WARREN Layoffs at WCI will benefit some staff

A switch will mean a pay raise for some guards who can transfer jobs.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
WARREN -- WCI Steel won't back down on plans to eliminate its in-house security department, but most of the guards will have the right to transfer to jobs in the mill when their department becomes defunct, probably later this summer.
That's the compromise reached Friday between WCI and Local 64 of Security Police and Fire Professionals of America, the guards union, in meetings that began Thursday.
"We still have a job, we still have benefits; we're happy," said Robert Roden, grievance chairman for the local. "We worked out an agreement which pretty much benefits everybody."
WCI announced plans last month to eliminate its security department and hire a private security firm as a way to cut costs. The company, which is working on a restructuring plan to reverse heavy financial losses, said it issued 90-day layoff notices to 12 guards.
Meeting called
Union leaders called for meetings with the company to discuss the plan and threatened to picket at the mill gates to protest the private replacements.
They had hoped to persuade company officials not to abolish the guard division but did not succeed in that. "They were serious about it," Roden said. "They want to concentrate on the steel producing side."
However, he said seven guards will be offered the option to transfer to jobs elsewhere in the mill, either as laborers or clerical staff. Guards would be required to take and pass a qualifying test for a clerk's position, but no testing is required for the mill labor pool.
The move would mean a pay increase for some guards. Under a two-tier wage scale, guards hired since 1995 earn about $10 an hour, Roden said, but their wages will rise to about $15 an hour as mill laborers. Other, more senior guards are already earning an amount similar to the mill workers' wages. At least two other guards who are close to meeting retirement status will be allowed to retire.
WCI has not announced the name of the private security company it will hire or when the transition will happen, but the layoff notification to the union indicated it would be in late August. A WCI spokesman could not be reached to comment.
vinarsky@vindy.com