ArcelorMittal has asked the membership of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6787, representing workers at its Burns Harbor facility, to make further concessions, above and beyond those to which the local agreed in the layoff minimization plan approved in November 2008, Local 6787 President Paul Gipson told the Chesterton Tribune today.

Gipson’s reply to ArcelorMittal: Nuts.

“My response is that the company has very little integrity,” Gipson said. “We were asked for further reductions in the agreement. But an agreement is an agreement. They have to keep their end of it. We have to keep our end of it. It was signed by both parties.”

“Now they’re saying that it wasn’t enough,” Gipson said. “I just flat told them we’re not going to engage in any further cuts. They can talk to the International but I don’t think they’ll get very far.”

The layoff minimization plan in question was reached after ArcelorMittal, invoking the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, originally announced last fall the potential layoff of up to 2,444 members of Local 6787 in January.

Gipson promptly negotiated with ArcelorMittal a layoff minimization plan, which provided for the voluntary layoff of 490 members at the Burns Harbor facility, with any retirements counting toward that number, as well as the placing of as many as 900 workers on 32-hour weeks. In addition, Local 6787 agreed to forgo overtime pay and cap at 20 percent--down from 51 percent--an incentive program based on production during the layoff period. The plan has a snap-back mechanism under which all concessions will be rescinded once the market allows for a 40-heat schedule.

Gipson conceded that the layoff minimization plan was a hard sell at the time. “We campaigned to find as may volunteers as possible for the layoffs,” he said, and indeed 560 members did volunteer, 70 more than required by the plan. Currently, Gipson added, 750 members are still working four-day, 32-hour weeks. All told, he said, the concessions made by Local 6787 amount to savings to the company of around $12 million per month.

Then, more recently, Gipson said, the company saw “some green shoots” in the market, as customers began to run down their inventory. But instead of scheduling final repairs in advance of re-starting Blast Furnace D at Burns Harbor--which Gipson estimated would take only 12 weeks--ArcelorMittal opted instead to re-start Blast Furnace No. 5 at Indiana Harbor on July 20. And then in the bargain to put the squeeze on Local 6787 for more concessions.

“We were the only people who entered into an agreement to prevent the shutdown of a plant,” Gipson said. “We made our sacrifices. It wasn’t easy. And now you’re saying that wasn’t good enough. Where’s your integrity? ‘We need deeper cuts,’ the company is saying. ‘We need to be more competitive with our counterparts elsewhere.’ But the basis for this isn’t any worsening in the market. They see an opportunity to whipsaw us, one plant against another. ‘Who wants to do it cheapest?’”

Gipson speculated that ArcelorMittal, aware of “a raise coming in September”--under the new three-year contract with the union negotiated last August--is trying to build a “burning platform” and “soften up” Local 6787. “But we’re not dealing with a company going broke,” he said. “They’ve got money. They just don’t have as much money as they want. They look at this as an opportunity to get everything back.”

ArcelorMittal could unilaterally abrogate the layoff minimization plan, Gipson noted. If it were to do so, Local 6787 would take its case to the National Labor Relations Board and charge the company with bargaining in bad faith.

ArcelorMittal is playing a dangerous game, Gipson remarked. “This could damage the attitude of the workforce forever. They obviously haven’t read one of their assets very well: the workers. They’re running the risk of pissing off the workers. The 20-percent cap in the incentive program isn’t just a matter of a few dollars. It affects vacation. It affects pensions. It affects everything and anything we bargained for.”

Posted 7/10/2009