A United Steelworkers officer said Wednesday the union will ask the National Labor Relations Board to drop its complaint against Allegheny Technologies Inc.
“We're going to communicate with them (Wednesday) and, hopefully, we'll get a quick response,” said Tom Conway, USW vice president and chief union negotiator in the ATI contract talks.
Withdrawal of the unfair labor practice complaint against ATI was a stipulation in the contract proposal that the union's 2,200 ATI workers ratified by a wide margin Tuesday.
The contract would end a bitter six-month lockout of the workers at 12 plants in six states.
Jessica Kahanek, NLRB press secretary, said the union's request had not been received by early Wednesday afternoon.
“We haven't really received it, so I can't really comment on it,” she said.
She said making such a request as part of a contract has been done before.
“Withdrawal when people reach a contract is typical,” Kahanek said. “It is not an unusual approach, but it has to be accepted by the regional director for it take effect.”
“There have been other long strikes and battles that are similar, and we've been through this before,” Conway said. “It's not commonplace, but it isn't a first-time event.”
Conway said prior to the ratification vote that he did not see the NLRB's agreeing to withdraw charges as an obstacle.
ATI spokesman Dan Greenfield, in commenting on the ratification vote Tuesday, said the timing for ATI workers to return to their jobs was dependent on the labor board approving a USW request to withdraw the charges.
“If the union ratified it, the NLRB is going to say ‘fine,' ” said Art Wheaton, an instructor of labor negotiations for The Worker Institute at Cornell University.
Among the charges the USW alleged that ATI committed before or during the lockout were: unilateral repudiation/modification of the contract; making coercive statements such as threats and/or promises of benefits; coercive actions such as surveillance; and a refusal to bargain/(engaging in) bad faith bargaining. The complaints came from plants in all six states where ATI has flat-rolled products operations.
When the NLRB ruled in favor of the charges just before Christmas, it was a watershed moment in the lockout, Wheaton said. That is because, once the NLRB does that and then files a complaint against the company, which it did on Feb. 11, it makes the situation an unfair labor practices lockout.
“The unfair labor practice means they could not have the replacement workers. They could no longer legally do that,” Wheaton said.
During the lockout, ATI attempted to run at least some of the affected plants with replacement workers.
Tom Yerace is a staff writer for Tribune-Review. Reach him at 724-226-4675 or tyerace@tribweb.com.
