Steelworkers Reject Concessions to LTV
United Steelworkers local presidents Thursday rejected a tentative agreement to write $50 million in additional labor give-backs into a concessionary labor pact signed only a year ago with financially troubled LTV Steel Co.
Joseph Coyle, secretary of a union committee bargaining for 23,000 active and furloughed LTV employees and 48,000 retirees, said the two sides likely will resume bargaining.
“I would hope so. When, I don’t know,” he said following the 16-14 vote that blocked the proposal from going to a rank-and-file vote.
Without a negotiated settlement, the nation’s second-largest steelmaker could seek bankruptcy court approval to dissolve the current agreement and impose wages, benefits and working conditions as it sees fit. If that happens, union workers are free to walk off the job.
LTV Steel, which entered Chapter 11 reorganization with Dallas-based parent LTV Corp. in July, 1986, “has no immediate plans to petition the bankruptcy court to reject the labor agreement,” David H. Hoag, LTV president and chief executive, said in a printed statement.
Coyle said union negotiators on Thursday told the local presidents of the ramifications of failing to settle at the bargaining table.
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