Wheeling Pitt strike: 166 days and counting

by Denise Weinbrenner

This article was reprinted from the March 15, 1997 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

WHEELING, W.Va. - Michel Gambardella, managing director of J.P. Morgan Securities, the owner of the USX Corporation, got it right when he said, "... the guy who runs WHX is looking at ways to make money, not ways to make steel."

J.P. Morgan knows a lot about making money - they not only own USX which owns U.S. Steel, but they control Bankers Trust and own a big block of GE stock. LaBow is a Wall Street operator who runs WHX Corp. which owns Wheeling- Pittsburgh Steel Company, the nation's 9th largest steel producer.

Gambardella was commenting on the pending $30 million deal between Wheeling-Pitt (WP) and Bethlehem Steel to buy the Baltimore shipyard owned by Bethlehem. WP forced 4,500 members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) out on strike Oct. 1, when it refused to even talk about pensions. Instead of entering into serious negotiations with the union, it has been out shopping for fire sales. Bethlehem had announced that it would close the shipyards if no buyer were found.

Just like they did with the USWA, WP has given the 800 shipyard workers, represented by Machinist Union Local S- 33, a taste of what they mean by "concession bargaining." WP is demanding $8 per hour in concessions, including eliminating the current defined benefit pension plan - the same issue that provoked the strike at WP - and replacing it with a 401(k) plan. WP is also demanding dollar-an-hour wage cuts, unlimited contracting out, reduction in holidays from 13 to eight, increased worker payment for health care and slashed vacations.

While WP was wheeling and dealing, steelworkers in Baltimore were organizing and collecting. On March 9 USWA members USWA Locals 2609 and 2610 who work at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point facility, delivered a check for $10,000 to WP steelworkers in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

And solidarity paid off on another front as well when Judge Jennifer Sargus, responding to public demand, ruled that 3,700 WP strikers in Ohio were eligible to receive unemployment compensation. The checks, scheduled to arrive this week, are retroactive to the start of the strike.

The remaining 800 steelworker families in West Virginia and Pennsylvania are waiting for decisions on their appeals of state rulings denying them compensation. Like Ohio, both states have Republican administrations.

The announcement of the union victory brought welcome relief to Yorkville, Ohio families. A group of wives told this reporter that first on their list was payment to utility companies.

"It just goes to show - we are not alone," one woman said. "They've got lawyers - hell, our union's got smarter lawyers. They've got all the money ... Bankers do not make steel; they do not know anything about this valley - but we got the union and look at what we have done."

Since the strike began families have been struggling to pay winter bills with $115 a week from the union's strike and defense fund, now supplemented by the union's "dollar-a- week" campaign. That campaign, where rank and file steelworkers in the basic steel industry are contributing a dollar a week through gate collections, has so far brought in over $300,000.

Steelworker union locals from throughout the Midwest have sent in truckloads of food and area churches have been conducting food drives for the embattled steelworkers.

As we go to press, a meeting is scheduled between USWA President George Becker and LaBow. It is the first time LaBow has ever been to the Steubenville/Wheeling area.

Resolutions of support for WP strikers can be sent to: USWA-WP Local Unions' Assistance Fund; 777 Dearborn Park Lane, Suite J; Columbus OH 43085-5716.