Countdown on the Iron Range: Steelworker contracts end this week.

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http://www.startribune.com/business/167928655.html

The United Steelworkers union and five of Minnesota's six taconite plants are scrambling to reach a new labor agreement as they seek to avert a strike that would affect 2,770 workers across the state's Iron Range.

But with contracts expiring Friday at midnight, both sides said they are preparing for the worst. At least one taconite plant operator is bringing in temporary workers, while union members have been in meetings to discuss how they would endure a strike. Contracts that expire Friday include Hibbing Taconite, United Taconite, ArcelorMittal, USS Keetac and USS Minntac.

Union leaders and mining executives have been negotiating since early August in Pittsburgh, said Joyce Russotto, an assistant at the union's district office in Minneapolis. There are three sets of negotiations, one with each of Minnesota's three key taconite plant owners. Neither the union or the owners of the plants would say which issues were hampering talks.

Cliffs Natural Resources owns Hibbing Taconite and United Taconite operations in Hibbing, Eveleth and Forbes as well as the nonunion Northshore Mining facility in Silver Bay. Cliffs also owns two taconite plants in Michigan, where contracts are also set to expire Friday at midnight.

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1. Cliffs announced today that it has come to a no strike/no lockout short-term contract extension with

the Steelworkers at its operations.

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2. Saturday night update:

Cliffs and the Steelworkers have agreed to break off talks, but the no strike/no lockout agreement stands. There's been no progress reported with ArcelorMittal or U.S. Steel.

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3. Sunday afternoon update: U.S. Steel says it has a tentative three-year agreement with the USW.

Last edited Sun Sep 2, 2012, 07:12 PM - Edit history (1)

No word on details or from the USW.

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4. 9/8 Update: Arcelor and USW come to a tentative three-year contract.

http://www.usw.org/media_center/releases_advisories?id=0608

PITTSBURGH – The United Steelworkers (USW) today said that the union has reached tentative agreement on a new, three year contract with ArcelorMittal USA on behalf of nearly 14,000 workers at 15 of the company’s U.S. locations.

“After ten long weeks of difficult negotiations that continued past the expiration of our previous contract, the hard work of our committee has resulted in a tentative agreement with ArcelorMittal,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “Our members’ unwavering solidarity throughout the bargaining process in the face of management’s high-risk scare tactics and demands for major cutbacks has been rewarded.”

USW District 1 Director David McCall, who chairs the USW’s negotiations with ArcelorMittal, said that although negotiations have concluded, the battle for justice and dignity on the shop floor and the fight for a more secure future for ArcelorMittal’s workers and retirees will continue.

“After surviving the worst economic crisis in generations, our committee came to Pittsburgh seeking to improve the long-term viability and sustainability of the company and our jobs,” McCall said. “Instead of building on the strength of our partnership, ArcelorMittal management nearly destroyed it with proposal after proposal of sweeping, unnecessary contract changes and demands for major economic concessions.”

“We are proud that we preserved our wages, benefits and contractual protections for seniority as well as maintaining the limits of work done by outside contractors,” McCall said.

USW District 7 Director Jim Robinson, who served as secretary of the negotiating committee, added that members will remember the solidarity built during the past ten weeks when the USW next enters negotiations with ArcelorMittal in 2015.

“Our members’ solidarity enabled us to fend off these serious attacks by the company,” Robinson said. “This contract puts us in good strategic position to succeed in the future.”