Bernard Kleiman, 78; longtime counsel for steelworkers union

Bernard Kleiman, 78, a labor lawyer and longtime chief negotiator for the steelworkers union, died Wednesday of cardiac arrest in Pittsburgh.

Kleiman was general counsel to the United Steelworkers of America for 32 years and advised five of the union’s international presidents.

He was known for negotiating an innovative and controversial agreement in 1973 that effectively barred strikes in return for contract arbitration. The agreement was designed to discourage steel imports when union contracts were up for renegotiation.

“It is difficult to overstate his impact on the union,” United Steelworkers international president Leo W. Gerard said of Kleiman in a statement last week.

Kleiman also played a central role in crafting an affirmative action agreement for the steel and aluminum industries to increase hiring of minority workers and women. The aluminum agreement was one of 13 cases the union argued and won before the U.S. Supreme Court during Kleiman’s years as general counsel.

Born in Chicago and raised in Kendallville, Ind., Kleiman enlisted in the U.S. Army after World War II and served in Korea. He earned a degree in metallurgical engineering at Purdue University and his legal degree from Northwestern University School of Law, where he served on the law review.