Steel Market Update was communicating with Rolf Gerstenberger, union president of USW Local 1005 which represents the locked out US Steel Hamilton Workers, earlier this morning regarding the suspension of benefits by U.S. Steel. In an email to SMU, Mr. Gerstenberger requested Steel Market Update be fair and balanced in our approach to the debate within their union ranks. He thought our prior survey for market opinion (many of whom are Local 1005 members) “missed the point.”

Earlier this week, Steel Market Update put a survey link on one of our Blog posts which posed the question: “Do you think the USS Hamilton Mill 1005 union workers should get to vote about the contract?”

We have left that survey open for most of this week and 77% of those responding replied “yes” while the remaining 23% did not feel the workers should get to vote and replied “no”.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and one of the core elements of Steel Market Update is to promote a dialogue regarding important issues which affect the steel industry. The lockout of U.S. Steel Hamilton Works and the desire of all parties to come to a fair and reasonable conclusion is an important issue.

Mr. Gerstenberger has requested we re-phrase the question in fairness to the retirees and we have agreed to do so. So, based on Mr. Gerstenberger’s suggestion our new question is:

“Is it democratic to allow 900 union workers at USS Hamilton to vote to eliminate indexing for 9,000 retired workers?”

To take the survey, click here.We look forward to your responses. All responses are confidential – we do not have a way of identifying the author of any comments unless you chose to use your name.

We will share the results of our survey and the responses (comments) made with Mr. Gerstenberger since this survey is being done at his request.

For more information about the flat rolled steel industry - pricing, trends and issues such as the one we are dealing with here - feel free to click on the free trial logo on our website to register for a free trial to our SMU newsletter. We publish the newsletter three times per week. The free trial also gives you the opportunity to check out all sections of our website. All information collected is not shared with any third party as we appreciate your privacy.