One day after more than 1,000 steelworkers at Granite City Works were notified they could be laid off in January, the president of the local representing employees said the news may not be as bad as first expected.
After speaking with U.S. Steel leadership on Tuesday, Dan Simmons, president of United Steelworkers Local 1899, said Wednesday he doesn鈥檛 anticipate more layoffs than the roughly 400 employees already laid off this fall.
鈥淚t had a lot of people believing that there were some additional layoffs coming,鈥� Simmons said of the notices filed on Tuesday. 鈥淭hat's not the case.鈥�
U.S. Steel鈥檚 spokeswoman Amanda Malkowski said on Tuesday it's possible more than just those 400 employees will be laid off. 鈥淲e anticipate that approximately 60% of employees who receive WARN notices will be impacted,鈥� she said.
Asked on Wednesday about the discrepancy between the union鈥檚 estimation and the company鈥檚, Malkowski said: 鈥�60% of 1,000 is 600.鈥�
Simmons said Tuesday's announcement of federally required notices was U.S. Steel protecting itself after temporary layoffs turned indefinite.
In September, U.S. Steel announced layoffs for what would end up to be roughly 400 employees starting in October. The Pittsburgh-based company laid off those steelworkers without giving 60 days' notice under the because they were expected to be temporary 鈥� or less than six months.
U.S. Steel announced on Tuesday it would 鈥渋ndefinitely idle鈥� the blast furnace 鈥渙ut of an abundance of caution,鈥� Malkowski said. In total, the , according to the Illinois WorkNet Center.
That鈥檚 because the company doesn鈥檛 know when exactly it plans to reopen the shuttered furnace, meaning it could go past the temporary status, Simmons said.
鈥淲e're running closer to that six-month deadline, where they still don't have a definitive startup date,鈥� he said. 鈥淭herefore, they're covering their butts by posting and providing now a WARN notification in case that they go beyond the six months.鈥�
The decision to issue notices gives U.S. Steel flexibility in the future with Granite City, Simmons said. It could mean the company lays more people off after the six-month notice period, which would be the end of March.
In the eyes of the union, the company should have provided the notices in September when the first set of layoffs were announced, Simmons said. Malkowski repeated that the temporary layoffs earlier in the fall were part of the company鈥檚 risk mitigation plan in response to strikes by autoworkers.
鈥淏ecause we can meet customer demand by leveraging our active iron and steelmaking facilities, we have made the decision to indefinitely idle Granite City鈥檚 primary operations,鈥� she wrote.
If found to have violated the WARN Act by not bringing back workers by the end of March, U.S. Steel each relevant employee an amount equal to back pay and benefits, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
In the meantime, Simmons said the Granite City mill will operate with approximately 800 remaining employees. The steelworkers will continue to ship in slabs of steel from other U.S. Steel locations that will be turned into rolled coils and finishing steel.
Despite the news of indefinitely shutting down the blast furnace, Simmons said he鈥檚 optimistic.
To start, the price of steel has been over the past month, he said.
There will be some downturn in demand for the steel market when construction slows over the cold winter months, he said. But when that picks up it will be hard for a shareholder to want to keep Granite City鈥檚 blast furnace closed.
鈥淚t's kind of like a racehorse and holding the bridle back,鈥� he said.
