USILU

United States International
Lifters Union

It's time to guarantee the things we need and care about: living wages, meaningful support, and financial transparency. We're strong, but even stronger together.

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Who is eligible to join the union?

In order to be eligible to join the USILU, you must meet the following criteria:

  1. Be a USA Weightlifting member in good standing.
  2. Have competed internationally for USA Weightlifting at least once.
  3. Be actively training for future youth, junior, or senior international competitions.

Or, be a coach of an athlete that meets the above criteria.

What are we working to accomplish?

USILU was founded with five immediate official action items:

  1. Our 2024 Olympians' stipends should be immediately restored to their pre-August values without delay.
    Our five Paris representatives returned home after the most successful performance in decades and immediately had their stipends cut by 30% to below a living wage. We can and should restore these to their original amounts.
  2. Senior international Team USA athletes should be paid a reliable, protected living wage.
    USA Weightlifting employees enjoy competitive salaries, retirement benefits, and health insurance. We think that's a good thing. Senior international Team USA athletes perform the absolute most valuable work for USA Weightlifting, and as such, should be be paid a salary at the same scale and with the same benefits as other USA Weightlifting employees. Financial instability is a primary driver of negative mental health outcomes, and athletes should not live under constant threat of financial ruin.
  3. Youth and junior Team USA athletes should have equality of opportunity.
    In times of financial strain, USA Weightlifting needs to maintain a minimum need-based system of support for adolescent athletes who do the work but can't afford to continue training or compete. Weightlifting saves lives, and many of our best athletes achieved greatness against incredible odds such as being orphaned, abandoned, poverty, or severe injury. No one lifts alone.
  4. Athletes impacted by the 2024 budget cuts should, at the very least, have their travel, accommodations, and entry fees reimbursed.
    Our understanding of the 2024 finances indicate that USA Weightlifting stands to profit, or at least break even, on Olympic year expenses. USA Weightlifting's mission statement is to support its athletes in achieving excellence in Olympic and world competition. This should have been handled differently, and it's not too late to do the right thing.
  5. USA Weightlifting should make its finances easier to digest.
    We know by personal experience that gaining any reasonable understanding of USA Weightlifting's finances is incredibly tedious. At best, members currently gain access to financial data about two years after the expenditures are made. And, these documents are heavily obfuscated and the resulting budgets function as broad slush-funds. We look forward to working with USA Weightlifting to create transparency reports that all members can access. This can be a shared task that doesn't necessarily mean extra work for our operating team.
Can USA Weightlifting afford this?

Yes. In preparation for forming USILU, we reviewed every USA Weightlifting IRS 990 from 1997 to current, the 2022 & 2023 audited financials, and all board of director board minutes for the last two years. USA Weightlifting is absolutely able to fully fund these initiatives. We look forward to working constructively with USA Weightlifting to balance a budget that fulfills its mission statement.

The time is now.

On November 8th, 2024, USA Weightlifting released the details of the 2025 National Team Program, which takes some steps forward, but also makes giant leaps backwards. This policy effectively de-funds a wide range of our international athletes, especially those who are working the hardest to qualify for their first international events, and includes fails to meet the requirements and spirit of USA Weightlifting's mission statement.

In 2020, we were promised a generous athlete funding system which was completely gutted in 2023 without sufficient notice or justification. USA Weightlifting will need to re-earn the trust of its athletes by rebuilding its track record. Right now, it's time to unionize and constructively work with USA Weightlifting to ensure that policies which impact Olympic dreams fully reflect our mission statement, fully meet the financial needs of our international athletes, and are armored against the kind of harmful policy changes that we experienced in the 2020-2024 season. We can and should do better.

Where are we registering?

USILU is filing as a labor union with the Federal National Labor Relations Board. We're keeping in touch with the NLRB and CDLE and making sure that we're making each step in a compliant manner.

Why unionize?

Let's take a look at each of the bodies that represent athletes and why a union for international athletes is necessary.

The Board of Directors

USA Weightlifting's board of directors are unpaid volunteers who have been elected by our members to govern the sport. If you look at the list of our representatives, they're all people who are dedicated to our sport. Their volunteerism allows our athletes and coaches to focus on what they do best. At the same time, they are not he ones that ultimately have to personally endure harmful policies, as almost all of them are not currently competing at the international level. There is a difference between loving our sport and organization, and actively putting off college or starting a family or fighting through injuries or financial stress in order to qualify for international events and pursuing the Olympic dream. We're here to work with the board of directors to bridge the gap and provide meaningful solutions, not complaints.

