Roxanne Brown stepped in as the new International President of the United Steelworkers with a clear read on what members need: strong contracts in a volatile economy; sustained organizing to grow power; and a communications strategy that cuts through misinformation.
In today’s Women’s History Month conversation on America’s Work Force Union Podcast, Brown described her presidency as a continuation of the union’s fighting tradition while expanding the pipeline of leaders and trusted messengers who can carry the story to every worksite and community.
On March 1, Roxanne Brown took office as the 10th international president of the United Steelworkers, inheriting responsibility for a union spanning the U.S. and Canada that represents roughly 850,000 members across core industrial sectors. Her elevation is historic in its own right, but the first days of her presidency are being defined less by symbolism and more by the calendar.
The union is staring down a bargaining year that touches nearly every corner of its jurisdiction. At the same time, members are navigating cost pressures at home, uncertainty in key industries and a media environment where misinformation spreads faster than facts. Brown’s early message, delivered during Women’s History Month on America’s Work Force, is that the USW will meet the moment the way it always has: by fighting forward, training leaders and staying anchored to what working families talk about when they sit down at the kitchen table.
Brown’s story begins with an immigrant family’s search for stability and possibility. She arrived in New York as a toddler after her family left Kingston, Jamaica. She described a household shaped by elders who treated opportunity as both a promise and a demand, a belief that hard work and discipline could open doors that were closed elsewhere.
That framework carried into her entry into the labor movement. At 19, while attending Howard University, she ran into a financial barrier that forced a pivot. A temporary assignment placed her at the Steelworkers’ Washington office, where she did administrative work. The placement became a career because she found herself surrounded by members, staff and leaders who treated policy as a tool for survival.
Brown’s early years were forged in the trade fights of the 1990s and early 2000s, a period when steel communities were reeling from plant closures and corporate bankruptcies. She described the Washington office as a high-skill policy shop where the union’s work directly connected to member needs: trade enforcement, retirement security, health care and safety and health. Her time there also exposed her to rallies, testimony and legislative pushes aimed at protecting domestic capacity and the jobs tied to it.
When asked how it felt to enter the movement during an era of industry collapse, Brown explained that a Steelworkers mindset rejects resignation. The union’s instinct in crisis is to move from diagnosis to strategy, she said, and to keep the focus on what members need now and what they will need in the future.
That approach explains how the USW has endured across decades of economic shocks. Brown framed the union’s strength as a product of training and mentorship. She credited veteran leaders and policy experts who taught her how to think long-term while acting fast. She described that education as experiential, learned through daily work rather than classroom theory.
The takeaway for labor relations watchers is straightforward: the USW does not treat leadership as a title. It treats leadership as a skill set that must be built, tested and renewed.
Brown pointed to a leadership program run through the union’s education department, structured across multiple levels and designed to build capacity in bargaining, union history, leadership and core representational skills. The program is intentionally international in scope, reflecting the USW’s footprint in both the United States and Canada.
She described the goal as broader than grooming the next international officer. The union is training leaders who can serve in Locals, workplaces and communities, people who can carry union values into civic life and build durable networks. In practice, that means identifying talent early, investing in education and then placing trained leaders where they can be effective.
Brown made clear she is already thinking about who comes next, not because leadership is temporary but because power is collective.
Brown’s communications strategy starts with a blunt assessment: many people are not consuming traditional news the way they once did. Time is scarce, and trust is thin. More workers are getting information through social platforms and streaming services where content arrives in quick bursts.
Rather than lament that shift, Brown believes unions must meet members where they are. That means delivering accurate information in formats that compete with the speed of misinformation. It also means grounding the message in values that matter beyond the news cycle.
Brown repeatedly returned to a kitchen-table frame. Members are thinking about housing payments, medical costs, retirement timelines and whether wages keep pace with prices. Those are the issues that shape trust in institutions and the willingness to take collective action. The union’s job is to connect bargaining, policy advocacy and organizing to those daily realities, she said.
Brown also offered a caution for national leaders who assume that visibility equals influence. She argued members often trust the people they know: Local Union presidents, stewards and workplace leaders who share their conditions and live in their communities.
That is why the USW’s messaging push is not just about the International Office producing content. It is about building a wider bench of communicators who can use modern platforms to deliver consistent, factual information. The strategy is to go deep and wide with trusted voices, ensuring members hear the union story from people they already recognize.
In labor relations terms, this is a classic principle updated for the digital era: legitimacy is local. National messaging works best when it amplifies, not replaces, the relationships built on the shop floor.
Brown’s first major priority is contract bargaining across multiple industries. She cited oil negotiations as an early-year focus and pointed to major talks ahead in aluminum, tires, pulp and paper and steel.
The challenge is not simply volume. It is timing. Bargaining is unfolding amid economic uncertainty that affects investment decisions, production planning and the employer's posture at the table. Brown’s message is that the union must secure strong agreements even when the broader outlook is unsettled.
For members, that translates into a familiar expectation: wages, benefits and safety protections that reflect the value of industrial work and the risks that come with it. For employers, it signals that the USW intends to press for gains rather than accept austerity as inevitable.
Brown’s second major priority is organizing. She acknowledged that the policy environment has shifted from what the union had anticipated, but she framed that change as a reason to lean in, not back off.
Worker frustration is rising, and many people are searching for an institution willing to fight for better conditions, she said. In that context, organizing serves both as a growth strategy and as a response to a broader demand for workplace voice.
The union’s task, as Brown described it, is to convert that frustration into membership, bargaining power and political leverage. That requires resources, training and a message that connects union membership to tangible improvements.
Brown also addressed the upcoming United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) renegotiation timeline and the labor movement’s role in pushing for reforms that protect domestic jobs and capacity. She characterized the current outcomes as insufficient, pointing to continued job losses and the need for fixes.
As chair of the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Union Council, Brown said industrial unions are actively discussing how to engage the process and clarify what is not working. Her emphasis was on being specific about solutions and using the union’s voice to shape the debate as negotiations approach.
Brown’s first weeks as president are being framed as a continuation of the union’s core identity: fight for members, plan for the future and build leaders who can carry the work forward. The difference is scale and speed.
A massive bargaining year demands focus. Organizing demands ambition. Messaging demands discipline. Brown’s early blueprint suggests the USW intends to do all three at once, and to do it with a clear measure of success: do working families feel more secure at the kitchen table?
Every victory at the bargaining table starts with workers standing together. From the shop floor to the statehouse, hear how activists are fighting for better wages, safer conditions and a stronger future. Subscribe to the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to get the latest interviews with the leaders and organizers building worker power across America.