[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 28, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E233]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING GEORGE BECKER

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. PETER J. VISCLOSKY

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 28, 2001

  Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Speaker, on February 28, 2001, one of this 
nation's most distinguished and able labor leaders will officially 
retire. George Becker, the president of the United Steelworkers of 
America, will formally mark the conclusion of a career that spans 57 
years.
  During his tenure as the president of the Steelworkers union, he has 
reinvigorated the union's political presence as a force in the national 
debate about trade, globalization, and its effects on working men and 
women. He has been an outspoken critic of free trade agreements, such 
as NAFTA, that have resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of 
American manufacturing jobs and a weakening of America's manufacturing 
and industrial base. He has been a fierce proponent of workers' rights 
and human rights, especially in China, Mexico, and other developing 
nations around the world.
  George Becker literally grew up across the street from a steel mill; 
the Granite City mill in his hometown of Granite City, Illinois. He 
went to work in the mill in the summer of 1944. Besides Granite City 
Steel, Becker also worked as a crane operator at General Steel 
Castings, and as an assembler at Fisher Body. He also served on active 
duty in the U.S. Marine Corps.
  Becker became active in USWA Local 4804 at Dow Chemical's aluminum 
rolling mill in Madison, Illinois, where he worked as an inspector. 
Over the years, he was elected by his co-workers as local union 
treasurer, vice president, and president. As a result of his hard work 
and leadership, Becker was later appointed as a USWA staff 
representative.
  In 1975, Becker came to the USWA's International headquarters in 
Pittsburgh as a staff technician in the union's Safety and Health 
Department. He helped to establish some of the first national health 
standards adopted later by the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration (OSHA) for workers exposed to lead, arsenic, and other 
toxic substances.
  Becker also led the union's collective bargaining in the aluminum 
industry as chair of the USWA's Aluminum Industry Conference. Later, he 
also headed the Steelworkers' organizing program and led major 
corporate campaigns, including a worldwide campaign against Ravenswood 
Aluminum Corporation and the return to work of 1,600 Steelworkers after 
a 20-month lockout. The Ravenswood struggle was later chronicled in the 
1999 book, titled, ``Ravenswood: The Steelworkers' Victory and the 
Revival of American Labor,'' by Tom Juravich and Kate Bronfenbrenner.
  In 1985, Becker was elected as international vice president for 
administration. He was reelected to that position in 1989. He also 
served as administrative assistant to Lynn Williams after Williams 
became international secretary in 1977 and international president in 
1983.
  In November, 1993, Becker was elected international president of the 
United Steelworkers and was reelected to a second term in November, 
1997.
  Becker's presidency of the Steelworkers has included many milestones 
for the union.
  In June, 1995, Becker won the support of his Board of Directors to 
reorganize the Steelworkers from 18 districts in the U.S. into nine 
districts, increasing efficiency and political strength. In July, 1995, 
Becker engineered the merger of the 98,000-member United Rubber Workers 
with the Steelworkers. In 1997, the 40,000-member Aluminum, Brick, and 
Glass Workers Union also merged with the Steelworkers.
  Under George Becker's leadership, the Steelworkers won significant 
settlements in strikes at Bridgestone/Firestone, Wheeling-Pittsburgh 
Steel, and Newport News Shipbuilding Company. The struggle at Wheeling-
Pittsburgh Steel restored a defined benefit pension plan for 4,500 
members. The struggle at Newport news Shipbuilding also won significant 
increases in workers' wages and pension benefits.
  Becker also expanded the Steelworkers' political strength by creating 
a Rapid Response program, which informs and activates local union 
members to lobby Congress on issues crucial to working men and women. 
In 1998, Steelworkers generated over 170,000 letters to Congress 
opposing so-called ``fast track'' trade negotiating authority, which 
played a major part in defeating the measure. Becker also initiated a 
Washington internship program for the union, which brings rank and file 
members to Washington for an intensive 12-week long session of 
education about the workings of Congress along with practical 
experience in the art of lobbying on behalf of the union's legislative 
agenda.
  Becker has become a regular fixture in Washington with frequent 
appearances and testimony before Congressional committees, the U.S. 
International Trade Commission, the Administration, and other 
government agencies. As one of the vice-presidents of the AFL-CIO, he 
was instrumental in reforming the labor federation and was a key 
supporter of John Sweeney as AFL-CIO president in 1995.
  On the world stage, Becker is an executive committee member of the 
International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) and chairman of the world 
rubber council of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, 
Mine, and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
  In 1998, Becker was appointed by President Clinton to the President's 
Export Council and the U.S. Trade and Environmental Policy Advisory 
Committee; both important forums which he used to speak out on behalf 
of workers' rights. Becker also served as a member of the Congressional 
Trade Deficit Review Commission, which conducted extensive hearings in 
Washington and across the nation on the causes and consequences of the 
nation's burgeoning trade deficits. Becker's leadership ensured that 
Steelworkers were prominent in the protests marking the Seattle WTO 
Ministerial meeting in December, 1999.
  Mr. Speaker, George Becker's success as a labor leader has been 
because of his intelligence, skills, and tenacity. Because of all of 
those attributes and above all, because he has never forgotten where he 
came from, his career has improved the lives of millions of American 
workers and their families. I hope my colleagues will join me in 
congratulating Steelworkers union president George Becker upon his 
retirement and for a lifetime of dedicated service to not only the men 
and women of his beloved Steelworkers union, but all working men and 
women.

                          ____________________