In a special meeting Wednesday evening, 510 workers voted to back the union leadership nine months after being locked out of the former Stelco plant.
Fewer than 30 members voted ‘no’ to a resolution asking if they supported the committee.
After the lengthy meeting at a Mountain banquet centre, union local president Rolf Gerstenberger said the vote means the next move toward settling the lock out is up to U.S. Steel.
“Everyone knows that what U.S. Steel wants is for us to shaft the pensioners and give up indexing,” he said. “They also want to shaft the new hires.”
Gerstenberger said with steel demand and prices both rising, it may now be in U.S. Steel’s interest to restart negotiations.
A ‘no’ vote could have led to a reopening of contract talks.
The meeting was called after a small group of union members requested it under the union constitution.
Pensions are at the heart of the current confrontation. U.S. Steel is demanding the current defined benefit pension plan be converted to a defined contribution scheme for new employees. It also wants an end to pension indexing for current retirees. In exchange for those concessions, the company has offered to drop earlier demands for cuts in vacation time and cost of living allowances. But accepting its pension demands, is a precondition for reopening negotiations.
Union leaders have rejected the pension demands, arguing it's not right to deny future employees the retirement security of a defined benefit plan and it's even worse to take away small annual increases from current retirees.
The lockout is the longest labour confrontation in Hamilton steel history.
Workers who used to earn about $30 an hour have been getting by on about two-thirds of their normal pay — $200 a week in union strike pay and Employment Insurance benefits. Those EI claims, however, begin to expire soon.
sarnold@thespec.com THE SPEC
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