Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
Vallourec Employees Press Case at News Conference
GIRARD, Ohio -- On at least three occasions over the last 18 years, workers at what is today Vallourec Star in Youngstown have attempted to reorganize the pipe mill as a union shop.
Each time, the workers said no.
Now, union organizers believe they have enough of a commitment behind a fourth effort at bringing collective bargaining to the company's Youngstown operations for the first time since the site was home to the former Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. in the 1970s.
"I m very optimistic that, this time, we're going to make it," said Bill Allen, an operator/mechanic at Vallourec's MPM, or multistand pipe mill, plant in Youngstown, during a press event Saturday. "We feel that now's the time to ask that people come together and get a union started."
About 530 workers at Vallourec Star's MPM plant and its new $1 billion FQM, or fine quality mill, operation will vote on Jan. 21, 22 and 23 on whether they want to be represented by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, or UE. The National Labor Relations Board will monitor the election process.
Vallourec, based outside of Paris, France, purchased the Youngstown operations in 2002 from North Star Steel, and last year commissioned its new $1 billion pipe mill and has hired an additional 350 people. The company is also contemplating an expansion to include an $81.5 million threading mill and 84 new jobs.
The Youngstown operations produces oil country tubular goods, or OTCG, pipe for mostly the oil and gas market.
Allen, who has been engaged in three union campaigns during his 18 years at the plant, says this one in particular has "gained great ground. "
Joining plant workers and UE representatives at the press event were officials from CGT, a French labor union that represent sworkers in Vallourec's operations there. They came here in an effort to present a sense of international support for the campaign.
"We are here to express our solidarity to our colleagues in the UE," says Christian Pilichowski, a member of CGT, the largest national union in France. "We are here to share our experience about the benefits unionization brings to the work force."
Pilichowski says Vallourec owns 17 mills in France, all of which employ unionized workers. "Vallourec is a global company with one CEO. We think the rights of the [Vallourec] workers and the benefits of the workers should be the same all over the world."
Vallourec employs more than 23,000 workers worldwide, and more than 80% of them belong to a union, according to Pilichowski.
He says Vallourec workers in the United States should be afforded the same treatment, opportunities and benefits that other Vallourec employees enjoy throughout the company's global operations. In particular, Pilichowski points to an agreement Vallourec signed related to workplace fairness with its European unions, and urged the company to honor these principles in the United States.
The last effort to organize the mill occurred more than 12 years ago, when North Star Steel owned the operation, Allen says. That last campaign fell short by just five votes, he reminded attendees at the press event Saturday at the UE local offices.
Over the last year, however, Vallourec has introduced policies that workers claim are unfair.
Dave Lorenzi, also an 18-year employee at the MPM plant, says that Vallourec took steps early on such as abolishing pensions for new hires, and freezing the pensions of existing employees.
In early 2013, the company terminated time-and-a-half Sunday pay for those on a four-day on, four-day off, 12-hour work schedules.
"The last straw was when the company told 12-hour shift workers that they no longer had Sunday premiums," Lorenzi says. "That pretty much broke the back and started this campaign."
Lorenzi says the main objective is simply to obtain a contract that protects the rights of workers. "This is something that we've needed for a long time."
Allen says another issue is a two-tier wage system the company executed. The two-tier structure not only pays new hires at a lower rate, but also makes it more difficult for them to advance. A collective bargaining agreement would affordsome rights to the worker in the case a disciplinary action, he added.
"At least with a legal, biding contract, I will have a representative that will look out for me," Allen adds.
Meantime, managers from Vallourec have stated that organizing a union within the plant would have a detrimental impact on business and the Youngstown operation's global competitiveness.
"While we support the rights of employees to choose whether they wish to organize a union, we do not believe this would add value, foster teamwork or add to the competitiveness of the company," Judson Wallace, Vallourec Star president, said in a statement issued Friday. "Vallourec Star employees enjoy competitive wage rate and positive working conditions, which they receive without a union."
Karen Hardin, a UE International representative, told reporters Vallourec is in the midst of a "massive anti-union campaign," and is taking measures to discourage workers to vote in favor of a union shop. "They're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. They're paying union busters $1,500 a day -- they've been under contract since Jan. 17, 2013."
Hardin claimed that Vallourec is playing "mind games" with workers, scheduling mandatory meetings and telling them that the company is likely to lose business and customers should the plant vote for union representation.
The UE has filed unfair labor practices charges against Vallourec with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that company officials "threatened union representatives with physical harm if they did not remove themselves from public property that is adjacent to respondent's fine quality mill." A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Feb. 27 in Cleveland.
In an updated statement released Saturday, Vallourec said it has complied with all legal obligations. "We recognize employees on both sides of this issue have been passionate in their views, and they are expressing their opinions in a variety of ways. Vallourec Star has allowed employees to express those opinions, whether those opinions are for or against the union," the statement said. "We have treated all of our employees with dignity and respect and will continue to do so, regardless of their opinions about unionization."
Allen is quick to emphasize that workers are not disgruntled over their employment and are proud of the company they work for.
"We're glad to be employed. We're glad to be North America's premier pipe maker.We are dedicated to make the best quality product that we can," he says. "But, there are things that have happened that we don't think are right."
POSTED FRIDAY:
Union Vote Next Week at Vallourec Star
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to our free daily email headlines and to our twice-monthly print edition.