Steelworkers at ArcelorMittal authorize strike

15,000 employees are ready to walk off job

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

About 15,000 union steelworkers at ArcelorMittal’s U.S. plants have authorized the United Steelworkers union to strike the world’s largest steel producer.

USW officials said the vote was unanimous. It follows a similar vote two weeks ago by about 16,000 U.S. Steel workers represented by the USW.

The union’s labor agreements with U.S. Steel of Pittsburgh and Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal expired Sept. 1. Workers at both companies continue working under the terms of the expired contracts.

The votes reflect the insistence of union workers that they should share in the industry’s bounty spawned by the 25 percent tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed on steel imports this year.

“Now that [ArcelorMittal] is generating enormous — even historic — amounts of cash, it is an insult that bargaining progress has been hindered by management’s unrealistic concessionary demands and unfair labor practices,” USW president Leo Gerard said in a statement.

In a statement, ArcelorMittal said: “We continue to work diligently to reach a mutually agreeable conclusion.” Plants continue operating “in a safe and orderly fashion,” the company said.

ArcelorMittal’s U.S. plants include mills in Weirton, W.Va.; Warren, Ohio; and three Pennsylvania plants: Steelton, located outside Harrisburg; Coatesville in Chester County; and Conshohocken in Montgomery County.

The union’s chief negotiator, District 1 director David McCall, said pay raises in ArcelorMittal’s proposal would be wiped out by concessions that the steelmaker is seeking.

“We are organized and mobilized and will not allow ArcelorMittal to bully us into accepting anything less than the fair contracts we have earned and deserve,” Mr. McCall said in a statement.

Negotiations between the union and ArcelorMittal are scheduled to resume Thursday in Pittsburgh.

A USW spokesman said bargaining continues this week with U.S. Steel.