Will steel workers live to see their pensions?

A steel mill is and always has been a very dangerous place to work. Still, one would not expect a mill to become dramatically more dangerous overnight. Yet in the month of May the injury rate at WCI Steel in Warren, Ohio, skyrocketed.

Workers and rat. WW photo: Deirdre Griswold

Gary Gosser, the workers’ compensation representative of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 1375, says safety is now the major concern of WCI workers. In May, a steelworker was hurt every day for the first 18 days. The total injured for the month was 25, according to workers.

On May 1, WCI had emerged from bankruptcy after its former owner, Renco, relinquished control over the company to a group of note holders.

Renco is suing Workers World newspaper for defamation because the newspaper wrote in February that WCI Steel was using bankruptcy to “rob” workers’ pensions.

Renco and its billionaire owner, Ira Rennert, had underfunded the pension plan by $117 million, according to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., but eventually agreed to make good the money as part of the deal with the new owners and the PBGC. At first Local 1375 welcomed the new arrangement, as it restored their pension fund to solvency.

But with so many workers hurt since the plant changed hands, it’s obvious why any warm feelings toward the new owners were short-lived. What happened that caused the injury rate to go up?

Fewer workers, more accidents

Part of the takeover deal included buyout packages that allowed hundreds of workers to retire, none of whom were replaced. The number of workers at the plant has dropped to below a thousand. In addition, this summer WCI did not hire college students as vacation replacement help, which it has usually done in the past.

The demand for steel, however, did not drop. Many workers still on the job are now being forced to work six and seven days, up to 16 hours per day. They also had to take over the tasks of the retired workers, often without proper training or equipment. The number of ironworkers, for example, has been reduced from 72 to 39 since the new contract.

The already dangerous work becomes life-threatening under these conditions, as does the workers’ drive to and from the mill.

The most dramatic incident, say the workers, involved a man working on top of the blast furnace. He asked the crew on the ground to hand him an air hose, but the hoses weren’t properly labeled and they mistakenly handed him a gas hose. The gas caused an explosion that blew the worker off the furnace. He was hurt twice—first by the flames and then by the fall.

WCI Steel’s vice president for safety was recruited from AK Steel, which for months has locked out workers in Middletown, Ohio. His approach to safety is not preventive but purely punitive, say the workers.

The pension fund may be safe for the moment, but how many workers will be permanently disabled or even killed before they can hope to collect?

These issues are the reason Local 1375 holds a picket line outside the mill every Thursday. These “Big Rat Thursdays”—where a huge inflatable rat accompanies the angry workers—are in their fourth month.

‘WCI steals’

On Aug. 24, a delegation from Workers World Party joined the steelworkers’ picket line. Among them was WW newspaper editor-in-chief Deirdre Griswold, who was touring Ohio and Michigan to talk about Renco’s lawsuit and the need for workers to unite to save their pensions.

Despite leaving WCI, Rennert has gone forward with the suit, which is now in New York State Supreme Court. For its part, WW refuses to be intimidated, show ing no shyness or remorse about telling the truth when billionaire companies leave workers high and dry.

WW learned a great deal from the conversations on the picket line and at a pizza reception afterwards at the union hall. For example, there has been an astronomical rise in productivity at the steel mill as a result of new technology—which is paid for out of profits earned from the workers’ hard labor.

After the plant some years ago installed a basic oxygen furnace, steel output soared while the workforce shrank.

“We read all the time about what the bosses are doing, but we never get to hear about how the workers are resisting,” Griswold told the workers, who gave her and others in the WW delegation t-shirts that say “WCI steals.”

WW’s Ohio bureau put out a news release announcing Griswold’s visit. As a result, a local television station and the Warren Tribune covered the picket line. As the WW solidarity delegation was leaving, an officer at the union hall told them that the union president had just received a call from WCI’s CEO, wanting to know why all the news media were out there.

The workers were glad that finally the media were paying attention. Their last words to the socialist editor were: “Come back anytime.”

Detroit meeting

Griswold also spoke to a well-attended meeting of Workers World Party in Detroit. She told the multinational audience how Rennert’s mansion in the Hamptons actually cost more than what it would have taken to properly fund the WCI Steel pensions.

Griswold discussed why a multi-billionaire like Rennert would sue Workers World newspaper. The ruling class, she said, has reason to fear that workers will develop an anti-capitalist perspective as they see how wage cuts and pension elimination are coupled with record corporate profits and executive salaries. She was greeted with great enthusiasm when she emphasized that Workers World newspaper would not be cowed or back down from telling the class truth.

Griswold also emphasized that new technology, while a weapon against the workers in the capitalists’ hands, also offered great opportunities to the working class. One example is that Workers World’s articles may now be seen by millions worldwide due to the Internet.

Griswold’s talk was especially timely, spark ing discussion on how Northwest Airlines flight attendants are preparing to strike against an onerous concession contract imposed by the bankruptcy court and how Delphi workers and retirees continue to struggle against the autopart supplier’s use of bankruptcy to attempt to fundamentally reduce their wages and benefits.

Additional reporting by Jerry Goldberg of Detroit.