TORONTO – The United Steelworkers union (USW) is appointing Kevon Stewart as USW District 6 Director (Ontario and Atlantic Canada), effective today Oct. 1, 2024, making him the first Black district director in the union, across Canada and the United States. Kevon succeeds outgoing Director Myles Sullivan, who has accepted a new role as Assistant to the International President, David McCall, working out of the USW international office in Pittsburgh.
Marty Warren, USW National Director for Canada, offered his congratulations:
“Congratulations to Myles and Kevon, two dear friends and colleagues, on their new leadership roles within the union,” said Marty Warren, USW National Director for Canada.
“I look forward to working with Myles and Kevon in their new roles on our shared goals: growing our great union, representing workers and fighting for fairness and social justice,” Warren added.
“In my new role as USW Ontario and Atlantic Canada Director, I intend to build on our union’s work by helping more workers gain union representation with the USW, bargaining industry-leading strong contracts and continuing as the go-to organization for community partnerships,” said Kevon Stewart, new District 6 Director. Stewart becomes USW District 6 Director (Ontario and Atlantic Canada) from his role as Assistant to the District 6 Director, succeeding Sullivan.
“I am honoured to be entrusted with new responsibilities in the USW International Office, working closely with President McCall on our union’s priorities, including organizing new members into the union and supporting the Steelworkers’ unmatched member-to-member education and training programs,” said Myles Sullivan, new assistant to the International President Dave McCall. Sullivan becomes Assistant to the USW International President from his role as District 6 Director.
The USW is proud of its commitment to democracy and its unique one-member, one-vote constitutional process for electing its leaders. When vacancies occur between terms, the union appoints interim leaders to fill roles until the next election. The next USW leadership election will be in November 2025.
Myles Sullivan has been a labour, political and social justice activist and, above all, a proud Steelworker, for more than a quarter-century. Born and raised in the Northern Ontario gold mining community of Kirkland Lake, he joined the USW in 1995 after he was hired by mining company Falconbridge Ltd. (now Glencore) in Sudbury. He soon became active in the union, taking on roles including health and safety rep and steward before being elected chair of his 350-member bargaining unit within USW Local 2020.
Sullivan was hired as a USW Staff Representative based in Sudbury in 2007. Early in his tenure, he was the servicing staff representative for Local 6500, as members weathered their 361-day strike against Vale, working with some 3,500 families standing in solidarity against the mining giant. His direct involvement in the historic, year-long strike was a defining experience in his life and career.
“The strike highlighted the tremendous solidarity and fighting spirit of our members, who fought like hell to resist the destructive, anti-union agenda of a massive, multinational corporation. And it crystalized the necessity for the USW to continue our efforts to build community, labour and political alliances, at home and around the world,” Sullivan says. He carried many of the lessons from the strike with him as he went on to bargain major collective agreements, particularly with multinational corporations.
In 2013, Sullivan was appointed USW Area Co-ordinator for northeastern Ontario and served six years in the position before relocating to Toronto as Assistant to the District 6 Director.
In 2021, he was elected as USW District 6 Director (Ontario and Atlantic Canada), a role he has served in since March 1, 2022.
Kevon Stewart was born in St. Thomas, Jamaica, and moved to Canada with his family when he was seven. He graduated from York University in Toronto after studying kinesiology and geography, intending to teach and open a community centre.
Instead, he took a job as a machine operator at Samuel Strapping, a steel plant in Scarborough, Ontario, and joined USW Local 3.
Stewart’s participation in a USW education course sparked decades of union activism. Because of his interest in health and safety, he began training other workers on proper use of overhead cranes and forklifts. That experience led him to serve on his local’s grievance committee, as a steward and as his unit’s elected vice chair.
The union noticed Stewart’s leadership skills, and in 2004, then-District 6 Director Wayne Fraser began mentoring him for the role of Staff Representative. Stewart serviced local unions in Toronto, the Durham Region and Eastern Ontario, where members worked in sectors such as steel, manufacturing, nuclear energy, service and health care.
In 2019, Stewart accepted the position of District 6 Co-ordinator, overseeing district committees while supporting arbitration cases and bargaining committees. Three years later, he took on additional responsibilities as Assistant to the Director of District 6, becoming the first Black rank-and-file member to hold a USW leadership role in Canada.
As Assistant to the Director, Stewart collaborated with staff on servicing USW members, oversaw district programs and worked with the union’s allies and USW employers. He also participated in the union’s international initiatives to build global worker solidarity and began serving on the Canadian Nuclear Workers Council – a body promoting nuclear literacy and the safe use of nuclear energy – on behalf of USW members in that industry.
Through his union activism, Stewart made the connection between workers’ rights and politics. He currently serves as Executive Vice-President of the Ontario wing of the New Democratic Party (NDP) – Canada’s only labour party co-founded by Steelworkers in 1961.
About the United Steelworkers union:
The USW represents 225,000 members in nearly every economic sector across Canada and is the largest private-sector union in North America, with 850,000 members in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.
Each year, thousands of workers choose to join the USW because of the union’s strong track record in creating healthier, safer and more respectful workplaces and negotiating better working conditions and fairer compensation – including good wages, benefits and pensions.
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