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 5, 2006 edition
By Steve Arnold
The Hamilton Spectator
(Apr 5, 2006)
Fiery steelworkers' leader Rolf Gerstenberger will take
Hamilton Stelco workers into their next contract talks -- a deal analysts say
will be crucial to the future of the company.
Gerstenberger swept to a second three-year term at the head
of the Hilton Works local of the United Steelworkers, seizing almost 64 per
cent of the vote to brush aside a challenge from incumbent vice-president Jake
Lombardo. The final count was 1,156 to 668.
Gerstenberger kept Local 1005 out of Stelco's restructuring
talks, branding them as nothing more than a "fraud" designed to force
workers to make concessions. Instead of restructuring, he held that the
existing collective agreement and labour law were the only rules for talking with
Stelco.
"The members obviously support the position we've
taken," he said. "It's clear that CCAA (Companies' Creditors
Arrangement Act) was a fraud and that certain people are making a lot of money
out of it.
"Stelco is a billion-dollar company, but the CCAA process
was used to wipe out the shareholders and give the company to Tricap."
Local 1005's contract expires July 31 and newly appointed
president Rodney Mott has made it clear he'll be looking for productivity
improvements in the new deal, either by increasing production with the same
workforce or getting the same production with fewer workers.
Business analysts have also said the contract Mott struck
with workers at ISG -- the American steel giant he and billionaire investor
Wilbur Ross cobbled together from a collection of bankrupt steel plants -- will
be the model for the new Stelco deal. That contract telescoped 28 job
classifications into five, increasing worker flexibility.
Gerstenberger said there won't be a problem negotiating
productivity with Stelco, but what won't be on the table is cutting pensioners
off from the company.
"We've upheld our part of the bargain by making the
steel. If Rodney Mott recognizes we have legitimate claims to what we produce,
we'll have no problems," he said.
"We don't have a problem with making the company
productive, but ISG's advantage was it dumped 150,000 pensioners. The big thing
they did was shaft the pensioners. If he wants to do what he did in the U.S.,
then he's going to have a problem."
Talks are expected to start next month.
Lombardo promised to support that effort.
"Rolf ran a good campaign. The membership has spoken
and I'll be supporting Rolf in the upcoming bargaining," he said.
"Now we have to band together to take on the company."
Wayne Lewchuck, of McMaster University's labour studies
department, agreed the vote vindicates Gerstenberger's position on Stelco's
refinancing, but down played claims a tough union bargaining stand will mean
disaster for the company.
"The vote signifies that the membership at Hilton Works
thinks Rolf had it right on the bankruptcy. What's important now is for the
company to make good investments and good products because that's what will
drive their profitability," he said.
"The primary issue at Stelco is making good
investments, putting resources into niches where they can make a profit and
that has nothing to do with the workers."
Charlotte Yates, chair of the labour studies program, said
Gerstenberger's stand on the restructuring talks kept worker issues at the
forefront in a process that usually ignores them.
"Workers' interests usually aren't addressed in
restructuring, but Rolf raised their issues to the front page," she said.
"Companies use these restructurings to put unions on the defensive. They
are a way for forcing through an agenda of change, and that's not right."
Gerstenberger was elected president of Local 1005 in a
five-way race three years ago. He served on the last negotiating committee, but
was also a vocal opponent of the final deal.
sarnold@thespec.com
905-526-3496