Arbitrator Orders AK to Keep Ashland Operating

Contact: Tony Montana (USW) – 412-562-2592

PITTSBURGH, July 15 — The United Steelworkers (USW) today said that an independent arbitrator has ordered AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) to abandon plans to shut down its Ashland, Ky. plant and lay off about 750 workers and instead look at cutting production elsewhere because the USW’s contract contains a provision to prevent its members being laid off while other plants are operating.

USW International President Leo W. Gerard said that he’s proud to be the leader of a union that fights for its members and added a warning to employers that the USW will continue to enforce its contractual protections, no matter what market conditions are or how difficult economic times become.

“We promised job and earnings security in Ashland and delivered,” said Gerard. “We promised to fight for fairness and dignity for our members and we’re true to our word.”

“Over the years, we have learned how to protect our members as the market cycles from up to down, from high to low,” said USW International Vice-President Tom Conway, who chairs the union’s negotiations with AK Steel in Ashland. “No other industrial union has more experience or expertise in protecting its members in tough economic times.”

USW District 8 Director Billy Thompson echoed the sentiments of Gerard and Conway, saying that he believes AK tried to bully the USW into allowing the company to break its collective bargaining agreement with the union.

“Dealing with AK means that our members, staff and local union leaders need to know what our contract says in order to enforce it,” said Thompson. “It’s not easy getting full capacity guarantees in writing,” Thompson said.

In explaining his ruling, Arbitrator Raymond F. Sekula wrote in his final award and decision that “the failure of the Company to temper its ‘full capacity’ commitment to the Ashland bargaining unit except in cases in which there is no demand at all for Ashland products acts as a restriction on the Company in that if there is customer demand for products which can be produced at Ashland, that work must contractually be assigned to it.”

The USW represents about 1.2 million active and retired members in the United States and Canada in a wide variety of industries, ranging from steel, tire and rubber and other manufacturing environments as well as the public sector, service and health care industries.

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