[3] Becker dropped out of high school during his freshman year in 1944 and got a job working an open hearth furnace in the Granite City mill.
He returned to the steel mill, but then was drafted into the United States Army in 1950 to serve in the Korean War.
[2][3] Becker was hired by the United Steelworkers in 1965 as a full-time staff representative for the Granite City local.
[3] In 1975, the USW hired Becker as a staff safety and health representative in the national union office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In November 1990, Ravenswood Aluminum locked out 1,700 unionized employees as their contract expired and hired replacement workers.
The research effort exposed the plant's poor safety record, and discovered that Ravenswood Aluminum was controlled by fugitive billionaire Marc Rich.
The comprehensive campaign also applied political pressure in Congress to protect the domestic aluminum smelting industry.
Becker also pioneered the use of extensive international pressure to encourage Ravenswood Aluminum to end the lockout and bargain a new contract.
But Becker was able to bring the company back to the bargaining table and win a new contract on favorable terms by using the union's enormous pension fund.
As Wheeling-Pitt's stock price fell by 50 percent and the pension fund's financial pressures increased, the owners agreed to end the strike.
An innovative public campaign was used to embarrass the company at major events (including the use of a blimp at the Indianapolis 500).
[1][10] Becker is generally considered a strong Steelworkers president for bringing large numbers of new members into the union, making organizational reforms, and innovative collective bargaining and political programs.
[3][11] He also developed the union's "Rapid Response Program," a membership mobilization effort which was capable of generating tens of thousands of phone calls and messages from members to their representatives in Congress.
He established the "New Directions" in and the effort to secure union representation on the board of directors of the companies with which it negotiated contracts.
[4] In 2000, Becker was instrumental in winning an early AFL-CIO endorsement of Al Gore in his race for president of the United States.
[4] George Becker resigned unexpectedly as president of the United Steelworkers on February 28, 2001, seven months before his term was to end.