Striking Members in Kentucky

On January 12, 1876: Novelist Jack London is born. His classic definition of a scab: “After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, the vampire, He

had some awful substance left with which He made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a cork-screw soul, a water-logged brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.”

This Month in labor history, January 19, 2015: is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, an American Federal Holiday celebrating the birthday of American Civil Rights Activist and organizer Martin Luther King, Jr. The campaign for a federal holiday in his honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed three years later. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.

For more on Martin Luther King Jr., go to page 5.

A Message from Director Bolton — continued

2017 District 2 Calendar of Events2017 District 2 Calendar of Events

JANUARY, 2017 • VOLUME 7, ISSUE 1, PAGE 3

This schedule is designed to assist in planning this year’s events. However, there is a possibility dates and/or locations cThis schedule is designed to assist in planning this year’s events. However, there is a possibility dates and/or locations coulould change due to unforeseen circumstances. Please watch your mail and email for notices as each event draws near. An upd change due to unforeseen circumstances. Please watch your mail and email for notices as each event draws near. An up--toto--date date calendar can be found on our calendar can be found on our websitewebsite and will be published monthly in our electronic newsletter.and will be published monthly in our electronic newsletter.

JANUARY

18 WOS Quarterly Meeting USW Local 2-21 Hall, 1201 Sheridan Road • Escanaba, MI

18 WOS Quarterly Meeting USW Local 2-148 Hall, 1201 Gillingham Road • Neenah, WI

27 WOS Quarterly Meeting Kronenwetter Village Hall, 1582 Kronenwetter Drive • Kronenwetter, MI

27 WOS Quarterly Meeting Milwaukee Labor Council Building, 633 S. Hawley Road • Milwaukee, WI

FEBRUARY

6 LM Review Session USW Local 2-21 Hall, 1201 Sheridan Road • Escanaba, MI

7 LM Review Session Kronenwetter Village Hall, 1582 Kronenwetter Drive • Kronenwetter, WI

8 LM Review Session Lucky Dog’z Labor Temple, 157 S. Green Bay Road • Neenah, WI

9 LM Review Session Milwaukee Labor Council Building, 633 S. Hawley Road • Milwaukee, WI

28 LM Review Session USW Local 12075 Hall, 3510 James Savage Road • Midland, MI

MARCH

1 LM Review Session Bungalow Restaurant, 1100 28th Street • Manistee, MI

2 LM Review Session Teamsters Local 7 Hall, 3330 Miller Road • Kalamazoo, MI

3 LM Review Session USW Dist. 2 Southern MI, 20600 Eureka Road, Suite 300 • Taylor, MI

APRIL

10–13 USW Constitutional Convention MGM Grand, 3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South • Las Vegas, NV

The USW District 2 Calendar of Events will have more 2017 dates once they are confirmed. The calendar will be updated in future issues throughout the year.

I M P O R T A N T N O T I C E The government is requiring that all reports/forms be submitted electronically starting in 2017. Nothing will be accepted via the U.S. mail, etc.

Therefore, if you do not have access to the internet or are unsure how to complete your forms electronically, it is important you attend an LM session so the International Auditors can assist you.

JANUARY, 2017 • VOLUME 7, ISSUE 1, PAGE 4

Getting to Know Your District 2 Council Steering Committee

The District 2 Steering Committee has many functions as listed in the sidebar of the first page of this newsletter. But, you may be asking yourself, who are these elected members? Where do they work? What do they do? To help answer these questions, USW District 2 Director Michael Bolton has set aside a column in the D2 News to do just that starting in this January issue and continuing until we highlight each and every one on the District 2 Council Steering Committee.

Let’s start with an excerpt of the District 2 By-Laws, which state:

ARTICLE XI - DUTIES OF THE DISTRICT 2 COUNCIL STEERING COMMITTEE

A. This District 2 Council Steering Committee shall assist in the following: ● Development of agenda for Council Conference ● Planning of the District Council Conference and Political/Educational Conferences ● District 2 Strategic Planning ● Determining and assessing educational needs within the District ● Generating and leading activism and other purposes consistent with the mission and directives of District 2 and the USW

B. The District 2 Council Steering Committee will normally meet biannually. C. The District 2 Council Steering Committee is expected to be present at the District 2 Council Conference.

D. Once elected, the District 2 Council Steering Committee will meet to elect 2 Co-Chairs and a Secretary. The District Director or his designee shall preside over the committees as Chairperson.

Well, beginning this month, we will provide a little background information for one of the members and will continue each month thereafter until you have “met” each one.

This month, we will be featuring Kent Holsing - Chemical Sector Kent currently serves as the representative for the Chemical Sector on the USW District 2 Steering Committee and has been a member of the Steering Committee since its inception following the merger of the USWA and PACE.

He was hired in 1986 by Dow Chemical, and has served various functions in Local 12075 such as department steward, Local Executive Board officer (Guard) and Local Vice-President. Since 2002, he’s been serving as the President of Local 12075 and also as the Unit President of Local 12075-** (Dow Chemical Michigan Operations-Midland). In addition, he serves as the Chairperson for the Dow North American Labor Council (DNALC) which consists of 11 Dow Chemical bargained-for sites in the U.S. In conjunction with the International USW, Kent has worked with various Unions that represent a number of Dow Chemical sites around the world to further networking opportunities with the DNALC.

