Bill would extend benefits for locked-out employees

THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN
YOUNGSTOWN -- A bill introduced by state Sen. Robert F. Hagan would give employees unemployment benefits for the duration of a company lockout.
State law allows unemployment benefits, including health-insurance coverage, for locked-out workers for a maximum of 26 weeks.
The bill would also require companies locking out employees to pay increased unemployment-benefit premiums.
"As it is right now, companies pay into the unemployment trust fund, but if a company continues to lock workers out, then the onus of that lockout has to fall just on that company," said Hagan, D-33rd.
A lockout at the AK Steel Corp. plant, formerly Armco Steel, in Mansfield prompted Hagan to introduce this bill. About 600 members of the United Steelworkers of America Local 169 have been locked out since September 1999. The plant operates with 250 replacement workers.
The bill is headed to the Senate's Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee for hearings.