The picket shack was a source of pride for the members of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Locals 5724 and 5760. It consisted of a large room with a wood stove, a generator to power lights and a microwave oven, and restaurant seating on a deck on the roof of the shack. It was festooned with black plastic and wooden rats, the workers' symbol for Ormet management. Union members hung signs on the outside, including in solidarity with locked-out steelworkers at AK Steel and with demands for a contract.

The contract between Ormet and the USWA expired last May. Workers have been organizing picketing at the gates three times a day ever since. Steelworkers march in and out of the plant at shift change chanting union slogans.

Unionists at the plant took up a collection to rebuild the shack and said that other materials were donated. Steelworkers from Ravenswood and coal miners from the area plan to join Ormet workers here February 3 to rebuild the shack and hold a rally to support the fight.

The company walked out of negotiations January 22, but workers on the picket line report they have made progress on their demands. "This contract offer is much better than the company was offering three months ago," one picket said. "Metal prices are up. He [CEO Emmett Boyle] needs a contract."

The new proposal includes a $1.92 wage increase and other "additives" over the life of the contract in place of a cost-of-living allowance (COLA). One of the main union demands is to reinstate COLA, which the company took away in 1986. According to a union flyer being distributed at the plant gates, the company also "reneged on paying retroactive pension supplements to our retirees back to June 1, 1999."

Donny Blatt, Local 5724 grievance committee chair, promised a stepped-up campaign to get a contract, pointing to a demonstration by retirees at the company headquarters in Wheeling, West Virginia. "We are going to escalate this thing until Ormet comes back to the table and we get a fair contract," he said.

About 25 workers went to West Liberty College in Wheeling, West Virginia, January 21, to confront Boyle, who was speaking on the campus. Steelworkers chanting "No contract, no peace!" were joined by a number of students from the campus.

Chris Remple is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees.  
 
 
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