YOUNGSTOWN PIPE MILL LTV workers OK pact with potential buyer

Rejection of a proposed contract at a Michigan plant clouds the sale of the LTV division.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS -- Workers at the LTV Poland Avenue pipe mill in Youngstown have voted 40-8 in favor of a new three-year contract with Maverick Tube Corp., the potential buyer of the LTV Tubular Division.
The agreement, ratified by mill workers Thursday, covers 57 employees at that mill, who belong to United Steelworkers Union Local 1331.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William Bodoh has approved the sale of LTV Corp.'s tubular division to the St. Louis-based Maverick. The $110 million purchase is subject to new contracts' being reached between union workers and Maverick. The Cleveland-based LTV is liquidating its operations.
Other plants
The contract approved here also covers workers at LTV Tubular plants in Elyria and Counce, Tenn. Fred Gentile, president of Local 1331, who urged ratification and announced the results here, said simultaneous voting in Elyria and Counce was favorable; 48-4, and 48-5, respectively.
A majority of the combined work force of the three plants had to vote for the contract for it to be approved. The combined vote was 136-17 in favor, Gentile said.
However, he said that workers at the LTV Tubular plant in Ferndale, Mich., rejected a proposed contract by 69-2. "That means it's Maverick's move. They have to either go back to the bargaining table or withdraw from the bidding process," Gentile said. The fifth LTV Tubular plant is a nonunion operation in Cedar Springs, Ga.
Maverick officials could not be reached this morning.
Contract details
Under the new agreement ratified here, LTV workers would get the same pay raises and vacation benefits they would have gotten under the old LTV contract, Gentile said, but he declined to be more specific about wages. "Our health care has changed over to the Maverick plan, which is a pretty substantial change from what we had, but it's still something that we can live with," he said.
Tom Simchak of New Middletown, who said he voted in favor of the new contract, said the workers' base pay is now $13 to $14 an hour. He added that the workers with the family health insurance plan face a new requirement that they pay $50 a month toward their coverage. Single employees would be exempt from that requirement, he said.
Hoping to prosper
"The orders should pick up after the new company buys us. We've just got to have hope. That's all," Simchak said. "I think it's pretty fair. Instead of closing the place down, at least we'll have a job, and everything looks pretty decent," he said of the new contract. The Poland Avenue plant now operates day shift only, he said.
"Hopefully, Maverick will come in here and get us some business, and we'll make some money and make some pipe for them," Gentile said. "This is a liquidation. The options aren't lined up out there. We needed to do this deal to keep our plant alive," Gentile said, explaining why he urged the workers to ratifiy the contract.