The Stel Salaried
Pensioners Organization wishes to thank The Hamilton Spectator for permission
to post the following article by Reporter Dana Borcea, published in the
September 26, 2005 edition
By Dana Borcea
The Hamilton Spectator
(Sep 26, 2005)
Cagney's Pub was hopping Saturday
night. Barmaids bantered loudly over the din. Brawny regulars jostled for their
attention.
Plates were piled high with steak,
baked potatoes and sides of slaw. The beer was flowing.
This east-Mountain bar is a favourite
haunt for local steelworkers. And this weekend, they had much to celebrate.
After enduring 20 anxious months as
Stelco buckled under bankruptcy protection, workers woke up Saturday morning to
news of a salvaged deal.
The company and its unions saved a
restructuring plan late Friday night.
The deal occurred just hours before the
steelmaker's bankruptcy protection was due to expire.
The agreement between Stelco and its
Lake Erie and AltaSteel of Edmonton workers, bought the company some time,
extending its court protection into early October.
It also won some much-earned relief for
Cagney's staff and patrons.
Pub-owner Brenda Ness, who comes from a
"Stelco family" has a lot invested.
Her father William, who passed away in
December, put in 34 years as an electrician at the company's Hilton Works. With
his pension threatened, William died worrying whether his wife would be taken
care of.
Saturday, Ness got the news she wished
her father could have heard when Stelwire's union president, Scott Duvall, told
her that the pension was safe.
"He told me to tell my mom she
didn't have to worry anymore," said Ness. "He said they got her a
good deal."
Ness's uncle drove trains for the
steelmaker. Another operated a crane. Her ex-husband was also a Stelco man. So
was her brother.
But the deal, said Ness, is not only
good for the family. It's good for business.
Her bar, tucked inside a strip mall at
the corner of Mohawk Road East and Upper Gage, attracts a lot of Stelco workers
and retirees.
They come for the three-dollar pints,
the cheap wings and the company. Ness, who knows most of their names, said her
business depends on them.
"I'm not here to get rich,"
said the 46-year-old single mother of five. "I'm just earning a
living."
Randy Furlotte has earned his living
driving cranes and tractors for Stelco for nearly three decades.
Standing alone at the end of the bar,
the regular said he normally doesn't like to talk about work when he's here,
especially lately.
"Things at work have been really
hard on everyone's nerves," said the United Steelworkers Local 1005
member. "Nobody knew what was going on. It's been hell."
News of the deal -- which protects
workers' wages, benefits and pensions -- put Furlotte in a better mood Saturday
night.
"I'm relieved," he said.
"I've got a trailer and a boat up north and I'm ready to play."
Waiting his turn for a game next to the
pool table, Ed Stewart, a salaried quality control inspector, was in a more
cautious mood.
Stewart, 43, said the celebration was
premature.
The bondholders -- a powerful group of
unsecured creditors -- still need to approve the plan.
Stewart worries they might sink the
deal.
"It could all be for naught,"
he said. "What was the point of all this marathon negotiating if the
bondholders just vote it down?"
Stewart said the uncertainty of the
last 20 months has been stressful and exhausting for many of his Lake Erie
co-workers, adding they'd suffered "a complete loss of faith in
management."
He is also hoping to wipe the slate
clean and start over with a new board of directors.
That wish may be granted.
Under the new deal, Stelco's current
board would be dissolved and new directors named.
Sitting on a bench in the pub's parking
lot patio, Lester Acker said he couldn't care less about the restructuring
plan's finer points.
All he wants to hear is that his
pension is safe.
The retired loader and crane operator
is already losing $30,000 worth of Stelco shares which will become worthless if
the deal is approved.
The 61-year-old, who works part-time as
a delivery man, said he will get by without the shares. "It's all just a
gamble," he said, shrugging his shoulders and raising his glass.
dborcea@thespec.com 905-526-3214