The United Steelworkers union returned to Pittsburgh to resume talks with ArcelorMittal management, which still wants to triple employee contributions to health care while slashing coverage and benefits.
"Even before negotiations began we knew this process would be difficult due to low steel prices caused by record levels of imported products penetrating our market," the USW said in an update to members. "We were committed then as we are now to negotiating a fair contract that allows ArcelorMittal to remain competitive without creating hardship for retirees or lowering our families' standards of living."
ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel Corp. have declined to comment on ongoing negotiations.
ArcelorMittal said it needs to lower labor costs in North America, where it estimates it is losing nearly $300 million a year if capital investments are factored in.
Last week, the Luxembourg-based steelmaker presented the USW bargaining committee information about insurance and coverage options that providers with large networks offer. The union has been fighting to preserve health care benefits it has gained over the course of of generations.
The union says workers would basically be subjected to a pay cut under the company's proposal, since their salaries would frozen and they would have to pay much more for health insurance that's worse than what they currently have.
"There remain major differences between our proposal and what the company has offered," the USW said in an update to members. "ArcelorMittal's management's demands still include tripling the share we currently contribute and significantly reducing our coverage and benefits... While the company continues to press for these concessions on healthcare and a variety of other issues, we remain committed to the process of collective bargaining to work through them."
Meanwhile, U.S. Steel is demanding health care changes that would cost current and retired workers thousands of dollars a year in out-of-pocket expenses. The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker wants control over the union's health and safety representatives and is demanding concessions on overtime, contracting out transfers, and severance.
"Our committee is well aware that the steel industry is in the midst of a crisis, but these drastic proposals do nothing to address that," the union said in an update to members.