The chemical sector is one of the largest sectors in the International USW which represents over 30,000 members. While District 2 may not be the largest District in this sector, it does have a number of key employers we represent. There is a tremendous opportunity for growth in this sector, both internally and externally. While there may be different employers, there are many common issues that are shared.

As a goal of this particular sector, we would like to encourage dialogue amongst the different employers we represent, compare issues, seek solutions and foster a capability to communicate and network for the mutual aid and assistance of each other.

If you are in this sector and wish to inquire about opportunities to further this goal or have any questions about this sector, please feel free to contact Kent Holsing at 989-495-9350 (ext 31) or kentholsing@gmail.com

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JANUARY, 2017 • VOLUME 7, ISSUE 1, PAGE 5

This Month in History - Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and social activist who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. Inspired by advocates of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi, King sought equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest. He was the driving force behind watershed events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington, which helped bring about such landmark legislation as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is remembered each year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday since 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. was the second child of Martin Luther King Sr. (1899-1984), a pastor, and Alberta Williams King (1904-1974), a former schoolteacher, Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929. Along with his older sister, the future Christine King Farris (born 1927), and younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King (1930-1969), he grew up in the city’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood, then home to some of the most prominent and prosperous African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, King attended segregated public schools and at the age of 15 was admitted to Morehouse College, the alma mater of both his father and maternal grandfather, where he studied medicine and law. Although he had not intended to follow in his father’s footsteps by joining the ministry, he changed his mind under the mentorship of Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, an influential theologian and outspoken advocate for racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a prestigious fellowship and was elected president of his predominantly white senior class.

King then enrolled in a graduate program at Boston University, completing his coursework in 1953 and earning a doctorate in systematic theology two years later. While in Boston he met Coretta Scott (1927-2006), a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple wed in 1953 and settled in Montgomery, Alabama, where King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. They had four children: Yolanda Denise King (1955-2007), Martin Luther King III (born 1957), Dexter Scott King (born 1961) and Bernice Albertine King (born 1963).

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Bus Boycott:

The King family had been living in Montgomery for less than a year when the highly segregated city became the epicenter of the burgeoning struggle for civil rights in America, galvanized by the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision of 1954. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks (1913-2005), secretary of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days, placing a severe economic strain on the public transit system and downtown business owners. They chose Martin Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the time the Supreme Court ruled segregated seating on public buses unconstitutional in November 1956, King, heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) and the activist Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), had entered the national

spotlight as an inspirational proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance. (He had also become a target for white supremacists, who firebombed his family home that January.) Emboldened by the boycott’s success, in 1957 he and other civil rights activists–most of them fellow ministers–founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a group committed to achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolence. (Its motto was “Not one hair of one head of one person should be harmed.”) He would remain at the helm of this influential organization until his death.

King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference: In his role as SCLC president, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled across the country and around the world, giving lectures on nonviolent protest and civil rights as well as meeting with religious figures, activists and political leaders. (During a month-long trip to India in 1959, he had the opportunity to meet family members and followers of Gandhi, the man he described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change.”) King also authored several books and articles during this time.

In 1960 King and his family moved to Atlanta, his native city, where he joined his father as co-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This new position did not stop King and his SCLC colleagues from becoming key players in many of the most significant civil rights battles of the 1960s. Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe test during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a boycott, sit-ins and marches to protest segregation, unfair hiring practices and other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities.

— Continued on Page 6 —

USW Local

Arrested for his involvement on April 12, King penned the civil rights manifesto known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an eloquent defense of civil disobedience addressed to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

King Marches for Freedom

Later that year, Martin Luther King Jr. worked with a number of civil rights and religious groups to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful political rally designed to shed light on the injustices African Americans continued to face across the country. Held on August 28 and attended by some 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the event is widely regarded as a watershed moment in the history of the American civil rights movement and a factor in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The march culminated in King’s most famous address, known as the “I Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for peace and equality that many consider a masterpiece of rhetoric. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial–a monument to the president who a century earlier had brought down the institution of slavery in the United States—he shared his vision of a future in which “this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'” The speech and march cemented King’s reputation at home and abroad; later that year he was named Man of the Year by TIME magazine and in 1964 became the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the spring of 1965, King’s elevated profile drew international attention to the violence that e r u p t e d b e t w e e n w h i t e segregationists and peaceful demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where the SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had organized a voter registration campaign. Captured on television, the brutal scene outraged many Americans and inspired supporters from across the country to gather in Selma and take part in a march to Montgomery led by King and supported by President Lyndon Johnson (1908-1973), who sent in federal troops to keep the peace. That August, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right to vote–first awarded by the 15th Amendment–to all African Americans.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Years and Assassination:

The events in Selma deepened a growing rift between Martin Luther King Jr. and young radicals who repudiated his nonviolent methods and commitment to working within the established political framework. As more militant black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael (1941-1998) rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism to address issues such as the Vietnam War and poverty among Americans of all races. In 1967, King and the SCLC embarked on an ambitious program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include a massive march on the capital.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, King was fatally shot while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, where he had traveled to support a sanitation workers’ strike. In the wake of his death, a wave of riots swept major cities across the country, while President Johnson declared a national

day of mourning. James Earl Ray (1928-1998), an escaped convict and known racist, pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. (He later recanted his confession and gained some unlikely advocates, including members of the King family, before his death in 1998.)

