Vol. 80/No. 26 July 18, 2016
Steelworkers at ArcelorMittal ratify contract
The contract, which covers 14,000 workers in the United States, freezes wages, increases health insurance costs for retirees and eliminates health insurance for newly hired workers when they retire. It was approved with 72.9 percent voting in favor.
“It’s not a contract we can brag about, but considering what the company wanted in the beginning, including a $5-an-hour cut in wages and incentives, it’s good,” Jack Tipold, Steelworkers Local 6787 recording secretary, told the Post Tribune.
The company initially demanded drastic cuts in health care for retired workers and steep increases for active workers.
ArcelorMittal claimed losses of $416 million in the first quarter of 2016, but confirmed that it expected core profits for the year to exceed $4.5 billion.
“If this company was losing money the way management tells us, then what would be the point of keeping it open?” Marvin Morris, a worker in the East Chicago Cold Strip mill, said to the Militant. “Don’t tell me this guy [CEO Lakshmi Mittal] would keep the plant open if he’s going broke.”
The Steelworkers organized several large protests after the contract expired in September 2015. ArcelorMittal workers joined together with unionists at U.S. Steel, Allegheny Technologies Inc., and Cliffs Natural Resources, whose contracts expired around the same time. But as negotiations stretched on for eight months the mobilizations fell off.
“The extended time between the expired agreement and the new one was one reason so many voted to approve,” USW Local 1165 President Vonie Long told the Militant. Long, who works at the ArcelorMittal mill in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, joined picket lines at steel company ATI in Pennsylvania, where workers were locked out for seven months.
“I think it’s terrible we’re not getting a wage increase for three years,” said Patrick Duffy, a roll builder at Indiana Harbor’s East Chicago mill. “The cost of living goes up, so we’re making less, you can buy less.”
“This is a dangerous job. Another co-worker on my job got his finger cut off,” Duffy said. “But Mittal is just interested in making money, that’s all he cares about.”
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On the Picket Line
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