United Steel Workers union members rally in Indiana, looking to keep wages and benefits from being cut.
A dispute over wages has left the United Steel Workers union at odds with two key makers of steel that control a large piece of the steel-making capacity in the United States.
Both United States Steel and Arcelor Mittal have been major beneficiaries of the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. “Steel is going phenomenally well,” Trump boasted during a press conference this week.
However, that hasn’t benefitted everyone. Ford CEO Jim Hackett said in an interview that rising prices, resulting from the tariffs, are likely to cost Ford Motor Co $1 billion this year and next.
Meanwhile, the USW is complaining that the steel makers, who are making lavish profits thanks to the tariffs are demanding concessions from the union, including substantial cuts in the health care plans of active and retired employees. The union also has noted steel workers have not had a raise in three years.
(In rare rebuke, Senate Republicans blast Trump over tariffs. Click Here for the story.)
Steel makers are pushing union workers for wage and health care benefit cuts.
“Last week, our USW negotiating committee returned to Pittsburgh after receiving unanimous approval for strike authorization from the members of all 13 local unions at the ArcelorMittal facilities covered by our contracts,” the union said in a statement this week.
The companies included in the possible strike have facilities stretching from northern Minnesota and across the U.S. industrial heartland in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
(Click Here for details about Trump rejecting an EU proposal to eliminate auto tariffs entirely.)
“Many of ArcelorMittal’s deeply concessionary demands ultimately would not significantly improve the company’s long- or short-term profitability, but they would nevertheless have dramatic negative consequences for active and retired USW members and their families,” the statement added.
The union said members of the committee are returning to their locals, where our CAT representatives have received and started distributing picket duty surveys. The USW also said it started discussions with management about an orderly idling of our plants and equipment to protect them from the elements and facilitate a safe and efficient restart.
(To see more about the auto industry uniting to challenge Trump tariffs, Click Here.)
The union also we will begin preparations in the event of a work stoppage and may begin some informational picketing. “Although we remain hopeful that management will change direction before forcing us into a labor dispute, we should ready ourselves, our families and communities,” the union said.