Steel Mills

Severstal Employees at Mountain State Carbon Reject Contract

October 20, 2013

Employees at Severstal Mountain State Carbon rejected a four-year contract offered by the company after more than a year at the bargaining table. The offer was defeated 181 to 7 by USW Local 1190.

“We weren’t asking for the world,” said Don Hubbard a member of the union’s bargaining team. Worker demands included four weeks of vacation, a 3 percent yearly raise, and a guaranteed work week should production ever be disrupted. Hubbard said most workers under former owner RG Steel had five weeks of vacation and while salaried employees had their five weeks restored, hourly workers were given just two weeks per year.

The guaranteed work week would pay at least part of worker’s wages if operations were ever interrupted. Hubbard said it had never happened at the company before but workers were concerned about the possibility in the future.

Severstal, according to Hubbard, offered to maintain wages for the first two years of the contract and provide 2 percent increases in 2016 and 2017.

Mountain State Carbon, LLC, formed in 2005, operates as a joint venture between Severstal and SNA Carbon LLC. The facility produces high-quality coke for steelmaking operations and operates four coke oven batteries (three three-meterand one six-meter). Mountain State is located in Follansbee, West Virginia and employs 225 hourly workers. (Source: The Herald Star and Severstal NA website)