1,000 workers receive WARN notice
By ELIZABETH DONALD
Illinois Correspondent
Granite City, IL – U.S. Steel’s Granite City steel plant will be idled indefinitely, workers here learned last week.
U.S. Steel sent emails out on Nov. 28 that the steel mill in Granite City would be idled indefinitely and 1,000 employees will receive a WARN Act notice of layoffs. Approximately 60 percent will likely lose their jobs.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires employers with 100 or more employees to give a 60-day notice of closings and layoffs. The 1,000 receiving notices include the 400 workers whose employment was temporarily suspended in September without advance notice, which union leaders and political representatives have criticized as a possible WARN Act violation.
In September, U.S. Steel idled the blast furnace in Granite City and suspended 400 workers, citing the United Auto Workers’ national strike for an anticipated reduction in steel demand. Labor leaders and political officials pointed out that the strike had barely begun when that decision was made, and accused U.S. Steel of trying to pit union auto makers and steelworkers against each other.
The auto workers’ strike was resolved weeks ago, but Granite City’s plant did not resume its prior functions.
WORST CASE SCENARIO
However, United Steelworkers Local 1899 President Dan Simmons said he doesn’t think it’s going to be as bad as people think. The mill is continuing at its current operations level, he said, and that might mean layoffs will be limited to those already on leave from the first round.
“We’ve been served WARN notices in the past with no impact,” Simmons said. “They’ve reiterated in multiple meetings that they have no foreseeable plan to operate any lower than we are right now.”
A worst-case scenario might be 600 laid off, Simmons said. U.S. Steel spokeswoman Amanda Malkowski told several news outlets that they anticipated 60 percent of the 1,000 who received WARN notices would be permanently laid off. But Simmons said he expected only about 400 would be laid off. A total of 1,076 workers received WARN notices on Tuesday, but only about 850 of them were represented by Local 1899, Simmons said.
However, Simmons agreed with public officials that the manner in which U.S. Steel handled the situation was not appropriate and agreed that it was circumventing the WARN Act. “They make decisions based on the prices, dollars and cents but has no operations sense,” he said. “It’s ruthless, it’s heartless and they could give a s— about the community.”
Simmons said he hopes that either the mill itself or U.S. Steel as a whole comes under new ownership, in the ongoing discussions about a buyout. “I am very optimistic, because our facility is unique in its own way,” he said. “We make steel that no one else in this country can make… We welcome fresh sets of eyes.
ON THE OFFENSIVE
Granite City Mayor Mike Parkinson told the RiverBender he felt U.S. Steel has been deceitful and a poor partner for the city.
Parkinson said he was extremely disappointed and has been in contact with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and state and U.S. officials.
“I am going to go on the offensive and start working to get U.S. Steel to clean up that area,” Parkinson said. “I am here to let people know we don’t want this to become a Pittsburgh. I want the area of the properties to be cleaned up and I will continue that fight in Springfield and in Washington D.C.”
MULTIGENERATIONAL
Madison County Employment and Training director Tony Fuhrmann said the WARN notice indicates the layoffs will begin Jan. 28. He plans to coordinate efforts with St. Clair County as well, as many steelworkers live there. They plan to provide assistance with job training, resumes and employment searches.
But Fuhrmann said in the past, they’ve seen laid-off steelworkers enter training programs for different careers, but when the steel mill opened back up, many of them dropped their retraining and went back to the mill because they made more at their old trade than the new one. It’s also a multigenerational thing, Fuhrmann said: many of the steelworkers saw parents and grandparents work at the mill, and it becomes near and dear to their families.
“But when they’re idling (the plant) indefinitely and shutting down the blast furnaces… it changes,” he said.
Simmons agreed, and said the impact will go beyond those who work at the mill. “This is a community that has embraced the steel mill,” he said. “There are not many areas where you see a steel mill in the center of a city. Everyone’s job is impacted.”
When he is a guest speaker in the schools, he said, he will ask how many of them have a parent or other relative who works at the mill. “You wouldn’t believe the hands that go up,” he said. “They know somebody or have immediate family associated with the steel mill.”
Simmons himself is a second-generation steelworker, and his brother also retired from the mill, both of them following his father’s footsteps. “It’s generation after generation,” he said. “You can make a good living and raise your family comfortably. It had some security attached to it, but now that’s all different with U.S. Steel.”
Fuhrmann said Madison County will be meeting with state partners and others, as well as scheduling meetings with the Local. “With this big of a layoff in that industry, the governor’s office will be taking an interest,” he said.
Simmons said the union will continue its layoff meetings and work with the Illinois Department of Employment Security to assist workers in applying for unemployment and is negotiating additional benefits for them. There are also plans in the works for holiday giveaways and Santa visits for the children, he said.
