Thomas Steel, USW at impasse

By Don Shilling

The company president said he’s waiting for a new offer from the union.

WARREN — Thomas Steel Strip has delayed a move to reduce its contract offer to striking workers, saying union leaders promised to provide a new offer.

Officials with United Steelworkers of America said they made no such promise and aren’t sure where Denny Wist, Thomas president and chief executive, got his information.

“If he’s waiting for me to give him a proposal, he’ll get old,” said Denny Brubaker, a Steelworkers staff representative.

Mike Boyle, president of Steelworkers Local 3253, said the proposal that Thomas has is the union’s “last and best offer.”

The two sides have different interpretations of what happened at an Aug. 19 bargaining session.

Brubaker said the two sides talked about financial projections included in their proposals.

Wist said union leaders told executives that they would provide a revised contract offer in two weeks.

“I’m waiting for that to happen,” he said.

The two weeks expired Tuesday.

Previously, Wist had said the company would trim its offer to the workers if they didn’t approve the company’s proposal by Aug. 31.

Wist said Tuesday that he hasn’t revised the company’s offer because he thought a union response was coming.

The two sides also differ on how the strike is affecting the steel processor.

Brubaker said union leaders believe the strike has significantly reduced the company’s production.

Wist said, however, that Thomas is operating at 94 percent of capacity with salaried workers and replacement workers on the production floor.

A small cold-rolling mill wasn’t restarted, so the company is relying on an outside supplier for that work, he said.

He said about half of the company’s 115 salaried employees are working 12-hour production shifts.

“We’re keeping our customers happy. That’s the important thing,” he said.

He said he couldn’t provide a number on the replacement workers, but Brubaker said it is about 60. The union has about 260 workers on strike.

Union members last week picketed hotels in Streetsboro that are housing the replacement workers.

The picketing probably will be done again, Brubaker said.

Strikers walked off the job July 24 after working without a contract for nearly a year.

A key demand for workers is an assurance that health care benefits for retirees will not be changed. The union lost a battle three years ago to prevent the company from reducing benefits for retirees.

The company said it has offered to increase wages for current workers while installing a lower pay rate for future hires.

shilling@vindy.com