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Award Hails His Push for Good Jobs In Pursuit of Energy Independence.

United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo W. Gerard received the first ever Apollo Alliance “Right Stuff Award” for outstanding leadership in the fight for good jobs and energy independence. 

Robert Redford, Academy Award-Winning director, actor and environmental advocate, presented Gerard with the award at the Take Back America Conference in Washington, D.C., June 12.

United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo W. Gerard (l) receiving “Right Stuff Award” Academy from Award-Winning director and actor Robert Redford while Academy Award-Winning director, actor while Apollo Alliance President Jerome Ringo (r) looks on.

“He’s a unique labor leader among leaders in his understanding of the need for new energy strategies that recognized the inherent link between solutions to global climate change and the need for sustainable job growth,” Redford said about Gerard.   “He’s a man of boundless energy in pressing for activism essential for building a more progressive society and a cleaner and more humane world,” Redford added.

Gerard is a charter board member of the Apollo Alliance, which unites nearly 16 million union members and 11 million environment organization members across the country dedicated to creating new jobs en route to energy independence for America. Gerard has rallied more than a dozen of labor union partners to the Apollo cause. 

In addition, Gerard has won passage of “Securing our Children’s World” as the official policy of the USW.  The report, passed unanimously on March 1 by the USW’ International Executive Board, establishes a wide range of policy recommendations based on the belief that “unregulated global economies that increase the gap between rich and poor and ignore sound environmental science will ultimately destroy the good jobs and environment that are the legacy of the North America trade union movement.”

“We take on the challenges that few will be willing to take on,” Gerard said. “Someone said to me, ‘Why did you join the Apollo Alliance?’  I said, we didn’t just join; we helped found it. And we did that because it’s a natural extension of our fundamental beliefs.”

Along with Gerard and Redford, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Apollo Alliance President Jerome Ringo all helped announce the “Apollo Challenge.” This new campaign was created to encourage elected leaders to end the nation’s addiction to oil and create three million jobs.

“There is no reason why good jobs and a clean environment can’t be available to all of us, as well as good pensions and good health care,” Gerard said.

Gerard also informed the conference that the USW, North America’s largest private sector manufacturing union with 850,000, and the Sierra Club, the nation’s largest grassroots environmental organization with 750,000 members, had a few days earlier formally signed the Blue/Green Alliance. The alliance’s primary focus is for unions and environmentalists to work cooperatively in a joint commitment to good jobs, a clean environment and a safer world.

Videos of Leo W. Gerard receiving the Appolo Award

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