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USWA Local Approves Contract by 2 to 1 Margin at AK Steel

7 February 2000

USWA Local Approves Contract by 2 to 1 Margin at AK Steel

    MIDDLETOWN, Ohio--Feb. 7, 2000--Members of the United Steelworkers of America, Local 1016-7 have overwhelmingly approved a new 5-year collective bargaining agreement with AK Steel. The union represents approximately 110 hourly employees of AK Steel's Sawhill Tubular Division in Wheatland, Pennsylvania.
    Local USWA 1016-7 members voted 68 to 36 on February 5, 2000 to ratify the new labor agreement, which provides for a $2.50 base wage increase over its term, improvements in pensions and a two-tier wage scale.
    In October, the 360 members of USWA Local 1016 approved a new 5-year labor agreement that covers hourly union production and maintenance employees at the company's Sawhill Tubular Division plant in Sharon, Pennsylvania. The margin of ratification in that vote was approximately 2 to 1. In December, the 3,200-member union representing hourly production and maintenance employees at AK Steel's Middletown Works ratified a new 76-month labor agreement by a margin of more than 5 to 1. That contract was ratified 90 days prior to the expiration of the then-existing agreement. The agreement will extend more than 18 months beyond the expiration of USWA contracts negotiated last summer with AK Steel's competitors.
    AK Steel's Sawhill Tubular Division produces standard pipe and tubular products for a number of markets.