USW Announces Death Of Retired International President Leon Lynch

PITTSBURGH, May 7, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United Steelworkers (USW) is saddened to announce the death last Friday of former International Vice President Leon Lynch, who retired in 2006.

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Lynch served six terms as International Vice President for human affairs. He was first appointed to that post when it was created by the USW's 18th constitutional convention in 1976. He was elected in 1977 and reelected in 1981, 1985, 1989, 1993, 1997 and 2001.

Lynch joined USW Local 1011 in 1956 at the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. mill in East Chicago, Ind., and quickly became a union activist. He served on many local committees and acted as president of the YS&T federal credit union. He was named a USW staff representative in 1968 and an international representative in 1973.

As International Vice President Human Affairs, Lynch oversaw the union's civil rights and human rights efforts. He also chaired the union's Container Industry Conference, where he was in charge of contract negotiations, and the Public Employees Conference.

Lynch also served as a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council. He frequently represented the union and the AFL-CIO in international labor matters and at conferences of the International Labor Organization.

Active in many political and human rights organizations, Lynch was a member of the executive committee of the Democratic National Committee. He was chair and board member of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, an organization named in honor of the late founder and long-time president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. The institute, founded in 1965, works for racial equality and economic justice.

Lynch was also president of the Workers Defense League, a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy, and a member of the Labor Roundtable of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.

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