The Stel Salaried
Pensioners Organization wishes to thank The Hamilton Spectator for permission
to post the following article by Reporter Steve Arnold published in the April
29, 2005 edition
By Steve Arnold
The Hamilton Spectator
(Apr 29, 2005)
Stelco's salaried retirees head to
court this morning in a new effort to force the insolvent steel company into
sharing financial information.
The pensioners accuse Stelco of
ignoring repeated requests for information they say is vital to understanding
what the company intends to do to solve its massive pension shortfalls.
The legal manoeuvre is the latest act
in a heated dispute over who will benefit from the company's billion-dollar
restructuring that started 15 months ago today.
"We're into the most intense phase
this restructuring has been through," lawyer Murray Gold said this week at
a mass meeting of salaried retirees.
"We're down to talking about a
process that should work, the only question is in what way."
He added: "The interests are very
clearly defined."
Those interests are widely separated --
retirees, active workers, investors in bonds and stock as well as creditors all
have claims on Stelco, and sharply different ideas about the medicine needed to
fix the company.
On one side are as many as 13,000
retired Stelco workers worried because their pension plans are $1.3 billion
short of what's needed to cover all obligations if the company went out of
business.
They are represented by the association
of salaried pensioners and the United Steelworkers of America.
The union is also the voice for the
company's active production workers.
Their position is simple -- they want a
restructuring that starts with a clear plan for fixing the pension.
That's why they like the Tricap
Management Ltd. proposal and its $500 million downpayment to the funds.
They've also said they're willing to
talk to Stelco about ways of meeting that goal -- but the salaried retirees say
the conversation so far has been one-sided.
In the motion to be heard today, they
say Stelco got court approval to start its current capital raising process on
the promise "the process would be open and would involve extensive
stakeholder discussions."
But it's claimed there have been no
talks other than a single meeting at which the company refused to provide any
of the information the former workers sought. They say follow-up requests have
also been ignored.
In a letter to the retirees dated
Monday, Stelco's lawyer repeated the company's position that the main concern
in the restructuring is to "balance stakeholder interests fairly and
appropriately" and promised to consider every group's issues in the final
plan.
Yesterday, company spokesperson Helen
Reeves added: "We have been engaged in dialogue with our stakeholders, and
will continue to be."
In an affidavit responding to the
retirees' motion, chief restructuring officer Hap Stephen said: "Stelco
will continue to provide information to stakeholders as the process
progresses."
But Stephen objected to a court-ordered
process that would distract managers from the business of developing a plan
outline.
Also on the docket for today's hearing
is a motion by Hamilton-based Solid Waste Reclamation Inc. asking for an
exemption from a ban on suing Stelco while it's under court protection.
sarnold@thespec.com
905-526-3496