A Steelworker Old Timer

Dan McNeil, SOAR Emeritus Member

     Dan McNeil began his work career at the STELCO Swansea Works in 1951.  During his years at STELCO, he was often on leave to the Ontario Federation of Labour and the New Democratic Party.  A year later, he became involved with the Steelworkers Union by becoming a Trustee for the local and served in every office of the local with the exception of Financial Secretary and served on the negotiating committee many times.

      Dan was also a member of the Steelworkers Toronto Area Council (STAC) and was the 1st and served as Secretary on the Political Action Committee (PAC) and is a long time member of the Toronto Labour Council.

     Dan retired in 1984, and In 1985 he was asked by Lynn Williams to join the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees to represent District 6 on the International Executive Board where he still serves.

     In the late 80’s, District 6 asked Dan to join what is now called the Ontario Federation of union retirees (OFUR) where he is still a member of the Council.

     In the early 90’s, Dan was asked to represent the Steelworkers in the formation of the CLC retirement organization that would unite all the unions across Canada.  The founding convention was held in 1993 and the organization became “The Congress of Union Retirees” (CURC) and Dan was elected as 2nd Vice President.  In 2007 he became President.  He has recently retired from the Presidency and now holds the position of Immediate Past President.

Dan is now an Emeritus Member of SOAR.

Medicare & You: Heart disease

Who was Bob (Big Red) Rankin

Bob (Big Red) Rankin District 12 SOAR

Bob Rankin was born in 1937 and was the oldest son having five brothers and one sister. He graduated from a small rural high school on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas. After High school, he ran the family dairy farm for two years and then joined the Navy. After boot camp he served on the USS Bennington, CVS 20, an anti-submarine warfare aircraft carrier home ported in San Diego. His ship took two cruises to the Western Pacific where they were home ported in Subic Bay in the Philippines and Yokosuka, Japan. His ship was one of the first to serve off the coast of Vietnam. Bob was a Third Class Electrician.

In 1961, and two months before he was discharged, Bob met his future wife, Anna Mary. They were married four months later. Bob got a job pumping gas before hiring in at Allied Chemical. The company then changed its name to Honeywell. Bob joined District 50 of the United Mine Workers Union where he served in many jobs including local union president. 

While working for Honeywell, Bob went to the California State University, Long Beach and got his Bachelors degree in Education. In 1991, he went to a workshop about becoming a delegate to the Democratic Convention and ran to be a delegate for Bill Clinton. He was elected to the DNC in 2000 and has been a delegate to the Democratic Convention several times. Bob was a Super Delegate in 2004 and also a Super Delegate in 2008.

Bob retired in 2003. At Honeywell, he started in the labor gang, then became a Serviceman and finally went to the Maintenance Dept. as a mechanic in the electric gang becoming an Electrician. A month before Bob retired, he was asked if he would consider becoming active in our SOAR organization and he became a SOAR Coordinator. Some time later, Bob was appointed to the SOAR Executive Board and he resigned in 2012.

I’ve lost track of Big Red Rankin but remember him as a very big man and a really nice guy. I wonder about him.

Let There Be Peace

Election Results Already Paying Dividends for Working Families

Election Results Already Paying Dividends for Working Families

From taking swift action to expand healthcare access to more Americans, to leading the charge to protect Social Security, lawmakers who were backed by our union during the 2018 election campaign have quickly taken up the fight for working families in states all across America. 

“Healthcare is for everyone, not just the well to do,” said Janet Mills, the USW’s endorsed candidate and now-Governor of Maine during her inaugural address. Mills signed ‘Executive Order 1’ during her first day in office in an effort to remedy the state’s opioid crisis by expanding health insurance to more than 70,000 Mainers who were previously unable to access care.  

In addition to expanding healthcare, Mills was the obvious best choice for working families based on her commitment to grow the middle class by defending workplace rights and supporting laws that encourage job creation and investments in infrastructure.    

In Michigan, where an anti-union “Right to Work” law was forced through the state legislature and signed by the former Governor Rick Snyder in 2013, our union worked hard to help elect Gretchen Whitmer, who was a staunch ally of workers during her years in the Michigan State Senate.  Reversing the anti-union “Right to Work” law will be difficult because Governor Whitmer’s pro-worker allies are in the minority in the state legislature. However, Whitmer has already taken a number of steps to improve life for working families, including signing a series of Executive Directives aimed at ensuring fair pay, strengthening workplace protections for state employees, and rein in employers who attempt to deny workers quality healthcare and other benefits through job misclassification and unfair contracting practices.    

While progress in the federal government has been stymied by the longest partial shutdown in history, some of our union’s most trusted allies in the United States Senate, namely Sherrod Brown (OH), Tammy Duckworth (IL), Bernie Sanders (VT) and Elizabeth Warren (MA), have formed the Expand Social Security Caucus.  Joining them in this effort are more than 150 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Conor Lamb (PA-17), whom our union strongly supported in a March 2018 special election to fill a vacant seat. Lamb also had the USW’s backing in November when redistricting forced him to run against another incumbent member of Congress who had voted consistently to weaken work protections and retirement security.   

With less than one month into the 116^th Congress and the legislative sessions in state governments across the country, the hard work of USW members in the 2018 election campaigns is already paying dividends for retirees and working families. 

Sources

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/01/03/mills-signs-executive-order-to-implement-medicaid-expansion/

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/01/02/janet-mills-to-become-governor-tonight/

Julie Stein, SOAR Director

SOAR More Important Than Ever

SOAR More Important Than Ever

Recently USW members in Massachusetts ended a six-month lockout at National Grid with pensions being one of the major issues. The company did not want to continue providing a defined-benefit pension plan for new hires. This scenario is becoming a more common issue affecting current and future retirees, as more often than not, despite skyrocketing profits, companies no longer want to provide benefits to their retirees – even after all their years of hard work and dedicated service.

I did some research on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website to gather some information to better understand where this country stands on pensions. I was surprised to find out that according to the BLS in 2017 only 15 percent of private-sector workers participated in a defined-benefit pension plan and only 50 percent participated in ANY workplace retirement plan. Those numbers go up to 23 percent and 54 percent when you include state and local government workers. These numbers also show a continuing pattern of employers freezing or terminating defined-benefit pension plans for workers.

I raise this issue to bring the importance of preserving and improving what is for many, the primary source of income in retirement, Social Security. We in SOAR have been fighting for improvement in the way Social Security is funded by removing the cap on earnings and making sure any attempt to reduce benefits is met with strong resistance. 

Many of us in SOAR have less to worry about than the present generation of workers; unfortunately, the possibility of a comfortable retirement is no sure thing for them. That is why it is more important than ever before that the present workforce, if they haven’t already done so, consider the formation of a SOAR chapter in their area. The continued attack on retirement security must be confronted by those presently in SOAR and those who look forward to retirement in their future. 

SOAR Coordinators and Executive Board members must make themselves available to local unions in their area and let them know how important and valuable a SOAR chapter can be to them. 

This year let’s all make an effort to grow and improve SOAR in your respective areas and Districts.

Source: https://www.bls.gov

Bill Pienta, SOAR President