United Steelworkers contract with ArcelorMittal will expire Labor Day

Aug 27, 2008 (The Times - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- MT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Aug. 27--BURNS HARBOR--If ArcelorMittal's steelworkers vote to authorize a strike today and no agreement is reached by Monday, the union will have to decide whether to strike or extend the contract and continue bargaining.

After four months of bargaining negotiations to reach a new agreement, talks have recessed, and the union has asked its 14,000 members at the ArcelorMittal facilities to approve strike authorization. The current labor agreement between the United Steelworkers and ArcelorMittal expires Monday.

"Right now, we're not planning any actions because we're focused on getting an agreement," United Steelworkers District 7 Director Jim Robinson said Tuesday. "If the time comes when we have to consider our options, we'll have to make a decision, but there's plenty of time left to reach an agreement before the deadline."

Paul Gipson, president of United Steelworkers Local 6787 that represents about 3,400 hourly workers at the Burns Harbor plant, said if an agreement isn't reached by Monday, he believes union officials would call Lakshmi Mittal and ask him what preparations were being made for closing down the furnaces.

Mittal is ArcelorMittal's chairman and its main shareholder with a 45 percent stake in the company, the Financial Times has reported.

Robinson said the union has fought to keep the plants alive for a long time and won't do anything to jeopardize the operations.

"If necessary, we'll enter into an orderly shut down agreement to make sure our mills are shut down safely and ready to restart when ever there's a resolution to the dispute," Robinson said.

It takes three days to take a blast furnace off-line without damaging its interior lining and rendering it useless and another seven days to bring it up correctly, Gipson said.

"Lakshmi Mittal is a pretty bright guy," he said. "He's made what he's made in the U.S. off of blood money. He has no legacy costs, and now he's made $5.8 billion in the second quarter (globally). And he's projected to make nearly $8 billion in the third quarter. We want 1 percent of that."

Company officials said Tuesday they remain committed to a resolution and believe one will be reached by Monday.

Mittal, who bought Inland Steel Corp. in 1999, purchased International Steel Group seven years later in a $4.5 billion deal with its founder Wilbur Ross. From 2002 to 2003, Ross acquired the assets of Bethlehem Steel Corp. -- including the Burns Harbor plant -- Riverdale's Acme Steel, and LTV Co. through bankruptcy and didn't assume any of the liabilities.

The world's largest steel company, Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, has 320,000 employees in more than 60 countries and produces about 120 million tons of steel annually.

If the steelworkers were to strike, Mittal's domestic operations would lose both business and money, Gipson said.

"The third quarter is historically the best for steel," he said. "He (Mittal) is running the risk of damaging that. Once he loses customers, they won't be back. U.S. Steel and AK Steel would love to have that business."

Gipson met with his membership Monday, and they are prepared to both authorize and go on strike, he said.

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