Union OKs Contract to End Steel Strike

Union leaders approved a five-year labor contract that would end a 10-month strike by 4,500 steelworkers at WHX Corp.’s Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Co.

At a news conference in Pittsburgh, union leaders said they expect United Steelworkers of America members to ratify the agreement--which raises wages and pension payments--within two to three weeks.

Under the agreement, reached Friday after 10 straight days of negotiations, about 850 workers will be offered early retirement, including health benefits and either a lump sum payment of $25,000 or $400 in monthly payments until age 62.

WHX executives weren’t immediately available for comment.

Workers could return to some of the eight steel plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia as early as Tuesday or Wednesday, said Jim Bowen, chief union negotiator.

The contract, which would expire in September 2002, would raise wages by 25 cents an hour for each of the next three years and by 37.5 cents for each of the subsequent two years. The agreement also would prevent New York-based WHX, the ninth-largest U.S. steel producer, from closing any plants for at least 30 months.

The agreement, completed during a 22-hour session Thursday and Friday, would end one of the longest strikes in the steel industry’s history.

Steelworkers struck Wheeling-Pittsburgh in October after their previous 31-month contract expired. The dispute primarily concerned pension benefits.

In a turnaround, WHX agreed to the union’s demand for a “$40-multiplier” pension, which would guarantee monthly payments equal to $40 multiplied by the number of years of service. A 30-year employee would receive a monthly pension of $1,200. Most big steel companies provide so-called defined-benefit pension plans, such as the multiplier plan.

Until last week, WHX Chairman Ronald LaBow said the company would never resume defined-benefit payments, which it provided until 1985 when the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and switched to a less-expensive plan.

Under that plan, the company made contributions based on the number of hours worked to individual funds set up by each worker. Market performance would determine the size of the pension check.

The company emerged from bankruptcy in 1991.

“When it came time to restore the contract, [LaBow] told the steelworkers and their families to go to hell, and for 10 long months, that’s where they’ve been,” said George Becker, president of the United Steelworkers of America.