AP Features, March 14th, 2007
Union workers at AK Steel Holding Corp.'s Middletown Works overwhelmingly approved a contract offer that would end a nearly 13-month-old lockout, Machinists union officials said Wednesday.
The union said the ratification vote was 1,275 in favor, 226 against.
The agreement would send some 1,750 union employees back to work at the plant 30 miles north of Cincinnati. It is effective Thursday and runs through September 2011.
Members of Machinists Local Lodge 1943 had been locked out since their contract expired at midnight Feb. 28, 2006. The company has continued to operate the mill with replacement workers and salaried employees in what is the nation's longest current major work stoppage.
The new contract gives most workers a raise, while also requiring them to help pay for their health benefits.
A tentative settlement was announced Feb. 28, just before workers gathered to mark the lockout's one-year anniversary.
The agreement followed negotiating meetings between company CEO James Wainscott and Lynn Tucker, the Machinists union's general vice president for the eastern United States. The company insisted it needed to reduce the work force, have more flexibility in scheduling and pass along to employees some of the costs of health care and other benefits.
Union membership has dwindled from about 2,700 a year ago to fewer than 1,800 because of retirements and resignations. Members twice voted to reject company proposals that would have raised wages for most workers while cutting benefits and giving the company more flexibility in assigning jobs.
The new contract increases pay for most workers. Wages for most employees would range from $15.66 to $21.50 an hour, with a 50 cent raise after 18 months, the union said.
It preserves seniority rights for such things as bidding jobs and scheduling vacations, but would require employees to pay 15 percent of the cost of health care insurance.
The company will contribute up to $1.80 per hour to a multi-employer pension plan, and pay $7.7 million to resolve all claims and grievances, including $2.6 million in profit sharing for 2005 and $202,301 for 2006.
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On the Net:
AK Steel: http://www.aksteel.com
Armco Employees Independent Federation: http://www.aeifinc.com
