Venango County steelworkers to vote on union

Workers at a Venango County specialty steel plant will vote Dec. 6 whether to end union representation by the United Steelworkers, five months after twice rejecting a union-negotiated labor agreement.

The National Labor Relations Board ordered the union decertification vote by secret ballot at Carpenter Technology Corp.’s Latrobe Specialty Metals Co. plant in Franklin after two days of hearings in August and September, where the USW argued against the vote to end representation by the union.

The USW said a labor agreement had already been ratified for about 62 production and maintenance workers at the plant, which barred a decertification vote.

In a written decision in November, NLRB Regional Director Nancy Wilson in Pittsburgh disagreed, saying the 60- page “settlement agreement” submitted to the company as a binding labor contract was deficient.

“The article does not make any reference to ratification, any calendar dates or any other reference to when the agreement commences,” Ms. Wilson wrote, noting that the USW constitution only requires the signature of a union official — not a ratification vote by the rank and file — for a contract to be accepted.

Neither USW General Counsel David Jury nor Latrobe Specialty Metals lawyer Alan Pittler, from the Downtown offices of Cozen O’Connor returned calls seeking comment. Latrobe workers received free legal aid in the case by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

Philadelphia-based Carpenter Technology has operations in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, including Latrobe Specialty Metals in Westmoreland County.

The National Labor Relations Board enforces a labor law dating from 1935 that includes the right to join or reject a union and to withhold services through a strike and to seek better working conditions through union representation without fear of retaliation.

Workers at the plant voted for USW representation in 2020, which began negotiations for their first contract. Some 40 bargaining sessions were held through July, which included some of the company’s “last, best and final offers” that were accepted by union negotiators.

Conversion of the bargaining unit to hourly pay from salary was among 13 issues that had not been resolved.

The contract was rejected by union members in a July 25 vote when employee Kerry Hunsberger began circulating a petition to end USW representation, according to Ms. Wilson’s ruling. After learning of the drive to oust the union, the USW quickly approved all of the outstanding issues in the rejected contract and submitted it to the company on Aug. 1 as a binding agreement — the same day workers began voting on a contract that would be rejected a second time.

“Steelworkers union bosses drew up a contract that my coworkers and I hated, so naturally we wanted them out of our workplace and out of our pocketbooks,” Ms. Hunsberger said in a prepared statement Thursday.