WHEATLAND TUBE Despite progress, negotiators fail to reach deal to end strike

THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO
WHEATLAND, Pa. -- There was some movement from both sides but not enough to reach a settlement in contract talks between Wheatland Tube Co. and its striking hourly workers.
Dom Vadala, president of Local 1660 of United Steelworkers of America, said the two sides will meet again Tuesday under the direction of a federal mediator.
Local 1660 represents 470 Wheatland employees who went on strike April 28 with the expiration of their old contract.
The company's insistence that workers begin picking up a share of their health-care premiums has been a major stumbling block to a settlement, and both sides altered their positions on that issue, said Bill Kerins, vice president of operations.
The company has been insisting that the workers pick up a percentage of health-care premiums and initially asked workers to pick up 10 percent of the cost in the first year, 15 percent in the second and 20 percent in the final year of a proposed three-year settlement.
Kerins said the company has now reduced that demand to just 10 percent beginning in the second year of the contract.
The union had initially refused to consider any premium cost-sharing but later offered a flat payment $10 per week. That offer increased to $50 a month in Tuesday's bargaining session, Kerins said.
The company also wants the employees to pick up a co-payment for hospitalization costs and had been asking for a 10 percent contribution. That was reduced to 5 percent Tuesday, Kerins said.