A steady stream of Geneva Steelworkers filed into the union hall Wednesday to cast votes on a proposed new contract.
The 18-month contract would give union members a 40-cent-per-hour wage increase plus a guaranteed 33 cents per hour in incentive pay. Steelworkers may earn more incentive pay if production at the mill reaches certain levels.The proposed contract also would maintain medical insurance, retirement and other non-wage benefits at current levels.
The company and the union agreed to extend the contract that expired at midnight Tuesday until Sept. 3 pending the outcome of the vote. If the plan is rejected, it's back to the bargaining table. The possibility of a strike would also increase.
The polls at the union hall opened at 6 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Union leaders expect to have results of the vote around 10 p.m. Union members, many of whom say they are frustrated with and distrustful of Geneva, predict a close vote.
"There's a lot of people that's not accepting this proposal," local union President Pete Kropf said. "They think Joe's (Geneva Chairman Joe Cannon) been playing with their money for six years."
That anxiety and animosity perplexes Cannon.
"I never broke a promise to these guys," he said."I promised them jobs, they've got jobs. I promised them profit sharing, they got (it in profitable years)."
If workers give the proposal a shot, they'll find it believable, he said."We look at it as an opportunity to demonstrate that this plan will really work and will put money in the pockets of everybody," Cannon said.
But a majority of Steelworkers who attended two information sessions Tuesday said they weren't impressed with the plan crafted by Geneva Steel and negotiators for Local No. 2701. Some came up with their own slogan mimicking the PDP (performance dividend plan) pushed by the company: VNT - Vote No Tomorrow.
"I totally vote no," said Judy Morgan, a Geneva transportation employee. "It might be a step forward moneywise, but it's a step back contractually. All the contractual things haven't changed - retirement, grievance procedures, insurance for retirees. We have them over a barrel right now. If we wait 18 months, they'll have that caster and they'll have us."
Other workers said they're willing to give the deal a try.
"I don't like it 100 percent, but I will probably accept it to see how the PDP works," said Jim Wright, a central maintenance employee.
For some Steelworkers, the decision is tempered by the financial realities of a no vote and the increased possibility of a strike.
Doug Eastman, who works at the Q-BOP, said he believes the company is making more money than it admits. "There is more there to gain for us, and I think we should have it," he said. But, "I can't afford to strike. I feel that I will have to sleep on it and think really hard," he said Tuesday.
Kropf agrees the plan will give workers a chance to see how production increases as the continuous caster, coil box and other improvements at the mill are tied together.
"I don't feel like the market is there to go to those tonnages, but I can be proved wrong. I've been proved wrong on several occasions," Kropf said. "We're trying to give them an opportunity that we could benefit getting an up-front wage increase and giving the company a chance to make their projections, if they can reach the 1.9 million tons with the caster. We hope they do. We'll all benefit. We just have too much fear that it's not going to happen."