PACE President Boyd Young has been a union activist for over 40 years beginning as chief shop steward for International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite & Paper Mill Workers Local 801 representing production workers at the East Texas Pulp & Paper Co. His leadership in difficult contract battles led to his election as president of the local in 1971. Two years after his international union merged with the United Papermakers and Paperworkers in 1971 to create UPIU, he was asked to utilize his skills to organize workers in numerous campaigns at plants in the Houston and East Texas areas. His success led to his appointment as a UPIU representative in 1975 and his election as UPIU Region Six Director in 1988.
In 1996, he was elected as the UPIU’s third president. His efforts to modernize and strengthen the union’s programs led to merger discussions with the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW). In 1999, his membership and the members of OCAW approved the merger that created PACE.
His leadership as president of PACE was characterized by a relentless pursuit of a strengthened union at the bargaining table and the right to organize His efforts led to merger talks with the United Steelworkers of America, and those discussions led to the vote of PACE members to merge with the Steelworkers in April 2005.
He was elected an AFL-CIO Vice President in 1997 and contributed to the Executive Council as Chair of the Committee on Labor and the Environment and as a member of the Executive Committee, the Industrial Union Council and the committees on Legislative/Public Policy, Organizing and Union Sportsmen of America.
On behalf of the men and women of the unions of the AFL-CIO, the Executive Council expresses its gratitude and appreciation to Boyd Young for his service and devotion to the members of his union and to the labor movement.