Billionaire Icahn Still Prefers Fines to Medical Coverage for Locked-Out Steelworkers
Contact: Bob Andrews (330) 493-7721
Tony Montana (412) 562-2592
Canton, Ohio – The United Steelworkers (USW) today said that despite recent management changes at PSC Metals, a subsidiary of billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s Icahn Enterprises (NASDAQ: IEP), the company still refuses to negotiate in good faith with the union or comply with the employer mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
PSC Metals locked out more than 60 members of USW Local 3610-02 on Feb. 1, 2014, in an attempt to force deep economic concessions on workers, including the elimination of employee medical benefits. Under the ACA, employers that do not provide health insurance will be subject to a fine of $2,000 per worker starting in 2015.
“The ACA was never intended to be used by employers as an excuse to deprive workers of insurance,” said USW District 1 Director David McCall, “and forcing PSC Metals employees into looking for subsidized benefits on the healthcare exchange places an unnecessary burden on taxpayers.”
In addition to potential fines for violating the ACA’s employer mandate and unlawful bargaining charges the union has filed with Region 8 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a Securities and Exchange Commission and FBI investigation of insider trading allegations against Icahn is continuing by federal agents.
McCall urged Icahn and PSC Metals to obey the law, end the lockout, return the USW members to their jobs and reciprocate the union’s good faith while contract negotiations proceed.
“We are committed to negotiate a fair contract with PSC Metals,” McCall said, “and there’s absolutely no excuse for Icahn to continue to punish these Steelworkers and their families in Canton by continuing or prolonging his company’s unfair and possibly illegal lockout.”
The USW represents 850,000 men and women employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in public sector and service occupations.
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