BY TONY DUTROW
FOLLANSBEE, West Virginia - On January 10, about 300 strikers braved sub-zero windchill factors to swiftly respond to a potential threat by Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. bosses to bring unauthorized workers across the coke mill picket lines. Earlier in the day, unionists were tipped off by a caller on a local talk-radio show who blew the whistle on the plan by urging others to cross the line with him.

Though the threat never materialized, and may have been a trial balloon, the Steubenville, Ohio, Herald-Star was compelled to report on the serious preparations made by the union.

"This is a show of solidarity. It's a message to any replacement workers that they will have to deal with this membership," Larry Mallas, president of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 1190, said in the January 11 Herald- Star.

From the beginning of the strike, the union has authorized the company to operate the mill with management and other salaried personnel to preserve the ovens. The company nevertheless obtained an injunction from a West Virginia judge the first week of the strike, claiming the union had terrorized salaried employees entering the mill. The injunction limits the size of pickets to eight strikers per gate.

Gordon McCloud, an ex-coal miner who worked at the Mingo Junction mill for eight years, was among the hundreds who showed up, mostly by word of mouth and phone-trees. "We had our cars lined up on both sides of the highway, almost for a mile. We didn't let any of the management into the plant until 2 a.m.," he said of the protest, which began at 10 p.m. the previous night.

"We wouldn't let any of them in until after we checked their ID's with our list and inspected each car," he added. "This was the strongest showing on the picket lines since the strike started. We had strikers from Yorkville and Martins Ferry, [Ohio], on the line too."

Ron Moran, who was on picket duty the day after with McCloud, said he would have come out but missed the call. Moran, a motor inspector at the Mingo Junction mill with 34 years' seniority, said, "We are a testing ground for the rest of the labor movement, and after this action I think it shows the union is very strong here at Wheeling-Pitt. This was really great for morale."

Union, company meet with mediator
Representatives of Wheeling-Pitt and the USWA met January l5 with federal mediator John Pinto. According to an interview in the Wheeling Intelligencer, Dave Helfert, Washington D.C. director of communications for the federal mediation service, said, "The two sides have sought Pinto's assistance."

In mid-December an attempt to get talks off the ground fizzled as the company refused to discuss restoring the guaranteed pension plan the union lost following the 1985 bankruptcy and 89 day strike later that year. Pinto, a Pittsburgh-based federal mediator, presided over the December talks.

Earlier in the week, the heads of the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, and the Diocese of Steubenville issued a joint statement calling for the resumption of talks.

"The union commends the bishops for their concern and their initiative in seeking to bring the parties together," Jim Bowen, chief negotiator for the USWA, said in a January 11 interview in Herald-Star.

The commencement of talks follows a January 7 announcement by WHX, Wheeling-Pitt's parent company, that it will report a loss for 1996, the first in four years, as a result of the three and nearly four- month-long strike.

"Wheeling-Pitt's interim spokesman John Waiter said the company [WHX] decided to issue the statement in advance of the earnings report because of the `unusual situation of the strike' by 4,500 steelworkers in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania," the Wheeling News-Reporter explained.

"WHX stock has lost about 10 percent of its value since the United Steelworkers of America struck Wheeling-Pitt plants," wrote the Charleston Gazette, commenting on the same statement. The article also said that a steel analyst for the Wall St. firm Lehman Bros. of New York projected a loss of $17 million for WHX in 1996.

Judges deny benefits to strikers
Marching in lock-step with officials in Ohio and Pennsylvania, a panel of administrative law judges in West Virginia denied unemployment benefits to more than 600 workers on strike from that state. Hearings were held on the matter December 17 in Wheeling. Lawyers for the union announced they will appeal this ruling, along with the decisions in the other two states.

Meanwhile, the January 15 Wheeling Intelligencer reported that Ron Macko, an Allenport, Pennsylvania, foreman working at the Follansbee coke mill, was pinned against a coke oven door the day before. He was hospitalized in critical condition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The company refused to release further details on the extent of the injuries.

Tony Dutrow is a member of USWA Local 1557, at the USX Clairton Coke works.  
 
 
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