AK Steel lockout of Ohio workers enters 3rd week

The landscape of Middletown, in southern Ohio, is dominated by AK Steel. AK has five plants in Ohio, but its largest—as well as its corporate headquarters—is located there. AK is a major supplier to the automotive and appliance industry.

Formerly Armco, AK is notorious for its hostility toward unions. Even in its heyday the steelworkers’ union was not able to organize the Middletown plant. AK would only recognize the “Armco Employees Independent Federation” (AEIF).

Now 2,700 AEIF members have been on the picket line since Feb. 28, locked out by AK the day their contract expired. Refus ing to allow union members to continue working under the old contract, and training scabs alongside union members in the days leading up to the lockout, AK has shown its determination to break the union.

The three main issues of contention are health care, job security and pensions. AK wants workers and retirees to make a substantial contribution to health care costs. It wants the option of bringing in non union subcontractors to do the work normally done by AEIF members. And AK bosses want to trash the traditional pension plans and impose an inferior 401K plan.

Workers spirits are strong. “I think they underestimated us,” Scott Francis, who has worked at Middletown Works for almost 29 years, told Cox News. “It’s amazing how much the community has given us,” remarked gate captain Don South, a 33-year AK/Armco veteran. Car horns, clenched fists of solidarity, and offers of snacks and coffee are routine.

Corporate analysts in the media are displaying surprise at AK’s strong-arm tactics. “In a world of embattled labor unions, with companies exerting their influence at the bargaining table and in the courts, AK Steel’s lockout is a pure power move that calls to mind the bare-knuckled tactics of union-management battles in the early 20th century,” wrote Cliff Peale in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

It is true that most companies prefer the “modern” method of union-busting: using the bankruptcy courts to tear up union contracts. Still, no one familiar with AK’s history is shocked by management’s actions. In 1999, AK locked out 620 members of the USWA at its plant in Mansfied, Ohio. AK’s goons harassed the steelworkers on and off the picket line, even following their kids home from school. The workers’ main complaint was hardly unreasonable: They wanted the right to refuse unlimited mandatory overtime in order to spend a little time with their families.

When the 39-month lockout finally ended, AK portrayed itself as a new company with a new attitude of cooperation with its workers. “The lockout is over, and we look forward to the process of welcoming our returning workforce to the operation of AK Steelworld class Mansfield Works,” said Richard M. Wardrop, Jr., then chairperson, president and chief executive officer of AK Steel.

Its recent lockout of the union reveals AK’s real agenda. It exposes the irreconcilable nature of class relations under capitalism, particularly during periods of overproduction.

All of the AK unions, including the UAW and the USWA, should get behind the locked-out AEIF members. The auto and appliance unions should demand “no scab steel” in their plants. The only key that can break this cruel lockout is class solidarity.