BY TONY DUTROW
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - The 4,500 members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) entered their third month on strike in December. The workers, who walked off their jobs at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel mills in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia October 1, remain solid on the picket lines and are trying to widen support, despite a concerted company propaganda campaign against the union. A union holiday solidarity rally is scheduled to take place here December 22. At the same time, the employer is not backing off and seems prepared to take a long strike.

"Wheeling-Pitt just ended an intensive six-week advertising campaign in area newspapers that offered its views on the pension issue," said an article in the December 15 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "The unionized workers have published letters and assembled rallies to drum up support for their cause and voice their opinions. Neither side seems to have softened its stance at all."

The USWA members struck the ninth largest integrated steelmaker when the bosses refused to discuss restoring the pension plan taken away from workers after the company filed for bankruptcy in 1985. That plan, called a defined benefit plan, requires the corporation to guarantee a monthly pension for retirees according to years of service and the right to retire after 30 years of employment. It is now in effect at all other unionized integrated steel mills in the United States.

"We had no pension for the whole time the company was in bankruptcy," Luther Rowland, a picket captain at the Sinter plant here and member of USWA Local 1190, said in an interview December 15. "All we want is parity with the rest of the steel industry. If we don't stand our ground now, we'll just be back in this situation four years down the road."

The same day, Ron LeBow, chairman of WHX Corp. based in New York, the parent company that owns Wheeling-Pitt, said the company wouldn't budge. According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, LeBow boasted that WHX will dip into its $400 million cash reserves - squeezed from workers through the post-bankruptcy concessions - to hold out against union demands. "I'm just going to sit," he declared. "They are not going to get a defined benefit plan. Never!"

Company propaganda barrage
The company has used its advertisement blitz to undercut support for the union by claiming it is union officials who refuse to negotiate. "We're doing what we have to do to keep people working and growing here for a long time to come," read the Wheeling-Pitt ad in the December 12 Tribune- Review. "People need to ask themselves the obvious, but previously unspoken question, `Do you want the security of an improved pension and many years of employment, or the so- called security of a defined benefit pension with no jobs?'

"The [USWA] International is holding us all hostage."

The ad concluded: "If you're one of the people out on strike, it's time to talk to your local president about getting back to the table. If you're one of the local presidents, it's time to pressure Pittsburgh [where the international offices of the union are located]. And if you just live here, it's time to encourage them to get back to the table, while the Ohio and Mon valleys still have a future."

The company has also been publishing notices in the sports pages of area newspapers. The December 6 sports section of the Wheeling Intelligencer, for example, ran a "message from Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel corporation" in a sizable graphic that depicts a countdown of the days of the strike and says, "Day 67; Lost wages of the average Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel striking employee now total: $8,292.27."

The company has used other means to intimidate strikers, including provocations at the picket lines. The December 6 Steubenville Herald Star reported that 30 picketers who tried to prevent management from driving a company truck across the picket line were met by a show of force by the police.

"We realize you are fighting for your lives, but we have our job to do," the paper quoted Capt. Leon Stinson as saying while the cops threatened the strikers with arrest for violating a court injunction.

"The company is harassing the pickets," said Larry Mallas, president of USWA Local 1190, as he was being escorted off the line. "They repeatedly told us they wouldn't move anything out of the plant. This union won't stand quietly in face of harassment."

On December 5, WHX publicized throughout the region its decision to issue dividends of nearly $1 per share payable Jan. 2, 1997. Rob Cecelones of Local 1190 responded, "The last 11 years we have worked hard to pull this company back from bankruptcy. Stockholders deserve a fair return. But the workers who made that money deserve fair shake also. We're not at the top. We're just asking to be equal. I as an individual refuse to be treated as a second-class steelworker."

Strikers win solidarity in area
The eight mills owned by Wheeling-Pitt remain silenced by the determination of the strikers.

The huge mills that stand beside the Ohio river are the economic lifeline of the towns that dot the Ohio valley between Steubenville, Ohio, and Wheeling, West Virginia.

Hundreds of small store owners in these towns and cities are standing up to the steel barons, reflecting the widespread support among working people and others in these largely working-class communities. Many stores display signs on their windows supporting the strikers.

To the delight of onlookers, striking Local 1190 entered a 42-foot float in the December 7 annual Christmas parade in Steubenville. Later in the day, everyone was invited to an auction of donated items, with proceeds going to the Children's Fund organized by the union local's women's committee.

Solidarity activities are taking place in many area factories. On December 5, the USWA organized a successful collection at LTV coke works in Pittsburgh that raised $1,500 for the strikers.

"I was amazed by the generosity of the members of our local," said USWA Local 1843 member Andrea Jones, who works at LTV. "But we need much more. One local sticking together is not enough. In 1996 these mills are out of bankruptcy. We need to bring the total membership into the struggle. Our fight is to see that the unions can be strong again."

Strikers are also making efforts to win broader support in the labor movement. The USWA Task Force at Wheeling- Pittsburgh Steel, based in Pittsburgh, has issued a call for a holiday solidarity rally to be held on Sunday, December 22, at the St. John Arena, 3151 Johnson Rd., in Steubenville. Speakers are scheduled to include AFL-CIO secretary treasurer Richard Trumka and the state presidents of the AFL-CIO in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The program starts with live music at noon.

Tony Dutrow is a member of USWA Local 1557 in Pittsburgh. Edwin Fruit, member of International Association of Machinists Local 1976; and David Sandor, a USWA member in Morgantown, West Virginia, contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home