27 Facts About Leo Gerard

Leo W Gerard was born on 1947 and is a retired steelworker and Canadian and American labour leader.

Leo Gerard was elected president of the United Steelworkers in 2001, becoming the second Canadian to head the union.

Leo Gerard served on the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO.

Leo Gerard's father, Wilfred Gerard, was a miner at the Creighton Mine and a key organizer with the International Mine Mill and Smelter Workers' Union.

Leo Gerard handed out leaflets on the eve of a strike at the age of 11, and accompanied his father on a union organizing drive at the age of 13.

Leo Gerard was elected steward and then chief steward of the 7,000-member Local 6500.

Leo Gerard enrolled at Laurentian University, studying economics and planning to be an economics professor.

Leo Gerard quit college in 1977 when he was just a few credits short of graduation, and took a job as a staff representative for the international union.

Leo Gerard married his high school sweetheart, Susan, and they have two daughters.

Leo Gerard rose steadily within the Steelworkers union hierarchy over the next two decades.

Leo Gerard was elected director of USW District 6 in 1985 and re-elected in 1989, and was appointed national director of the Canadian division of the USW in August 1991.

Leo Gerard was elected secretary-treasurer of the international union in 1993, and again in 1997.

Leo Gerard implemented cost-saving and revenue-generating initiatives, reorganized the secretary-treasurer's office, created an information technology department, developed a new union-to-member communications network, restructured member and local union servicing, and reinvigorated the union's organizing efforts.

Leo Gerard eventually returned to Laurentian University and received a bachelor's degree in economics and politics.

Leo Gerard quickly assembled a slate of supporters, and announced he would run for the presidency in the union's regularly scheduled elections in November 2001.

Leo Gerard was elected without opposition to four-year terms in 2001,2005 and 2009.

In 2005, Leo Gerard negotiated a strategic alliance with the million-member Amicus, the United Kingdom's second-largest trade union and the largest private sector union.

Leo Gerard returned to Sudbury for a visit in 2008 after an arson incident burned down the historic Sudbury Steelworkers Hall, where he had gotten his start as an organizer with Local 6500, and told the city's media that seeing the burned building was one of the most traumatic events of his life.

Leo Gerard is currently free from jail thanks to the immunity he benefits from as a senator.

Leo Gerard suffered a blood clot in his heart in February 2008, and successfully underwent heart surgery to remove the blockage.

Leo Gerard is a member of the Labor Advisory Committee to the United States Trade Representative and the Secretary of Labor and the National Commission on Energy Policy.

Leo Gerard is a member of the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations.

Leo Gerard was elected a vice president of the AFL-CIO in 2001, elected to the AFL-CIO Executive Council in 2001, and appointed to serve on the labour federation's Executive Committee in February 2003.

Leo Gerard was instrumental in the formation of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, and was named chair of the AFL-CIO's Public Policy Committee in March 2005.

Leo Gerard is a member of the Apollo Alliance, a group which works toward North American energy independence and cleaner and more efficient energy alternatives, and is co-chair of the board of directors of the Blue Green Alliance.

Leo Gerard was appointed to the Order of Canada in June 2023, with the rank of Companion.

News footage of Leo Gerard is included in the 2008 documentary, Battle in Seattle by Stuart Townsend.