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  • Features
    • From the President
    • World Class Fine
    • House busters
    • Landmark Voting Rights Act
    • Fight to increase minimum wage
    • Power to the people
  • Union Front
    • Auto glassworkers dog-tired
    • AK Steel workers OK new contract
    • Member minute
    • Local 1968 workers stay strong
    • Federal agency's e-mails show bias
    • Delphi Update
    • Ask a Working Woman survey
    • One on one with General Holiefield
  • Departments
    • From the Readers
    • Safer Work
    • Still Solid
    • Skilled Trades
    • Workers' Words
    • Phipps' Tips
    • Solidarity Index / Past Issues

‘One of the main things we’ve always had here is that we look out for each other.’

Workers forge strong union at MACSTEEL

Dan Weiss, a millwright at MACSTEEL in Monroe, Mich., knows of one common attribute among his co-workers that melds with what the UAW is about.

“One of the main things we’ve always had here is that we look out for each other,” said Weiss, a UAW Local 723 skilled-trades committeeman.

That’s also one reason workers organized in 2000 after a bitter battle with the plant’s former owner.

Now, with new ownership and a first contract in 2004, they have established the UAW as a positive presence in the plant.

The Monroe facility makes special bar-quality (SBQ) steel. In the melt shop, three large carbon electrodes conduct electricity to melt scrap up to 3,100 degrees in a 120-ton electric arc furnace. The steel is then poured into a ladle and refined at the ladle reheat station. From there, it is transferred to the casting tower where it is separated into four separate strands. It is then cooled and cast into 6-inch-square billets. The billets are later reheated and rolled into bars ranging from five-eighths to three inches in diameter. Customers include Big Three automakers, Tier 1 suppliers and other manufacturers.

Skilled-trades workers make sure all machines, equipment and systems run properly in the 24/7 operation. It’s difficult and dangerous work inside the plant, particularly when outside temperatures approach 100 degrees in the summer. They must be keenly aware of their environment – piping-hot flying slag and overhead cranes are just a couple of hazards they contend with.

Weiss said the plant hasn’t had any lost-time accidents in a year. “I would match our safety record here in maintenance with anywhere else in the country,” he said.

In negotiations, management demanded just two classifications for skilled trades: electrician and mechanical. But union negotiators convinced them not to water down their five classifications: electrician, millwright, machinist, hydraulics and welder.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said Dominick Castiglione, unit chair. “It was a huge victory.”

MACSTEEL must like what it sees from its 300-member UAW workforce because a $40 million expansion to perform precise finishing work is about to begin production.

The UAW helped make it happen by meeting safety, quality and productivity goals. It also helped through political activity, successfully lobbying Monroe City Council for a tax abatement on the new building.

“In a state that has been losing jobs, workers through their union developed a positive relationship with management and are now seeing its benefits,” said UAW Region 1A Director Rory L. Gamble.

MACSTEEL is hiring, and millwrights like Phil Ellsworth will remain busy. Ellsworth was performing preventive maintenance on the state-of-the-art machines during a down day. “Hey, that’s my busy day,” he said.

Their contract expires in 2007, and a bona-fide apprenticeship program will likely be a topic at negotiations. Weiss said MACSTEEL would benefit because it has spent a lot of money training him.

“It’s the experience. You have guys like me. I’ve been here for 26 years,” he said. “You want me to walk out that door? That’s a waste of money. There’s a learning curve.”

Vince Piscopo