Vol. 79/No. 29      August 17, 2015

Militant/Arlene Rubinstein

Steelworkers rally in Pittsburgh July 30 against demands of ATI, where contract expired June 30. Bosses at US Steel and ArcelorMittal are also seeking concessions in upcoming contracts.

When the contract between 2,450 Steelworkers and ATI expired June 30, the union bargaining committee agreed to keep working on a day-by-day basis while negotiations continued. In a plan ATI dubs “Countdown to D-Day,” the company has engaged scabs from Strom Engineering, a notorious strikebreaking outfit, who are standing by in nearby hotels.

Concessions proposed by ATI include slashing health care for active, retired and future workers; instituting 12-hour shifts; cutting pension agreements for current and future workers; reducing wages and overtime pay; and changing contract language to allow the company to contract out more work, a union fact sheet says.

Busloads and vans of USW members and retirees from ATI came to the rally from Brackenridge, Latrobe, Leechburg, Midland and Washington, Pennsylvania, and Louisville, Ohio.

“I will not be intimidated,” Karl Brendle, president of 120-member Steelworkers Local 1046, told the rally. Brendle and others who work at the ATI finishing plant in Louisville wore black T-shirts with a thick red line across the front. “ATI painted a red line at the employee parking lot entrance. They say it’s just to draw a property line,” Brendle said. “I think it is the line to be used to throw the union out. They can paint as many lines as they want to.”

“There are 72 scabs in hotels near the plant,” Brendle told the Militant.

Regina Stinson spearheaded Steelworkers Spouses of ATI Flat Roll Products, which was formed July 1 and had 278 members at last count. Her husband, Terry Stinson, is a member of Steelworkers Local 1138 at the ATI mill in Vandergrift. At the rally she explained the devastating effect that the ATI proposals on health care would have. “It’s time to stand up for what we think is right. Solidarity doesn’t stop here. This is just where it begins,” she told a cheering crowd.

Big steel contract deadline Sept. 1

According to a union statement, U.S. Steel wants its 17,000 union workforce to contribute to premium costs for health care, add annual deductibles starting at $2,600 and eliminate policies for Medicare-eligible retirees.

Luis Gonzalo Zaragoza, a member of the National Metals and Mining Workers Union at the ArcelorMittal plant in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, Mexico, participated in the rally and march. “We are just giving back to the USW for the support they give us,” he told the Militant.

“When we struck in 2006, and the state and federal government sent police to end the strike, they stood with us. Every year on April 20 they join with us to march and commemorate our martyrs,” he added, referring to the 141-day strike against Grupo Villacero, the owner before ArcelorMittal bought the plant in 2007. Two workers were killed by police in that conflict.

The spirited rally and march included unionists from the United Mine Workers of America, Boilermakers, Service Employees International Union, United Food and Commercial Workers, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center health workers, UNITE HERE restaurant and hotel workers and fast-food workers involved in the fight for $15 an hour and a union.

“The [ATI] proposals that are on the table are the same ones that are on the table for U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal,” Tom Conway, a Steelworkers international vice president and chief negotiator in talks with ATI, told the crowd. “This isn’t an ATI fight. It’s a Steelworkers fight.”

Josefina Otero is a retired member of Steelworkers Local 7139-05 at ATI in Washington, Pennsylvania.
 
 
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