State officials investigating
Springfield, IL – Illinois officials have launched an investigation into U.S. Steel’s decision to idle Granite City steel mill
The Illinois Department of Labor has issued a subpoena to U.S. Steel to investigate its compliance with the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act when it issued layoff notices on Tuesday, following an open letter from U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski requesting an investigation and her public statement criticizing the choice.
“As U.S. Steel works to close up their union-represented shop in Granite City and move operations to a so-called ‘right-to-work’ state, it’s clear that the company’s executives are more interested with lining their own pockets than they are with the livelihoods of the workers who have built their company for generations,” Budzinski said.
Budzinski said in her letter that U.S. Steel initiated 400 layoffs in September without WARN notification, stating that the action was temporary. But this week’s announcement of indefinitely idling the plant and issuing notices to more than 1,000 workers calls that into question, she said.
“The company cited fears of reduced steel demand related to the United Auto Workers strike as the reason for this decision,” Brudzinski said. “On Nov. 28, despite positive market changes and a resolution to the UAW strike, the company has now sent these workers and 600 additional employees notice of permanent layoffs. The actions taken by the company this week call into question the integrity of their statements and the legality of their actions.”
Budzinski pointed out that operations have resumed at the Big Three automakers and steel prices are strong. In fact, Local 1899 President Dan Simmons confirmed that the price of steel has gone from $649 a ton to $900 a ton since the layoff began.
“It’s clear that these layoffs were never about the market and always about targeting organized workers,” Budzinski said. “U.S. Steel must be held accountable.”
Budzinski called on the Illinois Department of Labor to determine whether U.S. Steel violated the WARN Act with its handling of the Granite City idling, and IDOL issued subpoenas the same day.
“Mass layoffs impact entire communities,” said IDOL Director Jane Flanagan. “At the Department of Labor, we want to ensure that workers are given the required notice under law before they are laid off.”
An employer with 75 or more full-time employees is required to give a 60-day notice of a plant closing or mass layoff. Legislation proposed since the first round of U.S. Steel layoffs would increase that to 90 days.
Under the existing law, an employer that fails to provide proper notice under WARN is liable to each affected employee for back pay and benefits for the period of the violation up to 60 days, as well as a civil penalty of $500 per day of the violation.
‘A LOT OF FAMILIES ARE GOING TO BE HURT’
Both state representatives for the area echoed Budzinski’s disappointment.
“The people of this community have given a lot over the years in support of this plant, and our significant local resources, infrastructure and workforce should be encouraging further investment, not abandonment,” said state Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Collinsville). “A lot of families are going to be hurt by this.”
State Rep. Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville) agreed.
“This underscores how we need to continue to stand together in building a strong community and economy,” she said. “We’ll weather this difficult time just as we always have. I look forward to doing what it takes to welcome businesses that believe in fair play and value people.”
All reiterated their intent to help the affected workers in any way that they can, including working with the union and state agencies to help workers with training and unemployment resources.
Hoffman reiterated his support after news of the IDOL subpoenas was released. “I appreciate that the Illinois Department of Labor is doing its due diligence to ensure workers’ rights are properly respected,” he said. “The WARN Act provides needed notice for communities and families to prepare for significant layoffs, and this situation requires clear, transparent communication at every step of the process. Adequate notice is the least U.S. Steel could do when it’s laying off 1,000 workers, particularly during the holiday season. I will continue to engage officials with United Steelworkers Local 1899, and I strongly urge U.S. Steel to take action that supports – not abandons – the highly skilled workers of Granite City.”
‘DISGUSTED AND SADDENED’
Opposition to U.S. Steel’s actions crossed party lines. State Rep. Amy Elik (R-Alton) said she was “disgusted and saddened” by the decision.
“Granite City employees and their families have provided loyal, skilled labor to the steel industry for decades, and U.S. Steel is pulling the rug out from under them,” she said. “U.S. Steel should be doing everything it can to keep the Granite City steel mill operating at capacity, and I don’t see the company making that effort.”
Likewise state Sen. Erica Harriss (R-Glen Carbon) called it “devastating.”
“As the granddaughter of a U.S. Steel worker, I understand that these aren’t just jobs lost, but these are livelihoods and lives torn apart,” she told the RiverBender. “The excuses for the closures will offer little comfort to the people who rely on these good-paying jobs to support their families.”
FAIR WARNING ACT
Earlier in November, Budzinski and two other congressmen joined U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown in introducing the Fair Warning Act: legislation requiring proper notice of layoffs to workers. It strengthens the WARN Act to include any business with 50 or more workers or an annual payroll of $2 million or more, and includes part-time employees as well as full-time. Lead time would increase from 60 to 90 days and requires the states to establish a rapid response committee and protects employees’ rights to sue if the employer violates those rights, among other provisions.
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