Stainless Solidarity
AK Steel workers organize in face of tough opposition
When John Stewart received AK Steel’s anti-union video a week before the union election, he “threw it in the trash.”
Not that he hadn’t heard management’s message. For weeks the company ran expensive full-page ads in the local Coshocton, Ohio, newspaper trying to pit the community against the workers.
One featured a squinty-eyed bald guy with puffy cheeks asking, “How long can Coshocton hold its breath waiting for an autoworkers’ union to deliver?”
Another pondered, “Does Coshocton really want to
be another guinea pig in the autoworkers’ failed steel
industry experiment?”
The company even published the salaries of some workers in
an effort to show the community that they were well paid.
We are the community
But the AK Steel campaign, including $250,000 for some
of the toughest anti-union tactics money can buy, failed.
Workers stood strong, refusing to allow the company to divide
them.
Staying one step ahead of the union busters, time after time
organizers neutralized their insidious tactics before they
could take hold.
Led by a 60-person in-plant committee steeped with unwavering solidarity, the 464 workers voted to join the UAW on Sept. 19.
“They tried to get the community against us, but we are the community,” said Terry Moore, 41, a slitter operator for 15 years.
“The ads and video did more damage to the company than to us,” said Doug Miller, 40, a truck and crane operator with 14 years at AK Steel.
Coshocton, a modest community of 12,200, is about three hours south of Cleveland in southern Ohio. Just a few miles away, you’ll find Longaberger Co., the nation’s largest manufacturer of handmade baskets, a family-operated vineyard and Ohio’s scenic Amish country.
AK Steel’s Coshocton Works mill sits along Route 16. They produce finished stainless steel for automotive and other applications.
“Years ago, this company had a good reputation in the steel industry. That’s what drew me here from western Pennsylvania,” said Stewart, 49, a rolling mills operator for eight years. “It was a tremendous plant back then.”
Over the years, workers had voted “no” to a union four times, most recently 10 years ago.
Morale Killers
But things changed with new ownership.
“When AK Steel came here in 1999, there were some big changes to management (the company took away their bonuses), and I thought if they’re doing that to their own, where does that leave us?” Miller said.
Among other things, AK Steel:
• Ignored seniority when promoting workers.
• Replaced holidays with “personal days.”
• Scheduled temporary workers on overtime.
• Started in-house drug testing.
• Changed their 401(k) plan so the company contributed
less.
Morale was “in the basement,” said Don Rushing, bargaining committee chair.
“I heard a rumor about the 401(k) being changed and not being matched in 2001, so I called them on it. I asked why and they said other plants got the match contractually, and ‘you’re not organized.’ So we got organized,” Rushing said.
Equals without fear
Five other Ohio AK Steel plants — Mansfield, Zanesville, Ashland, Middletown and Butler — are organized with several different unions, none of them UAW. Only one nonunion plant remains, in Rockport, although workers in Mansfield have been locked out for more than two years.
So with five other unionized plants, why was the company so against Coshocton organizing?
“It was a bigger fight. They were afraid of the UAW coming in here, plus 50 percent of our steel supplies the Big Three,” said Dick Snyder, UAW Region 2B international representative before opening bargaining Oct. 30. “Today we will sit across the table from them as equals, without fear.”
Things have calmed down a lot at the Coshocton plant. Bargaining is under way, and workers have a genuine interest in negotiations.
“I like it here now,” said Linda Daniel, a
five-year welder. “I can tell it’s going to be
a lot different.”
