USW holds rally in Pittsburgh
USW workers, retirees and supporters demonstrate during a rally Tuesday in downtown Pittsburgh.
Marching toward the Allegheny Technologies headquarters in Pittsburgh, more than 1,000 chanted and otherwise voiced support for the United Steelworkers at Tuesday’s rally.
Randy Phillips, recording secretary for USW Local 7139-05, was a highly interested participant in Tuesday’s rally.
PITTSBURGH – The United Steelworkers put the pedal to the metal Tuesday afternoon.
Chanting “No contract, no peace” and “One day longer, one day stronger,” an estimated 3,000 USW members, retirees and supporters converged downtown for a rally and march on two corporate headquarters. They were calling for fair contract settlements with Allegheny Technologies Inc., U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal, affecting about 32,000 workers. And their call was boisterous.
“You’re American workers. Don’t forget that,” shouted Bobby McAuliffe, president of USW District 10 – all of Pennsylvania. He was one of the speakers who helped kick off, and rev up, the rally outside union headquarters along the Boulevard of the Allies.
The USW was in contract negotiations with U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal since June, affecting about 30,000 workers between the two companies. Their pacts were to expire Tuesday.
ATI is in a lockout mode. The company has 12 plants in several states, including Allegheny Ludlum’s specialty plate mill in Canton Township. The USW contract with ATI expired June 30, but employees continued to work under its terms until the company locked them out Aug. 14. That has affected about 2,200 workers – about 200 of them in Canton.
The company said it made its final contract proposal Aug. 6, asked the union to review it by Aug. 10 and present it to members for a vote. Some union members, however, said that was too small of a time frame to get a full vote.
ATI, according to the union, was facing low global prices for stainless-steel products, and was asking for reduced wages and overtime, changes to employee health care costs and the ability to contract out more of its work.
ATI flat-rolled products employees were staging round-the-clock informational pickets at all of that division’s facilities, including the Canton Township mill.
Andy Zanaglio of Canonsburg was among the disenchanted participants Tuesday. He is an accounting department employee in the USW headquarters.
“This is a fight for everybody,” he said. “I tell anyone, ‘Unions were formed because there was some kind of injustice in the workplace.'”
Walter Danna of Hopewell Township has been retired for 20 years, but was an interested supporter as well. He was the site coordinator at Weirton Steel, now an ArcelorMittal facility. He was at Weirton Steel in the mid-1980s when workers took over ownership through an ESOP – employee stock ownership plan – that lasted for about 20 years.
“If we don’t turn this around, we’re going to hell in a bread basket,” he said of the labor climate. “You can tighten the belt and bite the bullet only so much.”
After about a half-hour, the rally turned into a march. The first stop was at ATI headquarters in PPG Place, where the chants increased in number and volume. They included continuous strains of: “No more scabs …”; “We’ll be back …”; and “Corporate greed …”
Much of the crowd also let out a lusty boo toward the corporate offices.
One of the common T-shirts read: “One day longer than ATI,” which included an encircled fist.
They then proceeded up the Boulevard of the Allies to U.S. Steel headquarters on Grant Street.
This, apparently, wasn’t the only large USW rally Tuesday. R.J Hufnagel, spokesman for the USW in Pittsburgh, said “similar-sized” crowd marched to ArcelorMittal offices in Chicago and Burns Harbor, Ind.