some steelworkers back to work on eastside

This is some good news for the folks on the eastside.

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Posted on Tue, Jun. 16, 2009
Workers return to U.S. Steel's Granite City mill to restart plant
BY WILL BUSS
News-Democrat


About 100 maintenance workers will return to U.S. Steel's Granite City mill this week to began preparing the plant to restart production.



United Steelworkers District 7 Sub District 2 Director Dave Dowling said more details about more jobs returning to Granite City Works may become known before the end of the week.



"In terms of production, when that might ramp up and start recalling workers, it's still unknown," Dowling said.



Jeff Evans, who as president of the Local 68 represents 140 electricians at the mill, said that 41 of his members are returning to work this week, and he anticipates the rest will be called back in two weeks. Evans also estimated that as many as 600 steel workers who work in the plant's blast furnace could be back in three to four weeks.



"I was told others would return soon, but they didn't give me a time frame," Evans said.



He has also heard that workers could be converting hot liquid steel strip into slabs in four weeks.



"It take a couple weeks to warm up the blast furnace," he said. "If they don't warm them up, that could cause damage."



Mike Fultz is one of 57 steel workers laid off from Stein Steel Mill Services, which is located adjacent to U.S. Steel mill, the week after 1,600 U.S. Steel workers were furloughed in December.



"We do not know, yet, but what Stein tells us is that welders are the first that will be called back," Fultz said. "You can't pour hot steel into cold pots."



U.S. Steel Corp. announced Monday that the Pittsburgh-based company plans to recall about 800 laid-off workers at a plant in Canada this summer. The Hamilton, Ontario, plant will restart production at its coke ovens to produce coke that will be shipped to Granite City Works.



The Canadian mill employed about 1,700 people when it was idled in October. About 700 workers elected to retire early. and more than 800 were laid off in waves starting in November.



Dowling said the reopening of the Granite City Steel mill represents a "glimmer of hope," though "we don't know how prolonged this increase will be. We're certainly hopeful that it's a sign of a more general recovery in manufacturing."



Even so, American steel producers and their employees face a big threat from imports of Chinese-made steel, including Chinese pipe.



On Monday morning, Steelworkers Local 1899 President Dan Simmons spoke before steel workers in Granite City before leaving to travel to Washington, D.C., where he will testify before the Congressional Steel Caucus. Simmons said he will discuss further action Congress can take to stabilize the steel industry. He said he will talk about the impact the six-month shutdown has had on the Granite City plant and will call on Congress to look "at policies that need to be in place that support manufacturing in the U.S. and support steel making in the U.S."



"The key thing to remember is for Congress to have the 'political will' to support manufacturing in the U.S.," Simmons said. "We've got laws on the books that support the vital importance of being able to make goods in this country. There just hasn't been the will there politically to enforce that."



"I will describe the outrage we felt as we went to the unemployment lines and watched miles and miles of steel pipe imported from India being unloaded in our backyard. Although a startup of steel making at Granite City later this summer has been announced, we don't yet know when all of our members may be called back to work. And certainly, the crisis in the steel industry and in American manufacturing is not over. Hopefully, the surge in orders that led to the announced start-up will be sustained by a real economic recovery."

Reporter Mike Fitzgerald contributed to this story. Contact reporter Will Buss at wbuss@bnd.com or 239-2526.


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