Steelworkers approve labor contract with U.S. Steel
United Steelworkers members — including about 2,065 area workers — approved a four-year national labor agreement Tuesday with Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corp. that improves wages and benefits.
U.S. Steel, one of the largest steelmakers in the nation, operates a steel mill in Granite City.
The new contract, approved by 80 percent of voting Steelworkers, includes:
•A $6,000 cash bonus before Oct. 1, and a $1 per hour wage increase this first year of the contract, which started retroactively on Sept. 1. Wages will increase 4 percent in the second, third and fourth years of the contract.
•More than double the dental care coverage from the previous USW contract, signed in 2003. More medical procedures and preventive care, such as colonoscopies, also are fully covered under this contract but were not in the last agreement.
A more prosperous industry helped bargaining this time, said Russ Saltsgaver, president of USW Local 1899, which represents most Steelworkers at the mill pay day loans.
"If you’re going in bargaining and your company’s losing money … it’s hard to go in and ask for much," he said.
During bargaining for the last contract in 2003, the steel industry was in a worse position. High steel imports and a relatively flat price of steel over 25 years pushed several steel companies into bankruptcy from 1998 through 2003, Saltsgaver said.
But after the wave of bankruptcies, the steel industry consolidated. Steel prices increased, and the remaining companies became more profitable.
That profitability made contract negotiations easier.
"They went from losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year to making billions of dollars a year," Saltsgaver said. "It’s a complete turnaround."
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