Wheeling Pitt strike solid as boss derails negotiation

by Denise Winebrenner

This article was reprinted from the April 5,1997 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

PITTSBURGH - Efforts by U.S. Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) to mediate the six-month-old strike between Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation and the 4,500 members of the United Steelworkers of America hit a major snag on March 27 when the company announced its intention to close three of its facilities in the Ohio Valley.

The announcement, made while negotiators from the two sides were meeting Rockefeller Washington office, came only days before Wall Street sources announced that Ron LaBow, the millionaire corporate outlaw who heads Wheeling-Pitt, was busy plotting a $160 million hostile take over of Dynamics Corporation based in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Following the announcement to close the plants, and with them the destruction of the jobs of nearly 300 steelworkers, the USWA released the text of a statement issued by Rockefeller on March 28.

Rockefeller said the talks that were convened in his Washington office on March 19. had resulted in "some progress toward settlement," including a meeting between union and company actuaries to compare the numbers on the feasibility of the union's demand for a defined benefit pension.

"I recognize that these six days of intensive effort failed to reach a final agreement, but there can be little argument that more progress had been made in these six days than in the past six months," Rockefeller said in his statement. "That is why I am puzzled by the action yesterday of the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Board of Directors to close certain of their operations in the Ohio Valley. I'm not in a position to dispute the economics of the decision, but I do fear that the timing of the announcement in light of the progress of the past six days could make reaching an agreement more difficult."

At this stage, it is safe to say that wannabe Emperor LaBow has no clothes. Wheeling-Pitt has spent upwards of $75 million on a media blitz that combines shrill attacks on the union and threats of unemployment to the the entire region while coyly calling for a vote on its last contract offer.

Earlier this month Wheeling-Pitt tried to buy the Sparrows Point Shipyards from Bethlehem Steel. That deal fell apart when members of Lodge S-33 of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers/International Association of Machinists, resoundingly rejected WP's demand for $8 and hour in concessions, including the elimination of the existing pension plan.