Clearing hurdles After six months, locked-out union at ATI still has hope
At times, the past eight months have seemed like eight decades for United Steelworkers members at the Allegheny Ludlum plate mill in Canton Township, and the other 11 plants Allegheny Technologies Inc. owns and operates in six states.
About 2,200 union employees, including 220 at Canton, have experienced a contract expiration, an end to negotiations, a six-month lockout from their workplaces and the cutoff of company-provided health care coverage. And, later this month, many may face cessation of unemployment benefits.
It seems like a dire situation on the surface, but Skip Longdon disagrees. He is president of, and spokesman for, USW Local 7139-5, representing the plate mill employees. And, thanks to monetary support from the union, he said many are able to fend off financial hardship.
The USW has a Strike and Defense Fund that, he explained, “that comes out (of a percentage) of our union dues.” When medical, dental and eye coverage expired for union employees Nov. 30, that fund covered an emergency health plan available through the USW International.
“As long as we’re locked out,” Longdon said in November, “we’ll have coverage from the international. We’re not having nearly as big of a struggle as the company thought we’d have.”
He said coverage is not uniform for everyone. “Those with special issues,” he added, may have to pay for Cobra coverage at higher rates, but the Strike and Defense Fund will help pay for those premiums.
Longdon said the fund also may assist members with mortgages and other financial matters – such as dealing with the end of unemployment compensation after 26 weeks (six months).
“We are looking into getting an extension (of jobless benefits),” he said last week. “We are talking to representatives. I don’t know how that works, especially without a (state) budget. But our people are getting help from the international on paying bills.”
Overall, Longdon said, “most of our guys are in pretty good shape. Some people are struggling, but the majority are pretty strong.”
This difficult road began June 30, when the contract between the USW and the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker expired. Employees continued to work under terms of that pact. ATI’s demand that workers begin paying part of their health insurance premiums was a major contract issue.
Negotiations continued until Aug. 6, when ATI said it made its “last, best and final” contract offer. ATI gave the union an Aug. 10 deadline to consider the offer and present it for vote – a deadline some USW members contended was too soon to get a complete vote.
ATI then instituted a lockout Aug. 15 and has been operating the facilities with salaried and nonunion employees and temporary professional staff.
The company is coming off a tough 2015, which included a $227 million loss in the fourth quarter.
In a cost-cutting move, ATI announced in December it would temporarily close two Western Pennsylvania plants in 2016. One, in Midland, Beaver County, was idled last month, affecting more than 200 union and salaried employees. The other, the Bagdad facility in Gilpin, Armstrong County, is expected to close in April. More than 300 work there.
Amid all of the darkness, however, is a glimmer of hope. Longdon said negotiators from the international in Pittsburgh have been meeting with ATI management “for a couple of weeks” and that “we’re making slow movement. But it is movement. It’s better than what we had the previous five months, so that is encouraging.”
A rally outside the Canton mill Thursday was encouraging as well. About 400 people, including a contingent from international headquarters in downtown Pittsburgh, gathered outside the gates along Green Street. The get-together was intended to be a show of support and a morale boost for the USW employees – a warm display of unity on a chilly afternoon. And it was a rousing rally, featuring labor leaders, public officials and others who pledged to have the workers’ backs.
Union workers at ATI still have hurdles ahead, including the possibility that the lockout may drag on. But thus far, they have been clearing the hurdles.