USW members approve new deal with ATI
Members of the United Steelworkers union overwhelmingly ratified a new four-year contract with Allegheny Technologies Inc. following an all-day vote on Tuesday by roughly 2,200 members.
The new pact must still be approved by the National Labor Relations Board.
According to a news release from USW, members voted by a 5-1 margin to approve the tentative agreement reached Feb. 22.
The new contract still requires approval by the NLRB, which filed an unfair labor practice complaint against ATI on Feb. 12, alleging the lockout which began on Aug. 15 was illegal and the company bargained in bad faith.
The union’s ratification comes following voting on Tuesday at 12 ATI facilities in six states, including ATI’s Allegheny Ludlum Plate Mill in Canton Township, where the USW represents about 220 workers.
On Wednesday, Skip Longdon, president of USW Local 7139-5, said workers voting at the union hall on Route 844 showed a somewhat bigger margin in voting to accept the tentative agreement.
“We were a little bit better than 5-1, probably closer to 6-1,” Longdon said of the local votes cast in favor of the pact.
According to the union, the contract protects retirement benefits and maintains affordable, quality health care for active workers and retirees. The new agreement also protects union jobs against outside contractors, maintains the grievance procedure, and introduces a new profit-sharing system that allows USW members a bigger share in ATI’s future successes.
“The strength and solidarity of our union paid off with a fair contract that contains virtually none of the drastic concessions ATI sought to arbitrarily impose,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard in a statement.
Gerard was referencing the start of talks nearly a year ago, when ATI presented list of demands the union said included 145 “deep and permanent concessions that would have erased decades of progress, significantly increased health care costs for retirees and created an unacceptable and divisive two-tier benefit system.”
If the NLRB gives a green light to the contract, the new pact will end a six-month lockout of union members at the 12 plants.
The union and the Pittsburgh-based specialty steelmaker forged the four-year tentative agreement Feb. 22.
The two sides were unable to reach a deal before the previous contract expired June 30, and USW members worked under terms of the old pact for about six weeks, until the company locked them out on Aug. 15.
The result was a contentious situation between labor and management, with ATI operating its plants with salaried and nonunion employees and temporary contracted workers.
The last vestiges of that situation remained Wednesday.
Longdon said he was ready to take down the picket stands at the Canton Township plant in the morning, but decided against it after talking with his members.
“We will keep picketing until the scabs leave,” he said, adding that it could be a week before the contracted workers are released.