PACE OKs merger with USWA

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 | 10:57 a.m.

More than 1,600 delegates from the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) approved a merger with the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) during a special convention Tuesday in Las Vegas.

The combined union will have 850,000 members in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. The combined union will be called the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union or USW.

In the Las Vegas area PACE represents 371 pharmacists and pharmacy support workers at Medco Health Solutions Inc. while the USWA represents about one-third of the Las Vegas Valley's 5,000 cab, bus and limo drivers and about 350 titanium workers at Titanium Metals Corp. in Henderson.

The unions hope to strengthen their political and organizational power through the merger.

Leo Gerard, president of the USWA, will be the combined union's president and PACE President Boyd Young will be the union's executive vice president. The combined unions will have headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., and Pittsburgh.

About 5,000 delegates from both unions will hold a joint convention Thursday at the Hilton.

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