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Today marks one-year anniversary of AK Steel lockout
Company's offers worsening for union workers, many of whom face foreclosures and repossessions.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
MIDDLETOWN — The anniversary no one in this city of nearly 52,000 thought would come is here.
One year ago today, AK Steel Corp. and its union representing hourly maintenance and production employees at the company's Middletown Works plant failed to reach an agreement on a new contract. The company locked out its largest union at midnight on Feb. 28 and brought in temporary replacement and salaried workers to run its steelmaking operations.
Extras
And, after hundreds of hours of bargaining, the contract proposal now on the table is worse for union members in the areas of wages, active employee insurance, current and future retirees and pensions than what was offered before the lockout began.
"This is not a grudge match and it is not a vendetta," said Alan McCoy, AK Steel's vice president of government, public relations. "It is nothing but our quest to reach a competitive agreement with Middletown works."
AK Steel has weathered the storm financially — setting a company record $6 billion in sales and achieving a nearly 90 percent jump in its stock price from a year ago. And the steelmaker has reached contract agreements with its unions in Butler, Pa., Zanesville, Mansfield and Coshocton all well before their expiration dates.
Meanwhile, hundreds of members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 1943 have been forced into unemployment, foreclosures and repossessions. Others have found work elsewhere.
As finances have dwindled, so, too, have the number of union members — from 2,505 on March 1, 2006, to less than 1,800 as of Feb. 1, with another 60 retirements expected next month.
Little has happened in negotiations since mid-October, when the company offered a contract with less pay and benefits than two prior offers, both of which were rejected.
Those same members continue to ask their leaders about bargaining leverage they have with the company.
"I wouldn't term it as leverage," said union President Brian Daley. "We were close on our differences (with the company) in October, and the company just chose to go the other way."
