RMI TITANIUM Locked-out workers stage large protest outside plant

The local pickets were coordinated with a protest at a titanium conference in New Orleans.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- In an effort to increase pressure on company officials to begin bargaining again, union workers locked out at RMI Titanium Co. stepped up their pickets.
"We want to turn up the heat a little," said Ray Raschilla Jr., unit chairman for United Steelworkers of America Local 2155-7. "We want them to know that we want to be in there making titanium, not out here demonstrating."
Instead of the usual handful of locked-out workers who have manned informational pickets outside the company gates for the past 345 days, close to 100 union employees carried signs and chanted outside the Warren Avenue gates Monday afternoon.
Conference
The picket was coordinated to supplement a protest by a local union delegation at a titanium conference in New Orleans.
Todd Weddell, president of USWA Local 2155 and 2155-7, which represents the 340 union employees of RMI, and other delegates traveled to the "Titanium 2004: 20th Annual Conference and Exhibition," Raschilla said. They and other union supporters distributed handbills stating management executives from RTI International Metals, RMI's parent company, collected large salaries and bonus packages while asking for more than $3 million in concessions from the workers in Niles.
Also at the conference, USWA members participated in a silent protest during a panel presentation conducted by Tim Rupert, chief executive officer of RTI.
Locally, Raschilla said the locked-out workers plan to keep escalating pressure on RMI management to open negotiations again. Future activities include more pickets, as well as union representatives meeting with customers of RMI to inform them the workers are still locked out.
"We don't want to scare any customers away," he noted. "But we want them to know that if they want the best product for their money, then they should support getting this trained work force back inside."
Company officials have made it a policy not to talk about the dispute except through press releases.
The situation
Company officials locked out the 340 workers last October after voters turned down a final contract offer from RMI management. Workers have manned informational pickets outside the plant 24 hours a day since then.
In August, union workers again rejected a contract offer from the company that called for a three-year wage freeze, followed by pay raises of 30 and 35 cents in the fourth and fifth years, respectively. The unions had agreed to the three-year wage freeze, but asked for 50-cent raises in the final two years.
Raschilla said union representatives have spoken with a federal mediator and Congressman Tim Ryan, D-17th, Niles, in an effort to meet with management at the bargaining table, but to date have been unsuccessful.
slshaulis@vindy.com