
Support the Jones Act!
The Jones Act ensures a strong and vibrant maritime industry, which helps ensure the United States maintains its expertise in shipbuilding and waterborne transportation. Without American maritime, the U.S. would be dependent on foreign-owned and flagged vessels for the transport of waterborne commerce in and around the country.
Sign up for our email list:
Based out of Cleveland, Ohio, United Steelworkers Local 5000 (often just called Local 5') represents over three hundred members who are the unlicensed crew aboard nineteen Great Lakes freighters, employed by Central Marine Logistics, The Interlake Steamship Company, and Key Lakes Inc. (Great Lakes Fleet). We have one land-based unit with twenty members who service the steel industry employed by Sisco.
Get the Official USW Local 5000 Mobile App for Android and iPhone!
Rapid Response News
Rapid Response, our union’s nonpartisan grassroots activist program, provides an opportunity for every USW member to weigh in on legislation concerning labor and work-related issues. By joining together, we encourage government actions that will positively impact our families, contracts and communities. Learn more!
Union Plus Benefits
Did you know your USW membership entitles you to discounts on wireless, car rentals, movie tickets, car insurance and more? Visit the Union Plus website to view current discounts and programs.
Support Enbridge Straits Line 5 Replacement Segment Project

A project critical to protecting the environment and the longterm viability of Enbridge Line 5, a crude oil pipeline that supplies refineries throughout the midwest, is in jeopardy.
The Enbridge Straits Line 5 Replacement Segment Project would allow for the current pipeline that runs through the Straits of Mackinac to be rerouted through a tunnel in the bedrock beneath the Straits, protecting the waterway and the Great Lakes.
USW National News
-
Rapid Response Info Alert: Balancing the Scales: Retirement Security
Click here to download this Info Alert as a PDF. Hard-earned retirement benefits are under attack nationwide, and working families are feeling it. These challenges are not accidental – they are the re... —
-
Rapid Response Action Call: Our Fight to Protect Our Voice Isn’t Over!
Click here to download this Action Call as a PDF. Back in late October, we worked hard to stop Governor Mike Braun’s push for unprecedented mid-decade redistricting – and at the time, it looked like t... —
-
Paper City: Northern Pa. Paper Mill Has Sustained Generations of Families
Long before workers banded together in 1942 to form the USW, Dan Cherry’s great-great grandfather lost his life due to unsafe working conditions at the Domtar paper mill in Johnsonburg, Pa. Cherry, a... —
-
LEO W. GERARD: 1947-2025 – ‘The Work of a Lifetime’
USW Mourns Loss of Former International President Leo W. Gerard grew up in a company town in Sudbury, Ontario, a miner’s son who, as a boy, accompanied his father on union organizing drives. By the ti... —
-
Peerless Quality – Illinois Members Take Pride in Producing Gas and Electric Stoves
Mike Keck has worked at the Peerless-Premier Appliance Co. in Belleville, Ill., for 46 years. For all but four of those years, he has also served as the president of Local 182B. Today, Keck has an eye... —



