Wednesday, Jul. 08, 2009

U.S. Steel back online in Granite City; 800 workers recalled

The restart of steel production Tuesday at U.S. Steel's Granite City mill began a recall of workers that union leaders are determined to see continue.

The mill aimed to resume steel production today but met that target a day early. It had been idle for about seven months.

"We can say that actual hot metal was delivered across the street today and, that starts the whole process," Steelworkers Local 1899 President Dan Simmons said. "We actually started making some steel today in our basic oxygen furnace. You can pull up there and watch it go by."

U.S. Steel Corp. said in October that the mill employed about 1,700 people when it was idled. About 700 workers elected to retire early, and more than 800 were laid off in waves starting in November.

Simmons said exact figures were not immediately available, but that his local union represents about 1,350 employees that span the production to maintenance departments. The nearly 140 electricians at the mill belong to Local 68, and about 500 employees who work in the plant's blast furnace belong to Local 50.

Simmons estimated that about 800 workers from the three unions have returned to work. About 100 maintenance workers returned to work in mid-June to prepare the plant to restart production.

"Our goal is to get 2,000 plus people back to work," Simmons said. "Every day they're returning more and more people. We are doing our best, and we're not going to be satisfied until we bring everybody back."

Employees returning to work are stalled by physicals and safety school, but "it's been a steady stream of getting people back," Simmons said.

Mike Fultz, one of 57 steel workers laid off from Stein Steel Mill Services adjacent to U.S. Steel mill, said he hopes to be called back to work next week.

"When the mill is working, we are," Fultz said. "We're very grateful, obviously. Six months of being laid off is really rough. I'm certainly looking forward to getting back to work. We're not going to lose the farm, so to speak, so it's truly a blessing."

But Fultz said he also is apprehensive about steel production starting up because he doesn't know whether the work availability will be short-lived.

"No one knows for sure what's driving this," Fultz said.

Simmons said the restart of production at the Granite City location is a sign the economy is recovering, though other U.S. Steel mills are still idle.

"Anybody that's been called back right now, I know it's the company's intent to not lay them back off," Simmons said. "I think our order book is OK; they're looking strong enough to make these calls. If they don't think they have reason enough to do it, they're not going to spend the money and time to bring people back."