A labor dispute in which no one can win

VANDERGRIFT, Pennsylvania — It's 8:30 a.m. on Friday, and despite the threat of a summer thunderstorm, 10 men, all members of the United Steelworkers District 10, are holding picket signs on the street.

Almost every car that passes them honks its horn in solidarity with the men positioned in front of Allegheny Technologies, the specialty steel operation that has employed many of them for decades.

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, ATI has more than 50 plants located across the country and the world. Nine of them are on strike, including locations in western Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

Despite not having received a raise in more than seven years, the average worker here earns approximately $85,000 a year making specialty steel used in manufacturing metals for razors, computers, medical equipment, oil and gas, aerospace and defense, and electrical energy generation.

"This strike isn't really about the salary, though. It really is about the benefits and maintaining a culture of having each other's back," explained Terry Madonna, a political science professor at Millersville University.

Dave Galo, a United Steelworkers staff representative, confirmed that, explaining the main issue is definitely health insurance. They do not want the younger workers coming in with a different healthcare tier than what they have, as management had intended. "They would pay more than the men and women working beside them who have been there longer," said Galo.Carl Decker, 49, who has worked at this plant for the last 12 years, said that kind of tier system creates division and tension among the workers. "Plus, you have to look at the bigger picture," he said. "I'll retire someday soon. We're going to be out there in retirement when these guys are here working, negotiating contracts, taking care of the retirees. If you do that to them now, what should they do for you in the future?"

According to Madonna, it is common for striking unions to take care of the new hires so that when the current workers are retirees, they will return the favor and make sure retiree benefits remain secure. Thus, a two-tiered healthcare plan could be seen as an attempt to divide and conquer. "That creates an incredible tension among employees where one group will feel another group is more favored than them," Madonna said. "Heck, I'd be surprised if they didn't object. Different tiers creates enormous tensions."

Bill Richards, 57, said the men and women who came before paved the way for him and that declining to "return the favor for the next generation of workers is morally wrong."

According to Natalie Gillespie, vice president of communications for ATI, "Work is still getting done here and at the other plants every day." Replacement workers are doing the jobs that the striking workers would normally be doing.

Deliveries of equipment and materials roll past them and the picket line as well, and every time a delivery is made or a replacement worker drives past them, the golden rule of solidarity has been broken.

The most the strikers can do is look on helplessly and put their thumbs down. Twenty years ago, there would have been tougher words, or worse yet, fisticuffs, for that slight.

"We don't glue together like we used to," said Richards. "Times have changed. The culture has changed. First and foremost, that loyalty among workers to respect a picket line has diminished in today's workforce."

"A lot of that has to do with few people, especially younger people, not having anyone in their family in a union or even knowing anyone who is in a union," Richards said. Just then, a caravan of cars with temporary replacements arrives at the plant, driving right past a sign perched on an orange cone reading, in all caps: "THOU SHALT NOT SCAB."

Richards isn't wrong. The average person's connection with a union member is rapidly diminishing. Union membership has plummeted from its 1950s peak of nearly 35% to just 10.8% today. Even in absolute numbers, union membership is down roughly one-third since 1979. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, private-sector union membership reached just 6.3% last year, and for the first time, the number of government workers in unions exceeds that of those in the private sector.

"Look, I get it. You might lose your job if you don't show up for work," said Richards, who spent 10 years in the Army before he secured a job at ATI. "However, there is this code of honor among fellow union workers of honoring the strike picket line to show solidarity with the union brothers and sisters."

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It has been 89 days since any one of these striking workers has crossed the painted picket line here or at any of the other nine ATI plants, 89 days since any of them have received a paycheck, 89 days since they felt any certainty about their future — 89 days they will never get back.

It has also been 89 days since ATI has been able to run at full steam, as it can when all 1,300 skilled workers are at their jobs, said Richards: "There is no way they can hire people off the streets who have the same skill and training that we do to do the job right."

Nobody is winning here.

Decker said the lack of pay or unemployment for him has been a strain. "We're making do because I believe it's for a greater cause," he explained. "I mean, if I have to do this, I'll do it every time."

A few local politicians have shown up to support the workers, but none with the cachet of President Joe Biden, whom the United Steelworkers robustly supported in 2020. Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been to western Pennsylvania since the strike began — Biden at the end of March for an infrastructure event and Harris this past Monday when she met with Google contract workers who voted to form a union with United Steelworkers in 2019.

Despite plenty of Biden photo-ops with steelworkers standing behind him during events over the past two years, I am reliably informed that neither Biden nor Harris has reached out to the local unions for encouragement or support in this case. Madonna attributed this to politicians' need to control the message wherever they go. "When they come to places, especially like western Pennsylvania, they want to control the message and come off like heroes for whatever they are promoting that day," he said. The optics of getting involved in the strike just doesn't fit the narrative they are trying to portray.

Decker said that any talk of politics and politicians is a sticky subject among the workers, so it is mostly not brought up. "It just gets touchy sometimes because we do have people at our own plant who have different views," he said. "Honestly, if you're in support of the workingman and the blue-collar community in this country, I'm with you. I just want that person then to follow through with that promise."

Gillespie, the ATI spokeswoman, peels off the list of investments the company is making to keep job losses at bay and support steelworkers. For one thing, the plant here is slated for $85 million in upgrades. But the workers believe that their security can only be guaranteed by holding the line on healthcare premiums.

If the members obtain and vote on a new contract, then their solidarity will have passed the test. If the members rush the gates and accept the current contract, then the company will claim victory after months of suboptimal operations. In a labor dispute, no one really wins. The successes involved are, at best, moral victories.

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Salena Zito is a CNN political analyst, and a staff reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner. She reaches the Everyman and Everywoman through shoe-leather journalism, traveling from Main Street to the beltway and all places in between.