Steelworkers Approve ‘Historic Settlement’

By Joe Napsha

About 16,000 steelworkers at 12 U.S. Steel Corp. plants will benefit from a four-year contract overwhelmingly approved Tuesday.

The deal, which includes a $6,000 bonus, wage hikes and benefit improvements, won the approval of 79 percent of United Steelworkers members who voted — 10,571 to 2,670 — the USW said after the mail- in ballots were counted in Pittsburgh yesterday

“We think this is the right contract for this time,” United Steelworkers President Leo W. Gerard said yesterday at a news conference at the USW’s Downtown headquarters.

Gerard called it a “historic settlement” that completes the restructuring of a steel industry that was near collapse five years ago, with many companies going into bankruptcy.

The contract is retroactive to Sept. 1 and expires Aug. 31, 2012.

It covers about 2,600 steelworkers at three Mon Valley mills — the Edgar Thomson steelmaking plant in Braddock, the Irvin finishing plant in West Mifflin and the coke-producing plant in Clairton.

In addition to the $6,000 signing bonus payable by Oct. 1, steelworkers will get a $1-an-hour wage hike in the first year of the contract and 4 percent hikes in each of the remaining three years.

The union negotiated a profit-sharing agreement that would bank any money in excess of $20,000 a year into a trust fund to pay for health care costs.

The contract also cut the cost of health care insurance monthly premiums for 60,000 retirees and spouses by 35 percent and improves pension benefits for union members.

Unlike contracts in previous years, when the USW granted concessions to a troubled industry, members deserve the improvements this time because the industry is recording record profits, Gerard said.

“It was the United Steelworkers that lead the fight to save this industry … who fought in Washington against illegal trade … who fought for humane consolidation … and a modern, globally competitive steel industry,” Gerard said.

Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel said it was pleased with the ratification.

“The newly-approved four-year contracts are in the best interest of our company and our many stakeholders,” said Erin DiPietro, a company spokeswoman.

USW Vice President Tom Conway, the union’s chief negotiator, said it was important to the members’ job security that the union get a guarantee from U.S. Steel it would invest $3 billion in its plants over the life of the contract to increase capacity and increase its position in raw materials.

That $3 billion commitment includes an investment than $1 billion in new coke-producing ovens at Clairton that the company announced last year.

The last time the domestic steel industry had such profits, “they did not put the money back into the plants like they should,” Gerard said.

With the U.S. Steel contract behind them, the union now will turn its attention to the ratification process for the contract with ArcelorMittal Inc., the world’s largest steelmaker.

The union has not yet set a date for the mail-in voting on the tentative contract with ArcelorMittal, said Tony Montana, USW spokesman.

The company employs 14,000 union steelworkers at 14 plants in the U.S., including 950 steelworkers at ArcelorMittal’s tin-producing plant in Weirton.

Within a few weeks, the union will open contract talks with Severstal NA, the Russian-owned steelmaker that last month bought Esmark Inc., the parent firm of the former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, Conway said.

Both Conway and Gerard left little doubt that the USW wants Severstal to agree to a contract similar to the settlements it reached with U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal. The union had backed Severstal’s successful bid to buy Esmark.

“This is a pattern agreement. They (Severstal) will have to figure out how to take it,” Gerard said.

(c) 2008 Tribune-Review/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.