Locked Out Steelworkers to Confront Calgon Carbon at Shareholder’s Meeting

Union workers, community supporters will rally at company’s headquarters

Contact: Howard Scott, 412-580-6980
             Jerry Morton, 412-771-1339

PITTSBURGH–Sixty members of United Steelworkers Local 5032 at the Calgon Carbon Corporation (NYSE: CCC) facility on Neville Island have been locked out of their jobs since midnight on February 29.  The company is currently demanding that union workers accept massive cuts in health care and pensions before allowing them back to work.

On Thursday, May 1, USW Local 5032 will be escalating its fight to win a fair contract, with union members and supporters holding a rally outside Calgon’s corporate headquarters, 500 Calgon Carbon Dr., in Robinson Township at 12 noon, before the company’s annual shareholder meeting.  Following the rally several union members will attend the shareholder’s meeting to call on Calgon executives to end the lockout.

Since the start of the lockout union workers have maintained a 24-hour picket line at the facility’s gates.  The union has also reached out to the company’s customers, directors, and shareholders in hopes of resolving the dispute, and will file unfair labor practices alleging that the lockout is unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act. 

The company’s proposal to cut health care is the most daunting for union members.  Workers at Calgon come into contact with heavy metals such as lead, mercury, benzene, and other dangerous substances.  The prospect of suffering health care cuts is difficult for anyone, the Steelworkers said, but after a lifetime of working around poisons, Calgon’s proposed health care cuts are devastating. 

Union members see the continued lockout as an act of betrayal. “When this company was losing money they told us to ‘trust in teamwork’ and take concessions to keep the company alive.  Now Calgon is turning major profits and they still want us to take concessions,” said Jerry Morton, the unit president for Calgon of USW Local 5032. 

For nearly two decades workers took concessions to keep the company afloat during periods of poor financial performance caused by bad management.  Union workers even agreed to take responsibility for managing the day-to-day operations of the plant under a ‘self directed work force’ program.  Now the company is enjoying windfall profits amid a strong market for carbon — in 2007 the company’s profits were greater than the previous nine years combined.

Photograph and Interview Opportunities Available

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