Leo W. Gerard CC (born 1947)[1] is a retired steelworker and Canadian and American labour leader.

[2] After graduating from Lively District Secondary School, Gerard took a job at the Inco nickel smelter in Sudbury, unclogging tuyeres with a sledgehammer.

[9] He quit college in 1977 when he was just a few credits short of graduation, and took a job as a staff representative for the international union.

He implemented cost-saving and revenue-generating initiatives, reorganized the secretary-treasurer's office, created an information technology department, developed a new union-to-member communications network, restructured member and local union servicing, and reinvigorated the union's organizing efforts.

[2] Gerard eventually returned to Laurentian University and received a bachelor's degree in economics and politics.

[21][22] Two years later, this strategic alliance led to a merger between the USW and Amicus' successor, the 1.8 million-member Unite.

Steel's head office subsequently donated $10,000 to the city's police force as a reward for any information that led to an arrest.

[24] Among his strategic alliances is the controversial friendship and support to the Mexican senator Napoleón Gómez Urrutia a disgraced[25] union leader accused of having embezzled US$55 million that was supposed to be used to pay workers' severance payments at the Mexicana de Cananea mining company and that ended up being diverted[26] by Gómez Urrutia, who later fled to Canada to avoid arrest.

[19] He also is a member of the Apollo Alliance, a group which works toward North American energy independence and cleaner and more efficient energy alternatives, and is co-chair of the board of directors of the Blue Green Alliance[19][29] Gerard was appointed to the Order of Canada in June 2023, with the rank of Companion.

Gerard and USW vice president Tom Conway are seen dragging two large concrete planters into an intersection near the Washington State Convention and Trade Center during the 1999 WTO protests in an attempt to help protesters block access to the WTO meetings.