Feb 23, 2016 4 min read

After more than six months, locked-out workers at a dozen Allegheny Technologies Inc. plants represented by United Steelworkers may be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.

On Monday night, USW’s bargaining committee reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract with the specialty steelmaker.

If approved by the workers, the agreement would bring an end to the company’s lockout of 2,200 workers at 12 facilities in six states.

The USW said in a news release the contract and back-to-work agreements are subject to ratification by the members of local unions at those facilities, including about 220 at Allegheny Ludlum Plate Mill in Canton Township.

In a brief news release Tuesday morning, ATI confirmed it reached the tentative agreement with the union.

In addition to the union’s ratification, the agreement will also require approval from the National Labor Relations Board, which said two weeks ago the lockout was illegal.

A key contract issue was the company’s demand that workers begin paying some of their health insurance premiums. Industry analysts described the demand as a precursor to a tax on employee health plans that’s set to take effect in 2018 under the Affordable Care Act.

But the union continued to balk at having workers contribute to their health insurance premiums, changes to retirement benefits for new workers and other scheduling rules.

On Tuesday morning, several workers manning a picket stand on Green Street outside the Canton Township plant said they hadn’t seen the terms of the agreement.

“We haven’t seen it yet, so we don’t know anything about it,” said one of the workers, who declined to be identified.

Skip Longdon, president of USW Local 7139-5, which represents members at the Canton Township plant, said later Monday a multipart process in advance of a ratification vote will unfold over the next couple of weeks.

After meeting with members of the grievance committee from the different departments to discuss the contract, he will meet again with the committee to determine a day to discuss the contract’s contents with rank-and-file members.

“We don’t have a day yet,” Longdon said, noting the preparation process will be the same for all of the plants involved in the negotiations.

On the scheduled day, Longdon anticipates there will be four or five meetings to reach all of the members.

He said pamphlets that will be distributed at the meetings are being printed now.

While the process to hold a ratification vote normally takes three to four weeks, Longdon said the union wants to move faster this time around.

“With so many people being out and unemployment running out, we’re trying to speed up this process,” he said.

Last year, ATI presented the USW bargaining committee with a list of 145 contractual demands the union said would have cost workers thousands of dollars per year and eroded decades of collective bargaining gains. The two sides continued to exchange proposals for several weeks past the previous contract’s June 30 expiration.

In August, ATI presented the union with a “last, best and final offer,” demanding that the union hold a vote on the proposal.

On Aug. 15, before the union could vote, ATI locked workers out of their jobs.

“This is a tremendous victory for a very brave group of workers,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard in a statement. “They should be proud of this agreement, and of the resolve they demonstrated throughout this six-month ordeal.

On Dec. 19, the NLRB announced that it would issue a complaint against ATI for unfair labor practices in connection with the lockout. The 31-page complaint, alleging that the lockout was illegal and that ATI bargained in bad faith, was issued Feb. 12 as the two sides continued to bargain.

“This company was, from day one, determined to intimidate, rather than negotiate, its way to an agreement, and they failed,” said USW International Vice President Tom Conway in a statement. “These workers stood up and said very clearly that ATI’s behavior was unacceptable.

“Now it is time to heal and move on from the damage this company has inflicted in the past six months. We look forward to ratifying this agreement, returning to work, and getting back to doing what we do best – making the best steel in the world.”