ATI management recently mailed a letter to the homes of all of locked-out Steelworkers who are currently covered under the company’s programme of insurance benefits stating that they will terminate our health insurance coverage effective November 30, 2015.
The USW said it is ‘disappointed that ATI is choosing to further escalate its attack on its employees and we are reviewing all legal options’. The United Steelworkers has filed 18 unfair labour practice charges with the National Labour Relations Board against Allegheny Technologies, the company that has locked out more than 2,200 union workers since mid-August.
USW leaders said they filed the charges because of ‘ATI’s conduct both at the bargaining table, including its bad faith bargaining positions, and away from the table, including actions that ATI took before the lock out began.’
USW also said ATI’s attitude and conduct toward picketing USW members played a role in filing charges with the NLRB. Through these charges, the International Union contends that the company locked out our members to support its unlawful bargaining positions,’ USW said.
On the company’s latest attack, USW said: ‘If ATI cancels our health insurance on November 30th, union members and families will have several options continuing healthcare coverage during the lockout. No locked-out member or dependent will go without health insurance or have any lapse in coverage.
‘Each local union is appointing a healthcare coordinator to coordinate enrollment in the USW Emergency Medical Programme and provide information to members on health insurance coverage options for the duration of the lockout. Those coordinators will be receiving training from healthcare experts from the union on November 10th and will be available to assist you in signing up for insurance and provide you with information on other options for coverage. If ATI intends to move forward with its irresponsible and illegal plan to terminate our health insurance coverage, sign-ups for the USW emergency medical programme will begin in the last two weeks of November.
‘There is plenty of time to explore options and sign up for coverage so you do not need to take any action right now. After the November 10th training, your local union will be providing information on signing up for the USW Emergency Medical Programme and other options for health insurance. In the meantime, you may want to take a look at the information on benefits and healthcare coverage options that was distributed at the beginning of the lockout.
‘We realise that this is a stressful and uncertain time for everyone and that health insurance coverage is a major concern for many members and families. The USW has a tried and tested programme for assisting members involved in strikes and lockouts in providing healthcare coverage for their families and we will ensure that everyone has access to healthcare coverage. Stay strong, stay safe, and together we will win a fair contract.’
In a separate dispute, the United Steelworkers (USW) said that Region 28 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a Consolidated Complaint against Asarco, LLC, alleging that the company has committed multiple unfair labour practices, including ‘failing and refusing’ to negotiate with the unions which represent workers at the Grupo Mexico subsidiary’s five U.S. facilities.
The federal government is charging Tucson-based copper mining giant Asarco with unfair labour practices for its handling of negotiations with its Arizona employees for a new union contract. The National Labour Relations Board accuses Asarco of ‘interfering with, restraining and coercing employees’ who were exercising their rights to bargain.
It also says Asarco refused to bargain collectively with the United Steelworkers and seven other unions, which have represented nearly 2,000 Asarco employees since 2007. More than 2,000 hourly production and maintenance employees represented by eight international unions have continued to work at Asarco’s copper mines and processing facilities under the terms and conditions of a labour agreement that originally expired in June 2013 but was extended until the parties terminated it in June 2015.
Since then, as the NLRB spells out in its complaint, Asarco management unilaterally changed working conditions at the facilities on multiple occasions without first negotiating over the changes with union representatives as required by law. In some cases, the NLRB notes, Asarco management did not even notify the unions before changing the terms and conditions of employment. The NLRB has scheduled a hearing on January 12, 2016, when an administrative law judge will review evidence against Asarco and listen to testimony in the case.
l The locked-out steelworkers at ATI in Albany got a boost at the biennial convention of the Oregon AFL-CIO. At the convention welcome party, it was announced that State Representative Dan Rayfield (D-Corvallis) will introduce a bill in February to extend unemployment benefits for locked out workers to 12 months (up from the current six months). And delegates twice passed the hat, raising over $2,700 for the ATI workers and striking ironworkers at Instafab.
Ready to fight? Because ready or not, the fight is coming. That was the message for 240 delegates from more than three dozen unions who gathered from October 22-25 in Seaside for the biennial convention of the Oregon AFL-CIO. In 2016, President Obama will try to pass a trade deal that could make NAFTA’s impact on US manufacturing jobs look small by comparison, and the US Supreme Court is expected to deliver a body blow to public sector unions.
Delegates resolved not to endorse members of Congress who voted for Fast Track; they embraced the Black Lives Matter movement; they endorsed campaigns to raise corporate taxes and the minimum wage; and they approved a phased-in 10 cent-per-member monthly dues increase to fund field operations around the state.
They also heard from US Senator Jeff Merkley about the effects of decades of bad trade policy, and from top public sector union leaders about their preparations for the fight of their lives. ‘As I stand before you today, we face great peril,’ Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain declared, opening the convention.
‘Winter is coming’ said Ranfis Giannettino Villatoro of the Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project. The saying comes from the HBO hit show Game of Thrones. In the show, humanity is threatened by an army of ice zombies and must find a way to unite before it’s too late. In the same way, unions must unite and find allies in order to resist corporate trade agreements and survive the impact of the Supreme Court case, Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association.
The court is expected to rule on the case between March and June of 2016, and the result might be that dues become entirely voluntary for all public employee union members nationwide. Even if we win in 2016, the fight won’t be over . . . Some observers are calling the attack on workers and unions not just a crisis, but a sustained crisis, not just a series of single problems we’re going to have to solve . . . but a systemic and continual struggle.’ said Oregon AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Barbara Byrd.
