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With Contract Deadline Looming, Steelworkers Plan A Week of Rallies
08/17/2015 - Members of the United Steelworkers union are planning a week of rallies at U.S. Steel Corp. and ArcelorMittal facilities as it tries to negotiate a new labor deal with the companies by Sept. 1.
Contracts covering more than 30,000 workers are expiring, and the union is trying to preserve wages and benefits that were last set in better market conditions. But times have changed, reports the Wall Street Journal.
“We cannot base our 2015 contract on a hope that a return to a new steel and commodities boom is ahead,” ArcelorMittal spokesman Bill Steers told the Journal.
On Saturday, specialty steelmaker Allegheny Technologies Inc. locked out around 2,200 Steelworkers after the union declined to act on the company's last, best and final offer by an Aug. 10 deadline.
The union contends that the industry is using what it says is a temporary economic downturn as an excuse to gut contracts.
But amidst weak demand, rising imports and falling prices, the union is at a disadvantage, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.
“The overall weakness that the steel industry is facing is the biggest factor in the negotiations. There's not a lot of incentive for the companies to give in,” John Delaney, a University of Pittsburgh professor and expert in labor relations, told the newspaper.
“Until there's a pickup, where the industry really needs to ramp up production, they're (steel companies) in a good spot to force concessions.”
Nevertheless, the union is promising that it won't back down.
“If you're going to pick a fight with a union, this is the last union you want to fight,” USW International Vice President Tom Conway told supporters at a recent rally, according to the Tribune-Review.
“Just remember there's more of us than there is of them.”
“We cannot base our 2015 contract on a hope that a return to a new steel and commodities boom is ahead,” ArcelorMittal spokesman Bill Steers told the Journal.
On Saturday, specialty steelmaker Allegheny Technologies Inc. locked out around 2,200 Steelworkers after the union declined to act on the company's last, best and final offer by an Aug. 10 deadline.
The union contends that the industry is using what it says is a temporary economic downturn as an excuse to gut contracts.
But amidst weak demand, rising imports and falling prices, the union is at a disadvantage, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.
“The overall weakness that the steel industry is facing is the biggest factor in the negotiations. There's not a lot of incentive for the companies to give in,” John Delaney, a University of Pittsburgh professor and expert in labor relations, told the newspaper.
“Until there's a pickup, where the industry really needs to ramp up production, they're (steel companies) in a good spot to force concessions.”
Nevertheless, the union is promising that it won't back down.
“If you're going to pick a fight with a union, this is the last union you want to fight,” USW International Vice President Tom Conway told supporters at a recent rally, according to the Tribune-Review.
“Just remember there's more of us than there is of them.”
