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Local ArcelorMittal workers fight for “fair” contract
By Kalea Hall
WARREN
About 50 ArcelorMittal workers in Warren stood in the close-to-90-degree weather Wednesday afternoon to get their point across: They want a fair contract.
ArcelorMittal USA is one of the largest steelmakers in the country with more than 20,000 workers employed at 27 operations in 13 states.
“Years ago, we gave back concessions, and we never got anything in return,” said Craig Humes, a 15-year worker at the Warren plant where coke, the primary energy for integrated steelmaking, is produced. “We just want a fair contract. They want multiple concessions with retirees, and they want to gut pretty much anything.”
There are 177 employees at the Warren plant that sits on 177 acres at 2234 Main Ave. SW.
The contract negotiations have been ongoing since June between the company and the United Steel Workers, which represents the ArcelorMittal workers at several plants across the U.S. The current contract expires in September.
The USW represents about 13,000 workers from multiple ArcelorMittal plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, South Carolina, West Virginia, Minnesota and Louisiana.
Of primary concern to the workers is an increase in health care costs and a loss of health care for retirees.
The USW said the company proposed to start charging active employees monthly premiums of $150 for single coverage and $250 for family coverage, which would cost USW members more than $36 million per year.
“Our biggest concern is this is for the shareholders,” said Jose Arroyo, business representative for the USW in the Youngstown/Warren area.
Humes and Arroyo both believe the steel industry’s downturn right now has caused the company to ask for concessions.
“It is not unexpected,” Humes said. “The steel industry is very cyclical. It has good times and bad. Unfortunately, the contract expires during a downturn.”
ArcelorMittal said on its website: “While we won’t negotiate the specifics in the media, our first proposal presented to the United Steelworkers was an attempt to mitigate the disadvantage of our current agreement while proposing an alternative that would continue providing our active and retired employees with industry leading pay and benefits as compared to other USW-represented employees in our industry and beyond.”
The company added that its fixed costs of more than $2 billion have remained unchanged, but steel pricing has declined by 50 percent since 2008.
The company’s U.S. business has lost about $1.5 billion since 2010.
“Given current realities, we cannot continue with status quo. We cannot base our 2015 contract on a hope that a return to a new steel and commodities boom is ahead,” the company said on its website. “We must address our fixed costs now to ensure we can compete and provide sustainable employment opportunities to our USW-represented workforce regardless of market conditions.”