AFL president George Meany and CIO president Walter Reuther began unity talks in earnest in January 1953. A no-raid pact was produced in the fall of that year. McDonald, however, pressed Reuther for quicker action and intimated that the USWA would pull out of the CIO if the merger was not effectuated immediately. While hinting that the Steelworkers might withhold dues money from the CIO to recoup loans it had made to the federation, McDonald publicly and brazenly pulled USWA organizers from CIO projects.