United Steelworkers to seek strike authorization at ATI
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The United Steelworkers union is preparing for a strike authorization at Allegheny Technologies Inc., the union’s international vice president confirmed Monday.
Although the contract that expired Sunday was extended and employees were told to continue to report to work, “the locals have returned home with instructions to begin setting up strike authorization votes,” USW Vice President Dave McCall said.
The contract extension can be vacated with 48 hours’ notice, McCall said.
“We plan to return to bargaining with the hope that ATI will finally see that its confrontational bargaining strategy won’t work,” the union said in an update to its members. “Because we’ve seen how they’ve acted so far, your USW bargaining committee is asking its members at all ATI local unions to authorize the bargaining committee to begin a strike, if necessary.”
ATI spokeswoman Natalie Gillespie said the company continues to operate its plants to meet its commitments to customers and avoid disruption to employees and their families.
“ATI and the USW are working hard to reach resolution,” she said. “We value our employees’ hard work and commitment, and our proposal reflects that. ATI provided the USW with a fair and comprehensive proposal. It increases wages at a time when we’re losing money and investing millions to transform our business in order to preserve well-paying jobs for the vast majority of our employees.”
The last contract, which originally expired Feb. 29, 2020, was extended by one year in March 2020. It covers about 1,300 workers at nine ATI locations. The union has 10 locals with ATI, with four in the Alle-Kiski Valley.
Local union representatives will be posting notices of the dates, times and locations of strike authorization meetings, the union said.
Todd Barbiaux is president of Local 1196, which represents about 460 members at ATI’s Brackenridge facility in Harrison. He said they were working on setting up a meeting on a strike.
“We’re not going to delay it. We’re going to get right on it,” he said.
“I’m disappointed in this company,” Barbiaux said. “For all that we’ve been through during the pandemic, how hard we worked collectively to keep our union workers safe and the place sanitized, and this is all the company thinks of us.”
If a strike authorization is granted and before a strike begins, the union said its members will get information on their rights, protections, and strike and defense fund benefits.
The union claims ATI is demanding a four-year agreement “that erodes most everything that we have gained over the years including wages, health insurance, contracting out protections, overtime pay and scheduling,” the union update states.
“As a matter of fact, if we were to accept what they have on the table today, besides weakening almost every security issue we have, their proposal would have us working for less than we work for today,” the union said.
The company, however, said employees would be better off financially in every year of its most recent offer of a proposed four-year contract.
In a communication to employees, the company says its negotiating team “has engaged in meaningful attempts to reward our employees with a contract that delivers wage increases respecting your hard work, while also providing the financial security the company needs to operate during the long economic recovery.”
The company says the union’s demands are the same as they were before the covid pandemic and the resulting “economic meltdown.”
“Those demands didn’t make sense for the business then and certainly don’t now,” the company’s update states.
On wages, ATI’s four-year proposal would give employees $2,500 upon ratification, a 2% raise in 2022, $1,000 in 2023, and 2% in 2024. The union’s three-year proposal would give 4% in 2021 and 3.5% in each of 2022 and 2023, along with a $4,000 signing bonus.
On health care, ATI said its proposal would maintain premium-free coverage for the first three years. In 2024, employees could choose between paying monthly premiums of $40 for an individual or $125 for a family.
“Most employees can pay for these small premiums by working a couple of overtime shifts,” the company stated, calling it “a great plan at an affordable price.”
Employees also would be able to choose a premium-free version of the plan offered to salaried employees, which would be the only one offered to those hired after Jan. 1, 2024. The union says it would have no right to negotiate over changes to the plan.
Beginning in 2022, deductibles would be increased from $300 for an individual and $600 for a family to $500 and $1,000, respectively. Copays for doctor visits and services would increase from $10 to $25. The medical out-of-pocket maximum would increase from $1,500 for individuals to $2,000, and from $3,000 for families to $4,000.
Prescription copays and the out-of-pocket maximum also would increase.
The company and union disagree on work rule changes, including the use of contractors for certain maintenance and other work.
The company wants to introduce an alternative work schedule of 12-hour days for melt crews without daily overtime, limited to weeks when employees are scheduled three or four days. Overtime would be paid for hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week, the company said.
ATI’s update addresses agreements for announced closings.
The company says employees laid off from the Brackenridge #3 Finishing Department and Waterbury would be eligible for shutdown pensions immediately upon ratification.
“We’ve offered a commitment to make Louisville employees eligible for shutdown pensions as they are permanently laid off in connection with the wind-down of operations,” the company’s notice says.