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Allegheny Technologies Lockout Nearing Fifth Month
12/04/2015 - Specialty metals producer Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) invested close to US$400,000 per job through its new hot rolled mill in southwestern Pennsylvania, according to Robert Wetherbee, ATI’s president of flat rolled products.
“Now we have the obligation to keep the business competitive,” Wetherbee told The New York Times.
The Times took a look at the company’s ongoing lock-out of the United Steelworkers union, which has been trying to come to terms on a new labor agreement. The agreement expired 30 June 2015, and the company locked out the union on 15 Aug 2015 after it let pass a company-mandated deadline to accept what it called its last, best and final offer.
ATI has since been operating with temporary hires and salaried employees.
Wetherbee told The Times that the company would like to see a two-tier contract, considering that one-third of its blue-collar workers will be eligible for retirement in 2020.
“We’re faced with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bend the cost curve on a major part of our costs,” he said. “If we’re going to be competitive, we have to be in a position where we have a different benefit structure for the next generation we hire.”
The Steelworkers, however, told the newspaper that the company is looking only to enhance its own prosperity at their expense. They contend the company is using the current downturn as an excuse to seek concessions that include a four-year wage freeze and a requirement that they contribute more to the cost of their health insurance.
“The China crisis of today doesn’t mean that people who go to work for this company and retire 35 years from now shouldn’t have anything in retirement,” union vice president Tom Conway told the newspaper.
“We’ve made major moves in this bargaining, to share more of the health costs, and it’s just not enough for them.”
The Times took a look at the company’s ongoing lock-out of the United Steelworkers union, which has been trying to come to terms on a new labor agreement. The agreement expired 30 June 2015, and the company locked out the union on 15 Aug 2015 after it let pass a company-mandated deadline to accept what it called its last, best and final offer.
ATI has since been operating with temporary hires and salaried employees.
Wetherbee told The Times that the company would like to see a two-tier contract, considering that one-third of its blue-collar workers will be eligible for retirement in 2020.
“We’re faced with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bend the cost curve on a major part of our costs,” he said. “If we’re going to be competitive, we have to be in a position where we have a different benefit structure for the next generation we hire.”
The Steelworkers, however, told the newspaper that the company is looking only to enhance its own prosperity at their expense. They contend the company is using the current downturn as an excuse to seek concessions that include a four-year wage freeze and a requirement that they contribute more to the cost of their health insurance.
“The China crisis of today doesn’t mean that people who go to work for this company and retire 35 years from now shouldn’t have anything in retirement,” union vice president Tom Conway told the newspaper.
“We’ve made major moves in this bargaining, to share more of the health costs, and it’s just not enough for them.”
