https://themilitant.com/2018/09/08/steelworkers-at-arcelormittal-us-steel-protest-concession-demands/
Steelworkers at ArcelorMittal, US Steel protest concession demands
By Susan Lamont
and Dave Ferguson
Vol. 82/No. 34
September 17, 2018
Steelworkers rally in Fairfield, Alabama, Aug. 30 against U.S. Steel
demands for increase in health care costs and other concessions.
Contract for over 30,000 ran out two days later.
Militant/Susan LaMont
Steelworkers rally in Fairfield, Alabama, Aug. 30 against U.S. Steel
demands for increase in health care costs and other concessions.
Contract for over 30,000 ran out two days later.
FAIRFIELD, Ala. — “We don’t want this contract and we aren’t going to
have it,” Lewis Parsons, who has worked at U.S. Steel’s Fairfield Works
here for 28 years, told the Militant. “They have to come up with
something better. They just can’t do the retirees like that.”
Parsons was one of some 200 United Steelworkers Local 1013 members and
supporters who rallied outside their union hall Aug. 30 to protest the
company’s demands for yet another round of concessions from union
members, both working and retired, as the current contract expires.
Similar rallies and marches took place in cities where U.S. Steel and
ArcelorMittal have mills and mines. USW contracts with both giant steel
companies expired Sept. 1. Some 31,000 union workers are involved —
16,000 in 24 union locals at U.S. Steel and 15,000 in 13 locals at
ArcelorMittal. The steel bosses and the USW announced the current
contract would be extended and contract negotiations continue day to
day. The union announced locals at U.S. Steel plants would take strike
authorization votes Sept. 4.
Members of the United Mine Workers, American Federation of Teachers,
Communications Workers of America, International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers and several other unions joined USW members at the
rally, as did members of Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees.
According to an update sent out by the United Steelworkers leadership,
the U.S. Steel bosses’ proposed contract includes small wage increases
for the first three years of the contract, then only lump-sum annual
bonus payments tied to annual company income; increased out-of-pocket
costs for medical insurance resulting in an actual wage decrease for
many union members; cuts in benefits for retired members; establishment
of a two-tier setup for new hires; and many other cuts in benefits and
changes in work rules and conditions. USW members who work for U.S.
Steel haven’t had a raise for six years.
ArcelorMittal bosses are demanding new concessions in health care,
vacation pay and bonuses.
Union officials agreed to concessions and a pay freeze in the last round
of contract negotiations, saying the steel bosses faced competitive
pressures. This time, however, they say the bosses are making profits —
$2.1 billion in the second quarter of 2018 alone — rewarding themselves
with generous bonuses, and should provide workers with a sizable pay
raise and drop new concession demands around health care.
Workers are angry about the bosses’ push for more. “What they’re trying
to do is wrong, to the retirees, to us, to everyone,” said Doug
Robinson, who has worked at the Fairfield pipe mill 18 years, the first
10 as a contract worker. Many USW members expressed the view that it’s
time for workers to see improvements.
Steelworker marches and rallies took place across the country, including
in Burns Harbor, Gary, Indiana Harbor and elsewhere in Indiana.
Steelworkers from three plants in western Pennsylvania came together to
rally in Clairton. Over 1,000 iron ore miners from U.S. Steel’s Minntac
and Keetac operations and ArcelorMittal’s Minorca mine rallied in
Minnesota’s northern Mesabi Iron Range.
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In This Issue
Front Page Articles •‘Advance the revolutionary mobilization of workers’
•Veterans fight delays in gov’t disability benefits
•SWP: We need independent working-class political action
•Steelworkers at ArcelorMittal, US Steel protest concession demands
•Liberals disrupt Senate hearing in furor over Trump nomination
•Protest ‘Militant’ censorship by Florida, federal prison officials!
Feature Articles •Grenada Day participants hunger for revolutionary books
Also In This Issue •Indonesia: Teen jailed for abortion wins her freedom
•California protest demands ‘End solitary confinement!’
•Free Ukraine director on hunger strike from Siberia jail!
•Washington state teachers strike over pay, conditions
On the Picket Line •New Zealand bus drivers walk out over low pay, safety
Books of the Month •The history of the belated, bloody birth of US
imperialism
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Letters
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