PITTSBURGH, Pa.—The United Steelworkers and U.S. Steel reached a tentative contract agreement Oct.
15 that would raise workers’ pay by 14% by 2021. The four-year pact would increase wages by 4% immediately, another 3.5% in 2019 and 2020, and 3% in 2021, Mark Lash, president of Local 1066 in Gary, Indiana, told the Chicago Tribune. Workers would also get a $4,000 signing bonus. “I can’t remember a negotiation where we came so close to a strike,” Lash said. “They wanted to change our pay system.” U.S. Steel had sought a seven-year contract in which workers would have had to pay for health insurance, which union officials said would have wiped out any wage increases given. The Steelworkers had accepted a wage freeze in the 2015 contract because of the industry’s financial troubles. “U.S. Steel began this process insisting upon deep concessions from a group of workers who had already made major sacrifices to help the company through a very difficult time,” USW International President Leo W. Gerard said in a statement. The proposed contract, he added, is “a testament to the power of solidarity.” The 16,000 members covered will vote on ratification over the next few weeks. Read more
