Members of United Steelworkers Local 1537 were sharply divided on the proposed contract, approved in a 159-150 vote, with eight ballots voided. The agreement, reached Friday, ends a strike and subsequent lockout that began May 1.
Many union members who streamed out of the White Eagles Club in Latrobe when the results were announced complained that the contract is not much better than what the company offered in October or what the union overwhelmingly rejected April 30.
"I'm not surprised at all," at the narrow margin, said Kevin Caruso, the local's president. "I think this was a crap shoot."
Although the negotiating committee brought the offer to the 350-member union for a vote, Caruso said he did not recommend approval or rejection.
With a new contract approved, the steelworkers will remain off the job another week. They must pass a physical and drug-and-alcohol test before resuming work the week of July 28, Caruso said. The additional week will give the company time to remove the temporary replacement workers it hired in early May, he added.
The company said in a statement it was pleased the labor dispute had ended.
"We have reached an agreement that enhances our competitive position. This agreement ensures five years of labor stability," Hans Sack, president of Latrobe Specialty Steel, said in the statement. The company makes more than 350 grades of steel alloy for the defense and aerospace industries and the tool-and-die market.
The deal gives the steelworkers a $6,000 lump sum payment by Aug. 1, followed by a $5,000 lump sum payment in 2009, then a 50-cent-an-hour raise in the third year. The contract can be reopened after three years to negotiate wages for the fourth and fifth years, Caruso said. Average wages for trade and craft workers range from $20.50 an hour to $26 an hour. Workers no longer will get a cost-of-living raise.
The steelworkers would have received $16,000 in total lump sum payments spread over three years, but no wage increase, in the three-year contract offer rejected in April.
A major sticking point in the labor dispute was the company's demand to pay new employees 20 percent less than existing workers doing the same job. Latrobe Specialty Steel said USW locals at its competitors' plants had agreed to such a wage discrepancy.
"We're not happy with the two-tier wage scale," said David Wolfe, a union staff representative. Workers hired under the new contract will not be paid as much as the existing work force when the agreement expires.
The steelworkers went on strike May 1 when their contract expired. The state determined the strike became a lockout on May 9, when the company rejected the union's offer to return to work under the condition that they would give a 48-hour notice before another work stoppage.
Some workers voted for the contract because they were nervous about the future of their jobs, said Doug Hood of Greensburg, who has worked at the plant for 10 years.
"Thirteen weeks just got wasted," Hood said, referring to the April 30 contract rejection.
Marcus Grasmick of Youngstown, who has worked at the plant for 20 years, said he was happy to return to work and earn a paycheck.
To Bill Gaul, 49, of Latrobe, who has worked at the plant for 20 years, the offer is no better than the company's previous proposals.
"I'll stay out as long as it takes" for a better deal, he added.
Another opponent of the agreement, Phil Corey, 64, of Kecksburg said he did not think it was an improvement on the company's earlier offers.
"We want wage increases, not bonuses," said Corey, who has worked at the plant for 39 years and endured a nine-month strike from August 1977 through May 1978.
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