Tentative Steel Accord : USX Workers Reported Ready to Go Back to Job

Calvin Opfer, a 40-year-old electrician at USX Corp.’s big steel mill here, is tired and ready to go back to work.

For six months, Opfer has been solidly behind his union, staying off his job and manning the picket lines outside the Clairton mill, joining in the United Steelworkers’ nationwide walkout against America’s largest steelmaker.

But joblessness has been hard on Opfer--he had to borrow against his life insurance policy to buy his two children Christmas presents--and now he wants to go back into the mill.

Longest Labor Dispute

So even though he has not heard any of the details of the tentative settlement reached early Saturday morning between the company and union, he is already inclined to vote for it--even if it means wage and benefit cuts. As long as it will bring an end to the longest labor dispute--termed a lockout by the union--in the history of the steel industry.

“If the international union figures it’s fair, then that’s all right,” Opfer said Saturday afternoon. “I was willing to give the company two or three dollars an hour in concessions last August, anyway, before this all started. The main thing is to get some job security.”

The steelworkers and USX, formerly U.S. Steel, made no details of their tentative settlement public. But the accord apparently calls for the union to grant the company wage and benefit cuts totaling about $2 an hour.

Objective of USX

“Our objective from the very beginning of negotiations and throughout the work stoppage was to obtain a competitive labor agreement,” USX Chairman David M. Roderick said in a statement issued Saturday. “This settlement meets that criteria.”

In return, the union apparently won some stiff new restrictions on the company’s ability to hire low-wage subcontractors to perform union work, which had been the steelworkers’ key demand going into the negotiations.

“The union’s primary objective of greater job security was essential for an agreement, and that objective has been met,” said Lynn Williams, president of the union.

The nationwide walkout idled USX’s mills--and 22,000 union workers--on Aug. 1. Many rank-and-file union members in this depressed mill town south of Pittsburgh expressed relief Saturday that the bitter battle may finally be over.

‘Money Is Running Out’

“They should never have let it go on this long; both sides should have given in a long time ago,” said Sheridan Biddle, a 59-year-old motorman at the Clairton mill. “I’d say at least 70% of the men are ready to go back even with concessions. Their money is running out.”

In fact, the tentative accord was reached just before the Jan. 31 expiration of the unemployment benefits awarded USX workers in most states where the firm has plants. As a result, some union members believe the pact will be approved when it comes before the rank-and-file for ratification later this month, because most members will not be willing to continue the walkout without jobless pay.

“I’d say 95% of the people are willing to give concessions just to go back to work,” added Bob Chywski, a 33-year-old power-house operator who was laid off from the Clairton mill just before the walkout began. “People in this area want to work, they don’t want to be out on the street.”

‘A Lot of Pressure’

“You’re talking about families with five or six children, and they are under a lot of pressure,” said Darl Poorman, a 55-year-old Clairton worker.

If the settlement is approved by the local presidents and by the union’s executive board in separate meetings today, it will be sent to the rank-and-file for ratification, probably by the end of of the month. Union workers will not return to their jobs until the ratification process is completed.

Still, at least a few workers in Clairton warned that if the agreement does not go far enough to end the company’s widespread use of subcontractors, they will vote against it. They have seen the membership rolls in their local dwindle from 4,500 in 1980 to 1,300 today, and want to make sure management does not eliminate more jobs as soon as the walkout ends.

“I’ve been struggling, but I’m ready to stay out another six months if necessary,” Poorman said.