CSC Workers to lose benefits

Ending of health care benefits will be devastating, a union leader says.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
WARREN -- Union attorneys are considering appealing a judge's decision that led to the cancelation of health care benefits for CSC Ltd. workers and retirees.
David Fusco, attorney for United Steelworkers of America, said the union is reviewing its appeal rights. He declined to comment further.
Judge William Bodoh of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Youngstown ruled Friday that CSC's lenders could not be forced to make payments to continue the health care coverage. A $170,000 premium payment was due today.
Without this payment, coverage expired Sunday for the nearly 1,100 hourly workers, plus 260 retirees.
The decision doesn't affect the health care of about 1,300 retirees of the former Copperweld Steel Co., a predecessor of CSC. Fusco said a separate fund set up during Copperweld's bankruptcy court proceedings in 1993 pays those premiums.
John Kubilis, president of United Steelworkers of America Local 2243, said the termination of health care benefits for CSC workers and retirees will be devastating.
"We are disappointed by the court ruling and especially the conduct of the lenders," Kubilis said. "We had every reason to expect continuation of the CSC insurance payments until we could exhaust the search for a buyer who could restart the mill."
Request to court: The union and CSC had asked the judge to order payments until April 13, which is the deadline for seeking a buyer who would buy the entire mill. A group of lenders led by First Union National Bank wants to sell the mill piece by piece if a buyer isn't found by then.
Judge Bodoh ruled that payments for employee benefits were dependent on CSC having money. He noted that CSC has liens on most of its assets and agreed in January that it would have "absolutely no right" to use the proceeds from recent product sales without permission of the lenders.
Even though nearly all of the mill's hourly workers had been laid off, they continued receiving health care coverage under a labor contract because some workers are still on the job, maintaining the mill.
Kubilis said he and other union officials are going to Washington Tuesday to meet with legislators to push for action that would help the domestic steel industry.