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Our negotiating committee continued to meet with ArcelorMittal management this week in Pittsburgh. While we have little new progress to report, we spent much of the week refining the program of insurance benefits in our proposal and identifying differences between management’s current position and our own.
We have scheduled a brief break in bargaining next week for members of the negotiating committee to return to their locals and engage the USW membership in important discussions about why we must remain positive and continuously remind all levels of ArcelorMittal management at all locations that we Steelworkers are united against the company’s persistent concessionary demands.
We urge ArcelorMittal management to use this time away from the table to consider the uncertainty and strain this unnecessarily long, drawn-out process has already caused – not only for us Steelworkers and retirees, our families and communities – but for the stability of the company’s relationships with customers, suppliers, vendors, investors and the industry as a whole.
When negotiations resume after the USW committee returns to Pittsburgh on Oct. 25, we sincerely hope that by then our management counterparts will have concluded that it is truly in the best interest of ArcelorMittal and all the stakeholders outlined in the paragraph above to bargain in good faith with the USW for a fair contract.
Our committee wants to conclude these negotiations and present a tentative agreement that we can be proud to endorse for ratification, but we need ArcelorMittal to join the process with a sense of urgency for that to happen. As a union, we have withstood and rejected management’s most vicious economic and non-economic contract demands by working cooperatively, standing together, sharing information and trusting each other.
Finally, as always, we remind everyone to keep themselves and each other safe at work, to continue participating in rallies and other solidarity events and to be sure to attend union meetings.
