By Wally Kaufman

People's Weekly World

www.pww.org

CLEVELAND - An emergency meeting of the Ohio Steel Summit met June 11 in the Cleveland office of Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) over LTV's announcement that the company filed in bankruptcy court to set aside the contract with the USWA and for reorganization based on company terms. Kucinich, Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Sherrod Brown were joined by nearly all of Cleveland City Council, County Commissioners, AFL-CIO and USWA leaders.

Kucinich has filed an Amicus Brief with the court to stop the termination of the LTV-USWA contract. All public officials throughout Ohio including Federal, State, County and City officials are urged to send petitions to the court demanding the contract be upheld, and to LTV demanding a negotiated settlement with the union. Public officials from all levels of government told LTV creditors present at the meeting that financial help would be forthcoming only after a contract settlement was reached.

Public and labor officials declared flat out, "This plant will not be closed!" They indicated that several options were under discussion to make sure the plant continued operations.

In discussions after the meeting, union leaders remembered that as mayor, Kucinich fought for and saved Cleveland's publically- owned municipal power plant, Cleveland Public Power. The Congressman also recently led a mass struggle that prevented the closing of a Cleveland neighborhood hospital. "We'll keep the steel mill open like we did the hospital," was the pledge made by all those present. A Cleveland Steel Authority "would look pretty good," some said.

Plans are already underway for a mass demonstration and march that will "surpass anything this town has seen," in the words of both public and union officials.