From Rail Lines to Steel Pipe to Rebar, USW Members at Colorado Mill Support Nation’s Infrastructure Needs
Chuck Perko is a fourth-generation steelworker who still wears his grandfather’s USW dues-payer’s pin. The president of Local 3267, he works at a mill in Pueblo, Colo., that has existed for more than 150 years.
The mill has employed thousands over those decades, providing an economic boom for the entire region. While Perko and his 1,000 USW colleagues in two local unions at EVRAZ Pueblo are rightly proud of that history, the future of their workplace is just as compelling as its past.
Construction for a state-of-the-art $900 million long rail mill is ongoing, and the facility is scheduled to begin operations early next year. The mill will have the capacity to produce quarter-mile-long sections of rail that can be used in high-speed train projects.
“We will be one of two mills in the country that can produce it,” Perko said. “We definitely stand to benefit from the rail business.”
Infrastructure Law
That business got a significant boost from the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which included $66 billion in new funding for passenger and freight rail over 10 years.
That, coupled with hundreds of billions more earmarked for roads, bridges, waterlines, and other projects, means USW members in Pueblo can look forward to a future of good-paying, community supporting jobs, the kind that the mill has provided for generations.
“What this mill does for Pueblo is just amazing,” said Ashton King, who works at the factory with both of his parents. “It’s great being a part of that history, and still being able to make these rails today.”
Steelworkers’ Pride
While the new rail mill represents the future for members of Local 3267 (clerical and technical) and Local 2102 (production and maintenance), other parts of the mill – where members recycle and manufacture reinforcing bar, known as rebar, steel rod, and seamless pipe – also stand to benefit from the infrastructure law.
“It feels good to be a part of something that I know is going to make a difference,” said Theo Garcia, a Local 2102 member and utility man whose family has worked at the mill for three generations.
Like Garcia, Rodney Himelrick has worked at the mill for about seven years. And, like his union siblings, he takes tremendous pride in the products they produce at EVRAZ Pueblo.
“We’re making a good, strong product that is going to last a long time,” Himelrick said. “It’s going to help America for a long time.”
Focus on Sustainability
In addition to supplying essential components for the nation’s growing infrastructure needs, EVRAZ Pueblo is one of the world’s most sustainable steel mills. The mill boasts the largest on-site solar field for a U.S. mill, with 750,000 panels providing 95 percent of the plant’s electricity needs.
As one of the largest vertically integrated steelmakers in North America, EVRAZ also operates 17 recycling facilities throughout the continent, supplying scrap metal for their electric arc furnaces.
The new rail mill – which EVRAZ Pueblo’s senior director of operations Dmitry Belov calls the steel mill of the future – will bring with it the promise of hundreds of jobs and a prosperous future for the company, its workers and the community.
Core USW Values
That was exactly the idea when, in 2021, USW members mounted a campaign for, and President Joe Biden delivered, a massive $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. The plan was to provide much-needed upgrades to the nation’s roads, bridges, airports, shipping and rail systems, communications, water and utility networks, and other vital programs, while putting more Americans to work in good-paying union jobs that support families and build strong communities.
Moody’s Analytics predicts that, by 2025, the new law will create nearly 900,000 jobs, many of them in industries where USW members work. The law also includes strong Buy American provisions to ensure U.S. workers reap the benefits of their tax dollars, an important step as China continues to undercut the North American steel market with cheap, subsidized and often illegally traded products.
The infrastructure program – promised but never delivered by his predecessor – was one of several key legislative wins Biden achieved that match up perfectly with the USW’s core values. Those values are reflected in members like Jeff Varner, who has worked at EVRAZ Pueblo off and on since 2013.
Varner, now in his second stint at the mill, looks forward to a secure retirement thanks to his service at the plant and his membership in the USW.
“I knew that this was an opportunity to support my family,” said Varner, who spends his shifts operating and monitoring activity in the furnace. “How many people in the world get to do what I do every day?”
The opportunity to work at a historic and cutting-edge steel mill, while earning strong USW-negotiated wages and benefits, makes jobs at the Pueblo site among the best in Colorado, said Local 2102 President Eric Ludwig.
Mary VanGorder, who has worked at the mill for nearly three years, said that between pay and benefits, she received a “life-changing” $32,000-a-year raise from her previous job when she arrived at the mill.
“There aren’t many places in Pueblo that can offer what this place has to offer,” said seven-year member Daniel Duran.
Besides the solid financial benefits, their USW membership gives workers in Pueblo a voice in efforts to improve health and safety at the plant, a priority that they share with mill management.
USW member Rich Darris, who serves on the labor-management safety and health committee, described the group’s efforts as a “symbiotic relationship.”
“We work hand-in-hand with the company,” he said. “With the union behind you, there is more of a safety net.”
Continuing that collaboration as the future of steel unfolds in the Rocky Mountains, and at similar facilities across the union, means a solid foundation for U.S. manufacturing for years to come, said District 12 Director Gaylan Prescott, whose region includes thousands of members in Colorado and 10 other Western states.
“Thanks to the infrastructure law and other federal efforts, we are growing our manufacturing capacity, strengthening our supply chains,” Prescott said, “and USW members are leading the way.”
That resurgence is as evident in Pueblo – known as the “steel city” of the West – as it is anywhere in the country.
“It is ingrained in this town,” Darris said. “It’s a matter of pride.”
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