‘As long as ATI doesn’t budge, we’ll be out here’

Regina Stinson

WASHINGTON, Pa. — Locked-out workers at the Allegheny Technologies Inc. plant here held a “friends and family” night on the picket line Sept. 23. We put it out to everyone to bring spouses and kids. The 84-year-old mother of one steelworker was one of 200 at shift change yelling at the scabs and demanding a fair contract at ATI.

We were out from 5:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. Locked-out steelworkers cooked hot dogs for everyone. Using a “bat-light” we projected “Solidarity in Steel” and “Fair Contract Now” over the buildings in the plant.

Now, we are in the beginning stages of either trying to get a shed built or renting an office trailer to prepare for winter. We were locked out Aug. 15. As long as ATI doesn’t budge from its last and final offer, we’ll be out here. Teachers, coal miners and steelworkers from other locals stop by and support us.

—SKIP LONGDON

Skip Longdon is president of USW Local 7139-5 in Washington, Pennsylvania