Vol. 79/No. 39      November 2, 2015

Some 17,000 workers at U.S. Steel and 13,000 at ArcelorMittal mills have been working without a contract since Sept. 1, facing steep concession demands from the bosses.

“Capitalists are the problem,” Luke Glantz, a safety representative for Steelworkers Local 9462 at ArcelorMittal in Conshohocken told the Militant. “They come up with more creative ways to maximize profits. The only thing we have to fight back with is solidarity.”

At the same time, 2,200 Steelworkers locked out Aug. 15 by Allegheny Technologies Inc. have been picketing at 12 plants in six states.

In Brackenridge, locked-out crane operator Mickey Karns said he was inspired by members of the United Auto Workers at Fiat Chrysler, who voted down a contract that maintained the hated two-tier wage structure, forcing the company to back off from some concession demands.

Pickets have seen four or five ambulances driving out of the plant with injured strikebreakers, Karns said. “ATI doesn’t care about anybody.”

Mitchel Rosenberg is a member of USW Local 10-1 at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery.

The community is supportive. While I was there a woman dropped off a pickup bed of firewood. Then a Latrobe High School band member and her father dropped off four hoagie sandwiches to those on the picket line.

Picket captain Mitch Skwara said production is down considerably. “ATI is only producing one or two heats per week with the scabs, where they normally produce about 20,” he said.

Vonie Long is president of USW Local 1165 in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, and works at the ArcelorMittal plant there.