ArcelorMittal steelworkers are receiving the highest profit sharing payments they have seen since 2005, but the prosperity is not expected to last into the coming quarters.
The third quarter 2008 profit sharing payments are $5.12 per hour for a maximum of 48 hours for each of the 13 weeks of the quarter, giving eligible steelworkers profit sharing of $3,194.88. There was no profit sharing in the first quarter, and in the second quarter, ArcelorMittal workers had a maximum profit sharing of $695.
"It will probably be the last one for a while," said Tom Hargrove, president of United Steelworkers Local 101 at ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor East. "Steel business has tanked since the end of the third quarter. It's worldwide, not only in the U.S. It's across the whole world."
Hargrove said he expects to see a lot of his fellow steelworkers retire soon. Without the normal overtime, those who are retirement eligible are working for nearly the same money they would receive from a combination of retirement benefits and Social Security, he said.
"Once you cut overtime out, they're thinking, 'Why am I working,'" he said. "It's slow, and we're trying to get through it. We're doing safety training, job training. It's an opportunity to get a lot of that done."
Like at Burns Harbor, the company has asked Indiana Harbor's 5,200 workers to take a voluntary layoff. Hargrove said he doesn't know how many of his local's 3,800 members, or the 1,400 members of Indiana Harbor West, have accepted yet, but he thinks it totals less than 100.
Between the voluntary layoffs and retirements, Hargrove is hoping the jobs of the 500 steelworkers hired at the plant since the first of the year would be saved if the continued drop in steel demand would force the company to order mandatory layoffs.
Only two of the five blast furnaces at ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor are operating -- No. 4 on the plant's west side and No. 7 on the east side, Hargrove said.
The number of operating turns has been cut from a maximum of 21 per week, he said, adding he can't provide the percentage of the cut because each different operation in the plant operates differently depending on orders.
