ArcelorMittal employees plan rallies for Wednesday
By Christin Nance Lazerus cnance@post-trib.com September 4, 2012 5:42PM
Updated: September 4, 2012 10:28PM
ArcelorMittal employees will be rallying Wednesday afternoon across the United States to urge the company to come up with a fair and equitable contract.
The demonstration comes just days after the union’s pact with the steelmaker expired, but ArcelorMittal and the United Steelworkers decided to continue working under the old contract. More than 1,000 employees and retirees were out in force at an Aug. 27 “practice” picket outside the main office at the Indiana Harbor plant in East Chicago plant.
ArcelorMittal idled several furnaces in the run-up to the expiration of the contract, but most of them were fired up Sunday morning.
The latest update from the United Steelworkers questioned why ArcelorMittal is dragging its feet on a new contract, while U.S. Steel reached a tentative agreement with the USW on Sunday.
The USW said the steelworkers still face three significant hurdles to reaching an agreement: funding of the Benefit Trust for retiree health care, current pension terms and pension terms for employees of the former Inland Steel.
The company said it will not comment on specific issues being discussed in negotiations.
The USW said it is in the process of putting together summaries of the tentative agreement with U.S. Steel to members, who will vote by mail. The USW said the process should take three to four weeks.
