MANSFIELD 3-year lockout ends at AK Steel

The company will begin a recall of hourly and maintenance workers.
MANSFIELD (AP) -- Like many workers at AK Steel's Mansfield Works, Roosevelt Manns has lost plenty during the three-year lockout at the plant.
"I gave my life to that place," he said Tuesday while picketing outside the plant as he awaited details of the resolution of one of the country's longest labor disputes.
Middletown-based AK Steel ended the lockout of union workers Tuesday. It notified United Steelworkers Local 169, which represents 620 locked-out workers, that it would begin a recall of hourly production and maintenance workers at the plant.
"The lockout is over, and we look forward to the process of welcoming our returning work force to the operation of AK Steel's world class Mansfield Works," said Richard Wardrop, chairman, president and chief executive of AK Steel.
Manns, 50, who has worked at the plant 30 years, said the lockout has left him broke. He said he has cut yards, trimmed hedges and washed cars to get by, but the lack of money is what the father of four believes led to his divorce a year ago after 21 years of marriage.
"Life is short, so I don't dwell on should haves and could haves," he said.
Contract
The company said the decision to recall workers came after a contract was reached. Neither side would provide details of the agreement, which had been approved earlier by union workers.
"We believe we can now sit down and agree to specific contract language; that's why we took the leap of faith and announced the end to the lockout," AK Steel spokesman Alan McCoy said.
About 30 workers will be recalled initially and could be back to work by next week. AK Steel said normally scheduled plant operations would continue during the recall.
The company did not know how many workers would ultimately be called back or how long it would take. Of the 620 workers locked out, about 110 have retired and several others have died, union leaders said.
Replacement workers
The workers were locked out Sept. 1, 1999, by the plant's former owner, Armco Inc., when their contract expired. AK Steel bought Armco and has continued to operate the plant with about 250 temporary replacement workers.
McCoy said the replacement workers would work with union members for awhile.
The union expects an orderly return to work and "trusts that AK management will instruct the replacement workers now in the plant to avoid antagonizing our returning members as they have throughout the lockout," said David McCall, the union's Ohio District 1 director.
AK Steel had been challenging the viability of the contract agreement, but the National Labor Relations Board rejected its challenge, said Steelworkers spokesman Marco Trbovich.
The primary sticking point had been maintaining the union's right to defend workers that AK Steel wants to dismiss over allegations that they were involved in violence at the plant during the lockout, Trbovich said. He said it appeared that the union would be allowed to defend those workers.
AK Steel, a Fortune 500 company, makes flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products along with pipe and tubular steel products. It operates mills and offices in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Pennsylvania.