Published: March 14, 2007 10:49 pm            

AK Steel union approves contract: 'Daddy's going back to work!'

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — Children of AK Steel employees who had been locked out of their jobs for more than a year joined their parents in cheering Wednesday that they will soon be back to work.

''It's been tough,'' Doug Long, 42, said after hearing that union members ratified the contract by a vote of 1,275 to 226. ''We've had to cut corners, and the hardest thing was to tell our kids 'no' when they wanted something we couldn't afford.''

His wife, Stephanie, 41, said the couple called their daughters, ages 10, 12 and 18, at home when the outcome was announced at the union hall just outside the Middletown Works plant here.

''We could hear them shouting and screaming in the background, 'Daddy's going back to work!''' she said.

Among the jubilation, there were somber reflections on a year of tight budgets, too tight for some families.

''It's been a roller coaster ride,'' said Jason Black, 33, a maintenance worker with nearly 11 years' experience at the plant. ''I've been lucky enough to keep everything I had, but a lot of people have lost their homes.''

The Longs said they also were luckier than some families. They had some savings to dip into.

''But the support of our friends, family and community really helped us get through it,'' Doug Long said.

At the union hall, dozens of workers clapped, cheered and exchanged high-fives after Brian Daley, president of the Machinists Local Lodge 1943, announced: ''After more than a year, the lockout at AK Steel's Middletown Works is over.''

Workers had twice voted down company offers from AK Steel Holding Corp. last year. The settlement ratified Wednesday was announced Feb. 28, just before workers gathered at the union hall to mark the lockout's one-year anniversary. The new agreement, which will make some 1,750 union employees eligible to return to work, is effective Thursday and runs through September 2011.

''It's not happiness; it's just relief,'' said Jeff Blevins, a union worker who helped count the ballots Wednesday at the federal building in Cincinnati.

There was relief all around Middletown, some 30 miles north of Cincinnati, where the steel mill has long been the largest private employer.

''Good news for the AK workers is good news for the community. I think things can get back to normal and it will be good for the community and for business,'' said Don Tackett, business manager of the Score Chrysler Dodge Jeep dealership.

The company said letters would go out Thursday for a first group of about 300 union workers, and that all workers would be scheduled back to work in 90 days or less.

Union workers had been locked out since their contract expired at midnight Feb. 28, 2006. The company continued to operate the mill with replacement workers and salaried employees in what became the nation's longest current major work stoppage.

The new contract gives most workers a raise, while also requiring them to help pay for their health benefits. The company insisted it needed to reduce the work force, have more flexibility in scheduling and pass along to employees some of the costs of health care and other benefits.

Union membership has dwindled from about 2,700 a year ago because of retirements and resignations.

AK Steel makes flat-rolled carbon steel and stainless and electrical steel used in cars and appliances. The company's biggest mill and headquarters are in Middletown, with smaller plants in Zanesville, Mansfield and Coshocton; Ashland, Ky.; Rockport, Ind.; and Butler, Pa.

        

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