Deadline looms for U.S. Steel, union contract
U.S. Steel’s contract with more than 16,000 members of the United Steelworkers union expires at midnight Saturday and if the union’s response to the Pittsburgh steelmaker’s proposed offer is any indication, peace is not at hand.
“This is an extremely insulting proposal,” USW officials said in a statement last week.
Union officials feel the same way abouta proposal from ArcelorMittal, whose contract with about 15,000 USW members expires at the same time as U.S. Steel’s contract does.
Neither the union nor U.S. Steel is saying much about the talks or whether the two sides will agree to keeping working under the existing contract until a settlement is reached.
That’s what happened when the last contract expired three years ago. It took five more months of negotiations before USW members ratified a new contract in February
2017 that froze wages and made modest changes to health care coverage.
Back then, steelmakers were pressured by a crush of imports and bargain basement steel prices, leaving the USW with little bargaining leverage. The tables are turned this time. Steel prices have soaredsince President Donald Trump imposed 25 percent tariffson many steel imports.
“The business climate right now is good. I would expect the union would want their share of the pie,” said John Tumazos, a metals industry analysts based in Holmdel, N.J.
USW officials said U.S. Steel’s seven-year contract proposal included a 3.3 percent wage increase in the first year and smaller raises in each of the next two years. In the last four years of the contract, any wage hikes would comefrom lump sum bonuses based on the same targets that management bonuses are paidon. Benefits would be cut, unionofficials said.
After having their wages frozenforthreeyearsandmaking sacrifices, USW officials say they are expecting more from the next contract. Their demandswill be aired at a rally scheduled for Thursday at U.S. Steel’sClairton coke plant.
While the USW may make a lot of noise over the company’s proposal, labor experts aren’t expecting a work stoppage despite the leverage that robust conditions have givento the union.
Michael LeRoy, a University of Illinois law professor who specializes in labor relations, said there were only sevenstrikes last year involving more than 1,000 workers vs. 69 in 1986 and 276 in 1976. Labor law tilts so far in favor of management that “strikes amount to career suicide for most workers,” Mr. LeRoy saidin an email.
The last time the USW struck U.S. Steel was in 1986, when 22,000 union members walked off the job. The strike lasted six months and ended with a contract that imposed steep wage and benefit cuts.
In an email, U.S. Steel declined to comment on the USW’s characterization of the company’s offer or what might happen if there’s is no deal by Saturday’s deadline.
“As with previous contract negotiations, we hope to come to a mutually agreeable conclusion,” the company said.
Marick Masters, a labor relations professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, said it is likely that if a new contract isn’t reached by Saturday, U.S. Steel and the union will keep workers on the job under the terms of the current contract and continue negotiating until an agreement is reached.
Since foreign competition made life tougher for U.S. manufacturers in the 1970s, union workers have been frightened that a strike could push even more jobs offshore, he said.
“They’ve seen what’s happened to their parents and their communities, and I think they realize it’s not in their economicinteresttotakeastrike,” Mr.Masterssaid.
Mr. Tumazos said current high steel prices make it in both sides’ interests to make peace, either by Saturday’s deadline or at a later date.
The USW, U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal “have to work very hard to make sure there’s no interruption because the customers would ask Trump to suspend the [tariffs] if either U.S. Steel or ArcelorMittal were struck,” he said.