The Athlete Advisory Council

AAC members are also unpaid volunteers elected to represent elite athletes to the board of directors. The AAC as a concept is a step in the right direction for athlete representation on the board of directors, but it's function is to advise, not to negotiate. USA Weightlifting's board is not obligated to get the AAC's approval nor is it obligated to follow any of its advice. The AAC chair position itself is overloaded with a tremendous number of responsibilities required for USA Weightlifting to remain compliant with the USOPC, and the unpaid status means that the AAC chair is limited to spending their free time to navigate serious issues. When times are tough, this can be a nearly impossible task. The most impactful positions within the AAC are the Elite Athlete Director board seats; however, these positions are bound by the same responsibilities and limitations of what it means to be a director.

The United States International Lifters Union

The structure as it currently exists isn't working well enough on its own to protect the best interests of athletes. Both the board of directors and the CEO need a healthy amount of accountability and constructive feedback to be effective. Someone needs to attend board meetings as observers on our behalf and provide direct accountability from international athletes' perspectives. We need to make good use of that information, and as needed, negotiate on international athletes' behalf to ensure that athletes are put first and that our needs are met. The AAC also needs our support and backing to better handle some requests that are beyond the scope or power of the AAC. USILU is here to do that.

How we're going to do it.

We want to keep things really, really simple. In order to avoid the common pitfalls of any organization, the plan is to keep the union free of charge and entirely volunteer run. More money, more problems. Our list of issues are not extremely long, and the solutions are not complicated.

To accomplish this, we're contemplating just two roles for volunteer union organizers: a president and a general secretary. All official decisions will be made via direct democracy of union members. No board of directors: just you and your fellow weightlifters and coaches voting to approve or not approve official actions. One vote, one person, and all voices being equal in power.

Union General Secretary

Ryan Paiva

[email protected]

The role of the general secretary is to create official action documents, review USA Weightlifting financial reports and policies, create transparency reports for union members, and manage the union website. Ryan has 15 years of CEO experience and was a Team USA international athlete, US Olympic Training Center alumni, is a co-founder of LiftingLife, has coached at 20 IWF senior international competitions, and is a human rights activist.

Union Organizers

The role of union organizers is to contact and engage with athletes and coaches to gauge interest in unionization, inform about our mutual goals, and to help facilitate union card signatures.

Juliana Riotto

Union Organizer

Juliana has three years of public relations experience and is a Team USA international athlete, international medalist, a 2028 Olympic hopeful, and is a human rights activist.

Powers, Responsibilities, and Process
  1. The president and general secretary may speak editorially in order to inform union members and the public.
  2. The president and general secretary may engage in conversation and negotiations with USA Weightlifting to resolve issues and create draft agreements.
  3. The president and general secretary may not take any official action, speak officially on behalf of the union, or sign any agreement with USA Weightlifting without prior approval by a majority of all union members.
  4. Any union member may contact either the president or the general secretary with new issues to become a potential official action. The president or general secretary will help guide the union member to route their concern to the proper channel, and if no resolution can be made and union members approve it, it will become a new official action. The union will then negotiate for the best possible outcome on members' behalf.
  5. Both the president and the general secretary positions can be transitioned at any time by an official action voted on by union members. If you have the requisite experience and would like to serve in either of these positions in the future, contact the president and general secretary so that we can work together on how best to create that opportunity for you. Redundancy is a good thing, and we love idea of working side by side with our successors and ensuring a smooth and effective transition.
  6. Either the president or the general secretary will make a good faith effort to attend every public USA Weightlifting board meeting, take notes, and communicate concerns with union members, if any.
  7. The general secretary will make a good faith effort to read all new or updated USA Weightlifting policies and financial reports, take notes, and communicate concerns with union members, if any.
  8. The general secretary will make a good faith effort to ensure that the union remains compliant with Colorado's Department of Labor with all necessary paperwork filed on time.
Have suggestions? Want to volunteer?

Let us know! Please email Juliana or Ryan. All ideas are welcome, as is your time and energy if you'd like to get involved as a union organizer.

On deck.

We're actively working on this right now. The best thing you can do is register now, and help us reach out to your fellow elite lifters to do the same. Let them know that you've joined the union, and invite them to contact Juliana or Ryan if they have any questions or concerns. We're here to help.

Register Now