Steelworkers' Executive Vice President Sellers Announces Retirement; USW Executive Board Appoints Hoover as R/PIC Successor

PITTSBURGH--Aug. 1, 20052, 2005--John Sellers, Executive Vice President of the USW Rubber/Plastics Industry Conference (R/PIC) has announced his retirement effective September 1, 2005. The USW International Executive Board has appointed Ron Hoover as his successor.

Sellers was appointed to represent the former members of the United Rubber Workers (URW) on March 1, 1996, elected by delegates to an R/PIC conference in September 1996 and re-elected to a four-year term in September 1997 and again in 2001.

Hoover joined the URW in 1964 when he went to work at Goodyear's Topeka, Kansas, plant. He was a union activist at Local 307, serving as Division Chairman and two-term president before his appointment to the URW staff in 1989. He has served as coordinator of the Goodyear/Kelly Springfield/Dunlop bargaining committee since 1993.

Sellers joined URW Local 639 at AMF Voit in Santa Ana, Cal., in 1966 and was appointed to the URW staff in 1978. He joined the international staff in 1991 and served as organizing director, education director and political education director, as well as participating in master contract bargaining.

With the USWA, Sellers coordinated successful strategic campaigns to win settlements from Bridgestone/Firestone and Continental AG, and led the Union's negotiations with the major tire companies such, as Goodyear and BFGoodrich/Michelin.

Hoover has served as Sellers' assistant since 1998. He recently successfully concluded the contract re-opener negotiations with Continental/General Tire and he oversees the USW's Journeyman Card Program.