The longest-running president in United Steelworkers history died.

Leo W. Gerard, who served as the United Steelworkers international president for 18 years, passed away Sunday.

He was an Ontario native who started working as a nickel smelter in Sudbury, later writing that his employer, Inco Limited, "never succeeded in owning the souls of the men and women who lived and worked there" because of "union men and women, self-possessed, a little rowdy and well aware that puny pleas from individual workers fall on deaf corporate ears."

He went on to serve in several union leadership roles over 54 years, including shop steward, USW staff representative, district director, national director of Canada and secretary-treasurer.

He retired in 2019 from leading the union that represents 1.2 millio

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