Economy
USW Wins Settlement for RG Steel Workers
Written by Sandy Williams
October 16, 2015
A settlement in the RG Steel Chapter 11 bankruptcy case will give the USW a 70 percent share of the $17.4 million that will be distributed to creditors. The union will receive $12 million, including $6.3 million in vacation and severance pay owed workers.
The USW has been working to recover funds for workers and retirees who were affected by the bankruptcy of RG Steel in 2012. Nearly 4,000 workers lost jobs at Sparrows Point, Md., Warren, Ohio and Wheeling, WV, and a coke making facility at Fallonsbee, WV.
The settlement to the USW also includes payments of $2.4 million to a voluntary employee beneficiary association (VEBA) for workers at Warren; $990,790 to the Steelworkers Health & Welfare Fund ; more than $814,000 to the Steelworkers Pension Trust; $445,590.31 to a VEBA for workers at Wheeling-Pitt, a predecessor to RG Steel; $480,000 to cover unpaid medical claims; and about $54,000 in severance for workers at an Allenport, Pa., mill that closed in 2008.
“The USW did a good job in making the best of a bad situation. It’s sad that it had to come to this, and unfortunate that this has affected so many hard-working people,” said David Boyd, a USW Local 9477 retiree who was employed at Sparrows Point, Md. “But the union never gave up and kept fighting for what was right all the way to the very end.”
Sandy Williams
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