No concessions for Local 1005 in "final offer" Now what?

Locked-out U.S. Steel workers are “up in arms” over the company’s refusal to consider the union’s offer to concede on long-opposed pension issues, Local 1005 president Rolf Gerstenberger said.

The union does not have any formal plans for its next steps after rejecting the company’s “full and final offer,” but is in the middle of discussions about moving forward, he said Friday.

Up until last week, the union had refused U.S. Steel’s demands to eliminate indexing for 9,000 pensioners and to bring new hires into a defined contribution pension plan. 

U.S. Steel Canada spokesperson Trevor Harris declined to comment on what the next steps on the company’s end would be. “We have made our position clear to both the union and our employees,” he wrote in an email to The Spectator. “I have nothing further at this time.”

On Tuesday, U.S. Steel sent a letter to workers, who have been locked out for about 11 months, telling employees they “deserve an opportunity to vote in favour of the Company’s offer, end the lockout and return to work.” 

The letter also said Hamilton Works was a “severely challenged facility” that has lost money while other steel plants in North America have made money. “Hamilton Works will survive only on its own merits. It won’t be protected or subsidized,” the letter stated.

But at a Local 1005 meeting Thursday, many members did not even want to dignify the company’s final offer with a vote, Gerstenberger said.

“Our members … were pretty upset because, a week before, we were going to negotiate,” he said, referring to a meeting they had with the company on Sept. 13. “And the company proved again that they don’t want to negotiate.” 

Another section in the company’s final offer that angered members was a clause that would put 300 “unslotted” workers — or “floaters” — under the “sole discretion of the company” in regard to their work schedules, days off and assignments, Gerstenberger said. 

The union proposed a list of 12 items they wanted in exchange for the pension concessions, including a guarantee of two years work for all employees recalled by seniority, that probationary workers be reinstated immediately and made permanent, and restore pension credits lost during the current lockout and the 2008-09 layoff.

“It’s just the arrogance,” Gerstenberger said. “They didn’t even consider (our proposals). That’s what’s got everyone up in arms.”