RMI TITANIUM Union rejects offer, urges hold on orders

The company wants to reduce operating costs by $3.5 million a year.
WEATHERSFIELD -- The union representing 340 locked-out employees of RMI Titanium is preparing to take its case to the company's customers and stockholders.
"We've tried to be gentlemanly and kind," said Todd Weddell, president of United Steelworkers of America Locals 2155 and 2155-7, which represents the employees. Now "we are going to start paying visits to the customers themselves," he said.
On Monday, about 61 percent of the 310 RMI production and maintenance workers voted to reject a contract proposal that union leaders said included union concessions worth $3 million to $3.5 million.
About 71 percent of the company's 30 clerical and technical workers also voted to reject the proposal Monday. It was the first vote since workers rejected what the company called its "final offer" last October and found the gates to the mill locked the next day.
Appealing to customers
Weddell said the union hopes to encourage RMI's customers to withhold their orders until the company settles its contract dispute with employees, who have been locked out for 11 months.
He noted that among the RMI customers the union will contact is the French company Airbus, one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers.
An RMI spokesperson did not return calls for comment Monday night. Company officials have made it a policy not to talk about the dispute except through press releases.
RMI's parent company is RTI International Metals.
Company proposal
Union officials had said the company proposal called for a three-year wage freeze, followed by pay raises of 30 cents and 35 cents in the fourth and fifth years, respectively. RMI workers averaged $16 an hour before the lockout.
All returning workers would be required to complete a medical history questionnaire and anyone who reported an injury or illness during the lockout would have to pass a physical to return to work.
"Those are pretty hard things for workers to swallow," Weddell said. The union had agreed to the three-year freeze but was asking for 50-cent raises in the fourth and fifth years.
Weddell said local union leaders plan to work with their national representatives as well as state government officials in an effort to contact RMI's customers and force a contract settlement. He also said the union expects to ask unions at the companies that buy from RMI for their help.
In addition, the RMI union plans to press its case with RTI International stockholders, Weddell said.
RTI reported 2003 profits of $4.7 million on sales of $205.5 million, down from $15.1 million in profits on 2002 sales of $270.9 million. The company has said it wants to reduce operating costs by $3.5 million a year.