Steelworkers Approve Contract With RG Steel

United Steelworkers union members have approved a working agreement with RG Steel, union officials confirmed Thursday afternoon.

RG Steel completed a stock purchase of the steel mill at Sparrows Point—as well as plants in Warren, Ohio, and Wheeling, W.Va.—from Severstal US Holdings, LLC., two months ago as a tentative labor deal was negotiated with the USW.

The final tally was 2,062 votes in favor of the agreement, and 1,528 votes against, John Cirri, president of United Steelworkers Local 9477, told Patch by telephone from USW headquarters in Pittsburgh.

Sparrows Point union members, who began returning to work last month in preparation for the restart of the “L” blast furnace at the historic mill, proved the difference in accepting the agreement.

Local 9477 union members voted overwhelmingly in favor of the contract, with 1,062 votes in favor of the agreement and 224 votes against. Cirri, one of seven representatives from Sparrows Point counting the ballots, noted that six local ballots returned were not counted, either because they were not marked or marked twice.

Cirri said he did know how union members in Warren or Wheeling would vote on the agreement, but he felt confident that the majority of Local 9477 members supported the contract agreement.

“I thought it would pass, I didn’t know what the percentage would be,” Cirri said. “I talked to almost 700 members and I had a good feeling it would pass.”

Both the Warren and Wheeling union memberships voted against the agreement, Cirri said. However, the 82.6 percent margin in favor from the Sparrows Point steelworkers was enough to overcome those votes to approve the measure.

“The Sparrows Point votes carried it,” Cirri said.

Overall, roughly 57 percent of the hourly production, maintenance, office and clerical employees from numerous facilities in Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland voted in favor of the contract.

USW International President Leo W. Gerard praised union members for enduring more than two years of uncertainty over ownership issues and the future of the plants.

“The men and women who labor in these mills have earned the security and stability provided by this agreement,” Gerard said in a USW press release. “Their hard work, commitment and solidarity has made the difference between success and survival or failure and the loss of these jobs and the communities they support.”

USW District 1 Director David McCall, who chairs the union’s negotiations with RG Steel and previously met with local steelworkers in Dundalk to discuss the tentative agreement, had similar praise for the rank and file members.

“Their perseverance has resulted in sweeping improvements to wages, benefits and working conditions for everyone,” McCall said. “We have also improved the security of all of our jobs.”

Cirri called the approval good news, adding that without the vote, Sparrows Point workers would have slipped back to the month-to-month contract they worked under while Severstal owned the mill.

“If this contract was voted down, personally, I don’t see RG Steel locking out, and I don’t see the International calling a strike,” Cirri said. “To me, we do what we did the last two years, which was work with a month-to-month extension. And who knows what would happen? The wage increases, the pension increases, the health care enhancements—if we had to renegotiate and the economy went into the dump, we could’ve of lost it all.”

He added that the contract agreement should help put Sparrows Point steel customers at ease.

“It sends a very positive message to our customers,” Cirri said. “We’ve closed all the chapters and we’re moving forward.”

Cirri said that now that the contract has been approved, he plans to step down as president of United Steelworkers Local 9477 in the “very near future.”

Cirri, who has served as union official for 23 years, was elected to his current term as president in April of 2009. According union bylaws, the elected vice-president, Jeff Mikula, would takeover as president when he steps aside, Cirri said.

“Now that the sale is completed, the contract ratified, my job is done,” Cirri said.