RMI officials agree to meet with leaders of USWA union

Picketing workers are hoping they'll qualify for state jobless benefits.
THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN
By SHERRI L. SHAULISand CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
WEATHERSFIELD -- RMI Titanium officials have agreed to meet Thursday with union leaders representing about 380 employees who voted Saturday to reject what the company had called its final contract offer.
Todd Weddell, president of United Steelworkers of America Local 2155, called the meeting set for 1 p.m. "a step in the right direction," but he doesn't want to build up hopes for a quick resolution.
"Naturally, I'm glad to see it," he said. "But the company's news release made it sound like they're pretty well dug in. I hope that's not true."
Weddell was referring to a company statement Monday that nonunion employees were taking over production duties and that officials hoped the union would "come to agree and accept" its original offer.
Union workers manning informational pickets outside RMI say they're not on strike, and they're hoping that will help them qualify for state unemployment benefits.
"We haven't heard anything yet, so we have no idea," Jim Profato said early today about the status of benefits.
The Niles resident and 30-year employee of RMI noted that it's not that employees don't want to work.
"They've said it's a work stoppage," he said, referring to company officials. "But there's no question that it's a lockout. We want to work, and they won't let us."
"Just open the gates and let us in," he said. "We'll keep working and keep negotiating."
Union workers set up informational picket lines at the Weathersfield titanium mill Monday when the company refused to let them come to work.
The company told workers to stay home after the unions rejected what RMI officials have called their final contract offer.
Weddell said the union has advised members to start filing unemployment compensation claims. Workers on strike do not qualify for jobless benefits, but employees locked out of their workplace do, Weddell said, adding he thinks the issue is "pretty clear cut" in this case.
What happened
Union members who arrived for the afternoon shift Sunday were asked to leave at 7 p.m., Weddell said, about the same time their co-workers received calls at home from the company instructing them not to report to work Monday because of a "work stoppage."
Carmen Stewart, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services in Columbus, said the state agency won't look into the RMI situation until it starts getting unemployment benefit applications from workers.
She stressed that the term lockout doesn't necessarily mean the employer has locked employees out of the workplace.
In general, Stewart said, it's considered a lockout when an employer makes changes in the status quo of a union contract that were not negotiated. In that case, she said, employees would qualify for benefits, as long as no other disqualifying factors applied.
If the changes in the status quo were made by the employees, she said, the issue would be considered a labor dispute and the workers would be disqualified from benefits.
She refused to comment on the RMI case specifically but said it might take several weeks for the department to investigate and resolve the lockout question.
"Unemployment benefits would ease the burden a little bit," said Ray Raschilla Jr., unit chairman for Local 2155-7, "but it's a lot less than what we're used to living on. We'd all rather be working."
Local 2155-7 represents clerical and technical workers at RMI; Local 2155 represents production workers.
"We're willing to continue working under the old agreement and continue bargaining," Raschilla said. "It's the company that's walked away and locked us out."
Vehicles passing pickets honked their horns Monday and today in support of employees. As Profato stood outside the company's gate early today, he and others acknowledged those showing support.
"It's different when you are walking on your own than when you are kept out," he said.
Support has also come from other unions, he noted, including USWA Local 1375, which represents Steelworkers at WCI Steel, and United Auto Workers Local 1714 from General Motors.
Raschilla and Weddell said the union has been keeping about 12 informational pickets on duty around the clock. They said pickets are allowing nonunion workers, suppliers and others to pass through the gates.
vinarsky@vindy.com slshaulis@vindy.com