PITTSBURGH | Negotiations aimed at a new labor agreement between ArcelorMittal and the United Steelworkers continued almost nonstop Friday as the expiration of the current contract approaches at 11:59 p.m. Monday.
After shepherding their 14,000 members through a strike authorization vote Wednesday, the presidents of the 14 USW locals at ArcelorMittal facilities returned to Pittsburgh to join the bargaining committee for Friday's negotiating sessions that continued throughout the day.
"We have made progress," said Jim Robinson, USW District 7 director Friday. "But we're not done, and things can always change until an entire agreement is reached."
The company's salaried and union workers continue to plan how they will bank the company's nine blast furnaces and its coke ovens in preparation for a potential shutdown if an agreement is not reached. As of Friday afternoon, all facilities still were in operation, but iron making has been slowed, Robinson said.
The blast furnaces need about a three-day period to be cooled in a manner than preserves the brick linings. Relining a blast furnace can cost from $85 million to $100 million. The D furnace at Burns Harbor is scheduled to be relined in October at a cost of about $87 million.
The union began preparing for the labor negotiations in March when it had membership meetings at the union locals to get input on local issues. Talks with the company began in April with only slight interruptions, including the USW's international convention in July.
Negotiations stalled after competing company U.S. Steel and the USW reached a tentative labor agreement Aug. 10 that set a pattern for the integrated steel industry. However, ArcelorMittal and the union have different views on how it should apply to the agreement because the current agreements have different starting points for calculations on health care premiums, profit sharing and incentives.
Both sides remain positive that an agreement can be reached. ArcelorMittal officials have said the company is "committed to working with the USW to reach a settlement by Sept 1."
"We have made a fair offer in line with the recent U.S. Steel settlement and the competitive nature of the industry," ArcelorMittal spokeswoman Katie Patterson said Friday in a prepared statement. "We have reached tentative agreements with the union on a number of outstanding issues and continue to negotiate on a small handful of topics."
Robinson said all the issues have been discussed thoroughly.
"It's not complicated," he said. "It's a matter of making decisions."
Of the 14,000 ArcelorMittal union members affected by the negotiations, about 9,000 are at its plants in East Chicago, Burns Harbor, New Carlisle and Riverdale, Ill.
U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., who is head of the Congressional Steel Caucus, said Friday he anticipates the two sides will reach an agreement that "keeps the mills open and gives the steelworkers the wages, health care and retirement security they deserve."
"Northwest Indiana's economy stems from the steel mills, and I hope a strike can be avoided," Visclosky said.
