The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.8           February 24, 1997 
 
 
Steelworkers Call For Strike Solidarity  

BY TONY DUTROW
PITTSBURGH - On January 28, 3,500 strikers and their spouses attended a special "Strike Update" informational meeting at the Wheeling, West Virginia, Civic Center. The steelworkers met on the 120th day of the strike against Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, surpassing the length of the 119- day steel strike in l959.

Strikers in their vast majority vowed to continue their determined resistance to win back a guaranteed pension plan lost following the bankruptcy and 89-day strike in l985.

The significance of this strike is being debated from Wall St. to the streets and city halls of the mill towns along the Ohio river valley. That debate spilled over into the civic center, where a question-and-answer session went on for two and a half hours. It was the first such meeting to bring workers together from all eight locals since the strike began October l.

Ten days before the meeting, negotiations overseen by federal mediators broke off after just three days when the company, once again, walked out, refusing to budge or discuss a fully guaranteed pension. The USWA had proposed a combination of the company's proposal and the union pension plan that is currently in place in all the other unionized integrated steel mills.

Continuing the company's antiunion media campaign, Ron LaBow, chairman of Wheeling-Pitt's parent company WHX, told the January 27 Wheeling News-Register, "We're going to have to look at each part of the company. If we can't reach an agreement in nine or 10 months, we may have to do something unfortunate." Along with threatening to close down mills, he urged strikers to demand a secret ballot vote on his company's last offer.

In a humorous answer to LaBow's attempt to deny workers their right to decide when to vote on their contracts, strikers printed up a sample "ballot" that simply had inside "USWA Solidarity."

The USWA international convened a Basic Steel Conference in Cleveland January 30, the day after members from all eight mills met. "The presidents of local unions representing 150,000 workers in the steel industry pledged at the meeting to raise $1 per member each week for the Wheeling-Pitt employees" reported the January 3l Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which covered the press conference that announced a nationwide effort to back the strike. One of the projections at the meeting was plant gate collections throughout the industry to benefit the strikers. The first collection date is set for February 13. The meeting also voted to contribute $l million directly to an economic hardship fund.

The USWA international executive board announced that the AFL-CIO will also participate in the effort. The board "also pledged to send bus caravans of steelworkers to back up the strikers on the picket lines" at the mills in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia the article said.

Strikers stop truck from crossing line
Relentless propaganda has failed to produce the desired results for the company, as workers demonstrated on February 4 at the Yorkville, Ohio, mill. In 20 minutes, according to pickets, Local 1223 mobilized 150 strikers to stop Wheeling-Pitt bosses from taking a truck load of spare compressor parts from out of the Yorkville tin plate mill.

The Martin's Ferry Times Leader cited the boss who drove the truck through the gate as saying that "as he began to drive the vehicle from the plant ground he saw several individuals with baseball bats." At the same time the boss said there were not "actual acts of violence" committed by the steelworkers. The Jefferson Country Sheriff called to the scene of the disciplined and effective action filed no charges.

Morale was high as the elated strikers learned later in the day that Wheeling-Pitt bosses made a decision "not to remove the compressor parts in order not to inflame the situation further."

Solidarity from supporters in the working-class communities that surround the mills has kept coming in, though many small business have felt a financial pinch from the strike and some have cut back in their generous donations to the steelworkers.

The Mingo Junction Village mayor John Corrigan said, "its getting very ugly around here." His city budget is totally reliant upon the wage tax from the mill, the city's only major employer. So far the Mingo Junction has lost $536,800 in operating money for municipal services. The administration has laid off some city workers and is using some part-time labor.

Strikers would welcome more solidarity
On a visit to the Follansbee coke plant gate the weekend after the meeting and announcement by the USWA Basic Steel Conference to step-up solidarity, I asked two of the strikers what they thought. All of us huddled around the well-crafted improvised oil barrel stoves - a necessity throughout most of the lengthy struggle.

