BY LEROY WATSON
PITTSBURGH - LTV Corp. announced on July 14 that it would close its 44-year-old Hazelwood coke plant here at the end of the year, saying it would cost $500 million to upgrade the facility to meet environmental standards. The closing would effect about 750 members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), as well as hundreds of other workers for various suppliers to the plant.

LTV said it planned to offer nearly two-thirds of the workforce early retirement incentives, and to offer younger employees positions elsewhere in the company. So far, LTV has refused to give the members of USWA Local 1834 any information on these incentives and has not made any offers of employment at other LTV plants.

USWA officials state that "LTV has the ability to meet all its environmental obligations." A plant closing would not be for environmental reasons and "might well violate the terms of the 1986 Coke Purchase Agreement between LTV and the USWA," said a letter to local members.

The union has requested that LTV provide information on the company's coke supply situation and their environmental obligations, and filed a grievance that led the dispute into arbitration. Arbitration hearings have been under way in Pittsburgh since October 13.

On November 6 Steelworkers held rallies simultaneously in Pittsburgh and in Cleveland to protest the announced shutdown of the Hazelwood plant. About 400 people attended the Pittsburgh rally, including members of USWA Local 1843, their supporters from other steelworkers locals, and members of the United Mine Workers of America and Service Employees International Union. Labor officials and politicians made speeches promising to fight the closing.

As I see it, workers at the coke plant should be fighting to demand that LTV clean up the plant with its own money - its profits - and keep the plant open. We should reject any attempt by the company to obtain a concession agreement where workers pay for the cleanup to save jobs.

We should also reject any idea of "buying" the plant through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). ESOP's do not save jobs nor do they prevent layoffs. What they do is tie workers to the interests of the company and stockholders whose only interests are profits and dividends, not the safety, health, and wages of employees.

Steelworkers at LTV should demand the company open its books to the membership in order to know the truth about the company and to counter any claims by LTV bosses that they cannot keep the plant open because of financial or environmental considerations.

One of my co-workers, Albert McGheie, said at the Pittsburgh rally, "I came to the rally to keep the plant open. The company is violating the manning agreement and the coking agreement. The contract is in effect until 1999 and there shouldn't be any layoffs or closing. The company has made no official offer and the rank and file is left in the dark."

The company had initially said it was closing the plant because it couldn't meet environmental regulations without a $500 million rebuild of the coke works. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in an October 30 letter to the union, that a complete rebuild of the plant "is not necessary" to comply with EPA standards.

While companies should be forced to comply with current EPA standards, we should remember too that the EPA is not a neutral, independent agency that stands above both working people and the bosses. The EPA is an agency of the federal government that represents the capitalists' interests, not an agency for workers and farmers.

A union committee should be in charge of monitoring the environmental quality of production. Coke workers themselves are the first ones to be affected by the by-product emissions. They are exposed to the highest concentrations of particulates and gases emitted during production. Making it safer for us will make it safer for the environment and communities at the same time. We can't rely on the company or any governmental agency to do the job for us. Union committees should work with committees from the community to make decisions about what is safe based on full and accurate information about the ecological and health effects involved. Workers should insist that production be halted at once, on demand, and at no loss in pay whenever safety of personnel is at stake.

The workers and the community cannot afford pollution, plant shutdowns, or bosses who put profits above all other considerations. I think LTV workers and other working people should mobilize to fight to keep Hazelwood open, coking cleanly at LTV's expense.

Leroy Watson is a member of USWA Local 1843 at LTV Hazelwood Coke Works.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home