After years of campaigning by activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) signed a bill creating a U.S. federal holiday in honor of King. Observed on the third Monday of January, it was first celebrated in 1986.

JANUARY, 2017 • VOLUME 7, ISSUE 1, PAGE 6

This Month in History - Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) — continued from page 5

JANUARY, 2017 • VOLUME 7, ISSUE 1, PAGE 7

USW Local 1343’s First Annual Christmas Toy Drive — by Brad Dorf

Women of Steel USW Locals 2-87 and 2-96 from Neenah Paper Munising Mill collected monetary donations from fellow union members for Adopt-A-Family and Toys For Tots in Alger County. They provided Christmas gifts for 3 siblings and purchased for 40 toys for Toys for Tots.

USW District 2 Women of Steel Locals 2-87 and 2-96 — Adopt-A-Family & Toys for Tots Events

Women of Steel USW Locals 2-87 and 2-96 from Neenah Paper Munising Mill collected donations from fellow union members for their Adopt-A-Family.

Women of Steel USW Locals 2-87 and 2-96 from Neenah Paper Munising Mill collected donations from union members and shopped for the Toys for Tots in Alger County.

USW Local 1343 and the Next Generation Committee from South Milwaukee, WI, put together their first annual Christmas toy drive to help support the South Milwaukee Human Concerns. Together, our members reached into their own pockets and donated over $2,500 worth of gifts to help less fortunate children within the community. Not only did our members along with their families donate gifts, but also

their time to help sort and wrap gifts on a Saturday morning. We believe this was a huge success and can't wait to see how much more we can do in the years ahead. The South Milwaukee Human Concerns is a fantastic organization and does so much to help our community. It was truly an honor to play a small part in doing what they do.

JANUARY, 2017 • VOLUME 7, ISSUE 1, PAGE 8

USW Local 9998 Raises Over $1,000 during Christmas Project — Cheboygan Daily Tribune

CHEBOYGAN, MI – The United Steelworkers Local 9998, who represent members at the Cheboygan Area Schools, recently held their annual Christmas Project for students in need.

The group was able to help 12 students from four families have something under the Christmas tree this year.

The Local Union donated $500 to the program and also received donations from several Cheboygan Area School staff members. While shopping for gifts at Kmart, two women who realized who the union members were buying for, made donations as well.

Kmart also helped out, giving the group a 10 percent discount off of its purchases. Total donations collected were $1,056 this year, the most collected since the local union started the program.

Left to right: Christina Barrette, Barb Borowicz, Chris Borowicz, Linda Turner and Deb St. Onge; standing by some of the gifts the United Steelworkers Local 9998 gave to Cheboygan Area School students in need for Christmas.

USW Locals 204, 146 & 3168 Participate in Coats, Hats, Mittens & Tube Socks Projects During Christmas!

The members of Steelworkers Local 204 who work at MidMichigan Medical Center-Alpena, decided to do a “Coats For Kids” drive this year. The local union members collected coats, hats and mittens, then donated all items to the Salvation Army for distribution to families in need during the holiday season.

The picture above are members of USW Local 204 and Salvation Army Officials in the Alpena, Michigan, area.

Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (S.O.A.R.) attended a recognition dinner on December 6, 2016, for volunteering to help raise money for the Waterfowl Festival in Brownstown, Michigan. S.O.A.R. retirees have helped raise money to maintain and preserve North America's largest Marsh Restoration Project for over 15 years.

This is a fun event for the entire family including their dogs. The Waterfowl Festival draws 8,000 -10,000 people from all parts of the United States and Canada.

Pictured on the right are S.O.A.R. retirees from Chapters 29-4 and 29-1. Seated left to right: Greg Weiland, Tony Pascarella, Milio (Mimi) Rinna, Capp Lumia, and Marc Barragan. Center top row left to right: Bob Whitwam, Executive Director and Richard (Dick) Whitwam, Community Affairs for Pointe Mouille Waterfowl Festival.

USW Local 146 and USW Local 3168 stuffed sixty (60) pairs of tube socks to send to our Military Troops overseas. This is the third year in a row they have sent socks stuffed with personal items.

USW Local 146 represents members at the Kremlin Mine, Pembine, WI; and USW Local 3168 represents the members at Mary Hill Manor in Niagara, WI; Golden Living Center in Florence, WI; and Eagle Tool in Kingsford, MI. Presidents Danielle Cretton of Local 3168 and Rodger Faucett of Local 146 plan on continuing this tradition into the future.

Michigan S.O.A.R. Chapters Volunteer for a Community Project – by Tony Pascarella

JANUARY, 2017 • VOLUME 7, ISSUE 1, PAGE 9