George Oughten, who has 41 years with Wheeling-Pitt and works in the hot mill, said he was a little skeptical, but hoped the solidarity now being sought nationally will help. "Everything we ever got, we made them give it to us," he said. "Back then, the reason we got it was they were making enough of a profit to tack it on to the price. Now they can't do that as easily because of the competition. Oughten said he was concerned for other strikers, facing hardships they never planned for before the walkout. "We need real solidarity now. We need you beside us, not in back of us," he said.

Mike Sloss, a coke oven worker with 19 years at the company, said he's solidly for the strike. In addition to doing his regular picket duty, he keeps the gate stocked with wood to burn for heat. His father, who also worked in the mill, has a small sawmill. "He gives us edging off the boards," Sloss explained. "I show up with my truck, once or twice a week. They all know my truck now."

"Our local is setting up a gate collection committee and we're going to help as the women's committee," Gloria Jones explained, a member of the Local 1223 women's committee. "We're taking orders now for Local 1223 hats as a fund- raiser, but the hats will also identify us as we go out on the gate collections," she said. Jones also explained the women's committee is organizing a March 15 St. Patrick's Day Dance. Everyone is invited, she said, and all steelworkers get a discount.

Strikers debate threats to close mills
Many strikers and others are debating out the assertions made by LaBow and echoed by Wall St. that "Wheeling-Pitt Steel Corp. Wouldn't Be Missed," as one headline screamed out on the front page of the Wheeling News-Register January 30.

American Metal Market, an industry newspaper, interviewed LaBow, who said "he has no incentive to bring the striking workers back, and that his cash reserves actually had grown since the strike started."

WHX and Wheeling-Pitt Steel's strategy has been to sit the strike out. Spin-off companies from Wheeling-Pitt, such as the nonunion Unimast plants of Wheeling Corrugating, the huge Wheeling-Nisshin galvanizing mill, and Ohio Coatings, which does similar work to the Yorkville mill, continue to process and finish steel. This, combined with stockpiling before the strike and secret arrangements with other mills to finish their coils and cover their orders, has allowed them to weather the impact of the strike.

The February 5 American Metal Market reported that a week-long shut down for repairs will have an impact on orders that Weirton's Steel has picked up from the strike. "Their [Weirton's] order book has been pretty strong.... They have received some business from Wheeling-Pitt," the article said, quoting a metals analyst from First Boston of New York. The analyst, Tom Abrams, who for local consumption in the regional press said the strike has had no impact, here says, "I think everyone thought that by now the Wheeling-Pitt strike would be over."

In May 1996, James Wareham, CEO of Wheeling-Pitt, gloated over their better profitability as imports declined over 1995. "We're full [profitable and at peak capacity]. Imports have dried up a lot, which is one of the underlying factors [for the strong demand]," Wareham said in an interview with the Post-Gazette at that time.

Last month Wall St. announced a big jump in imports, however. "Imports surged in the second half of l996.... Production outages as some U.S. steel companies and a prolonged strike at WHX Corp.'s Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel unit cut the supply of domestic steel," reported a Bloomberg News release carried in the January 22 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Local papers quoted an analyst from J.P. Morgan and Co. chiming in with LaBow's statements describing strikers as "sacrificial lambs" and "pawns" in the USWA's pension battle. LaBow's plan calls for investing the pension contributions into l0-year U.S. treasury bonds, a move that certainly will benefit Morgan, which is leading the charge to shift pension investments from "overvalued" stocks to bonds, and no doubt stands to gain from such a plan.

Meanwhile, as WHX officials are accusing the USWA of forcing it into bankruptcy if it adopts a guaranteed pension plan, the Associated Press reported February 9 that WHX had reached a tentative agreement with Bethlehem Steel to purchase the Sparrow's Point BethShip steelyard for an undisclosed price.

Tony Dutrow is a member of USWA Local 1557.  
 
 
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