News from the United Steelworkers of America and the American Flint Glass Workers Union: Flint Glass Workers Convention Approves Merger With Steelworkers.

Business Editors

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 3, 2003

Convention delegates representing the 12,000 members of the American Flint Glass Workers Union (AFGWU) this afternoon voted by an overwhelming 80% to merge with the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), the presidents of the two unions announced here today.

"Our membership is very excited about this opportunity to strengthen our bargaining position in the glass industry and enhance our ability to organize," said AFGWU president Tim Tuttle.

"With this merger," he said, "nearly 30,000 glass workers are now united in the same organization."

"This merger of two activist unions will strengthen the membership of both organizations," added USWA international President Leo W. Gerard, "and it will strengthen the labor movement as a whole.

"Consolidation of these glass workers in one major union," he said, "will increase our leverage in bargaining with the industry, improve collective agreements and enhance services to the membership."

Gerard and Tuttle added that the merger will provide additional resources and training for leadership and activists in AFGWU local unions, which will also improve collective bargaining agreements.

The two leaders noted that both unions had their beginnings in Pittsburgh. AFGWU was organized in Pittsburgh on July 1, 1878, at the union's first convention. On June 17, 1936, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) was established in Pittsburgh "as a permanent organization for collective bargaining in the steel industry. Six years after its formation, SWOC became the USWA. For more information on the history of the two unions, see the AFGWU website at www.afgwu.org, and the USWA site at www.uswa.org .