Vol. 79/No. 40      November 9, 2015

National contracts covering 30,000 Steelworkers at ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel expired Sept. 1. The old contracts are being extended day by day. Both companies refuse to back off from deep concession demands.

Some 2,200 USW members have been locked out by Allegheny Technologies Inc. since Aug. 15. Workers rallied Oct. 20 at the company’s Pittsburgh headquarters, delivering thousands of petitions demanding substantive negotiations as the ATI board met. Some 35 Steelworkers from Local 1046 in Louisville, Ohio, began a solidarity caravan tour Oct. 11 to all of the locked-out mills in Pennsylvania.

Vonie Long, president of Local 1165 and an electrician at the plant here, explained that the gate action coincided with the first shift of layoffs scheduled for five weeks between now and the end of the year. A contingent of workers from Local 6996, locked out by Hofman Industries in Sinking Spring for more than four years, joined the rally.

“One of the spouses brought a big pot of chili, along with breakfast sandwiches, coffee and hot chocolate,” said Stacey Jones, Local 1165 recording secretary. “It’s important to see the children here, because they’ll learn we’re fighting for their generation too.” Jones and two other unionists carried signs for the local’s Women of Steel committee.

Grandille Crothers, a mud gang member who has worked in the mill since 1966, said the protest helped “show the company we’re not just taking anything. Unless we fight, they’re going to do whatever they want.”

“These rallies and pickets are an opportunity to talk with guys on other shifts and reach out to the community,” melt-shop ladleman Don Kuhns said. ”They show we are going to last one day longer than the company.”
 
 
Related articles:
On the Picket Line
Build Nov. 10 actions for $15 an hour and a union
 
 
 
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