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By KEVIN NEVERS Less than three weeks after U.S. Steel Company (USS) posted its most profitable quarter in history—with a net revenue of $919 million—it has announced the layoff of 500 represented employees at its U.S. facilities or around 3 percent of the company’s total represented domestic workforce of 16,000. Another 177 represented employees are being laid off at the company’s Canadian facilities. Jerry Littles, president of United Steelworkers Local 1014, told the Chesterton Tribune today that 58 members have been laid off at Gary Works. USS spokesman John Armstrong said that a total of 100 members have been laid off across the company’s Northwest Indiana operations, which include the Midwest finishing facility in Portage. “The dramatic downturn in the economy has impacted our overall business and we have adjusted production in all operations to stay in line with customer demand,” Armstrong said on Thursday. “We have made every effort to maintain employment levels at all of our operations but we must now adjust the workforce to match production levels.” “We regret the action but it’s necessary to control our costs and maintain our competitiveness in this difficult environment until customer demand strengthens,” Armstrong added. Armstrong noted that layoffs are mostly in the company’s flat-rolled operations. “Tubular has not yet been affected by this,” he said. The layoffs—which “at this time” have not affected non-represented employees—will remain in effect until further notice. “The key will be in seeing strength in demand from our customers,” Armstrong said. Littles said that the layoffs have affected members at the “hot-mill side” at Gary Works. “A lot of them have been paid off for the rest of the week and most are out already.” He added that those laid off have less than three years of service—many of them have less than one year of service—and are therefore not yet covered by job security provisions in the contract. Nevertheless, those provisions are not inviolable and may be voided in the event of “catastrophic events,” and Littles observed that the economic meltdown is certainly beginning to look like a catastrophe. “We do not have any orders to speak of from the auto industry. We’re hurting. It’s a trickle-down effect. They’re our biggest sector, the auto industry. “The company has made a commitment to bring the members back to work when the industry comes around but right now we have no clue when that will be,” Littles said. “We don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. “There’s a lot of fear,” Littles observed. “It affects everybody. It affects people’s ability to buy products and pay bills. And the holidays are coming up. It’s a bad situation.” Littles said that the last time he remembers a layoff at Gary Works was in 1983. The speed with which the meltdown has convulsed the economy, Littles remarked, is astonishing. “One of the reasons U.S. Steel was eager to negotiate a new contract (earlier this summer) was because our order books were looking rosy.” he said. “There had to be a lot of cancellation of orders overnight. It’s the most dramatic downturn I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen the economy go bad so fast.”
Posted 11/14/2008
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