Steelworkers Union Blasts Timken's Refusal to Accept Kerry Proposal for Federal Mediation to Save Jobs

Union Calls Company's Public Statements 'Blatantly False'

COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 21 -- The United Steelworkers of America (USWA) today welcomed Sen. John Kerry's proposal for federal mediation to save the 1,300 Ohio manufacturing jobs at the Timken Company's Canton facilities, and called the company's statement that the union had rejected negotiations "blatantly false."

"Timken's closure announcement is premature, completely unnecessary and demonstrates the company's profound disloyalty to Canton steelworkers and the community," said David McCall, director of USWA District 1 in Ohio, who noted that the company "is not losing money at its Canton bearing plants. They just want to make more."

"Timken never even put a proposal on the table," said McCall. "Instead they ran to the media and cried wolf in the hope of terrifying thousands of families about the loss of their jobs, which is about the only thing their strategy has succeeded in doing.

"Our union's record of boosting productivity to save and reopen manufacturing plants is a matter of record," McCall added, citing the union's role through bargaining in resurrecting LTV Steel operations, and in spearheading steel-industry consolidation through the purchase of Bethlehem Steel by International Steel Group (ISG) and United States Steel's acquisition of National Steel.

"It takes more than talk about 'flexibility' and 'restrictive work rules' to create a globally competitive facility," McCall said. "It also requires the company's commitment to eliminate inefficiency and waste at all levels, to maintain equipment and to invest in new technologies.

"That's the kind of specific plan our union did propose, and Timken never even bothered to respond," McCall said.

The union expressed the hope that Timken management would respond to the call for federal mediation, if Bush makes it, and engage in good faith bargaining. Timken's owners are major contributors to the Bush campaign and allowed the president to use the Canton facilities last year to promote his policies.

"We can absolutely make Timken's bearing operations in Canton more productive," said McCall, "but only if the company makes a commitment to invest in its facilities, our workers and the Canton community, instead of making blatantly false statements."