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"George did as much as any presidentin our history to strengthen our union,''said USW President Leo W. Gerard,who served as international secretarytreasurerunder Becker and succeededhim as president in 2001. "He was apowerful voice for the interests of ourmembers. He had a unique ability togive voice to the frustrations and concernsof workers, their right to be treatedwith dignity and decency — values hebelieved in deeply."Internally, Mr. Becker convinced theunion's executive board to take a historicstep in consolidating the USW'sadministrative districts in the U.S. from18 to nine and the size of the ExecutiveBoard correspondingly. The moveincreased the efficiency and politicalstrength of the Union. He also persuadedhundreds of smaller local unions to joinforces by amalgamating for the samereasons.Inspired member activismHe also orchestrated mergerswith the United Rubber Workersand the Aluminum, Brick andGlass Workers Union, bringing140,000 new members to theUSW.Whether it was a local strike or aninternational trade battle, Mr. Beckersought to involve the USW membershipthrough education and mobilization. Helaunched the union's pioneering RapidResponse program, which activatesworkers and their local unions to lobbyCongress and state legislatures on issuescrucial to them, and the LegislativeLeadership Program in Washington,D.C., which provides member-activistswith training in lobbying and politicalaction.Rapid Response was created by Mr.Becker to influence legislative decisionmaking after he cut off "soft money"contributions to political parties becausethey were not sufficiently effective insupporting the USW members' interests."George's legacy within the union isthat he put a lot of attention into whatwe call empowerment today. Hebelieved there is tremendous power inthe union and that we have to harnessit," said USW Secretary-Treasurer JamesEnglish, who served as Mr. Becker'sexecutive assistant for seven years.Prior to his election as president, Mr.Becker served two terms as the union'sinternational vice president for administrationstarting in 1985. He chaired theunion’s Aluminum Industry Conferenceand led its collective bargaining in thatindustry.In 1986, a year after he became vicepresident, Mr. Becker was put in chargeof mobilizing members for what becamea long lockout by USX Corp., the firstlabor dispute since 1959 against what isnow U.S. Steel.Combating corporate renegadesMr. Becker also led the union's organizingprogram as vice president andorganized several major corporate campaigns,the best known of which targetedRavenswood Aluminum, a WestVirginia company that in 1990 lockedout 1,700 USW employees and hiredpermanent replacements. The conduct ofthe campaign is chronicled inRavenswood, The Steelworkers' Victoryand the Revival of American Labor, byTom Juravich and Kate Bronfenbrenner.The fight at Ravenswood, led byfugitive international financier MarcRich of Switzerland, took the unionacross international borders in Europeand South America as it appealed forsupport from companies, customers andfinancial backers.USW@Work • winter 2007 5