Union: No saving ArcelorMittal Georgetown

The union president representing ArcelorMittal USA's Georgetown, South Carolina wire rod mill is reporting that the mill will proceed with plans to shut down indefinitely as of July 12, as time has run out for the union and management to reach an agreement that might have kept the mill open on a reduced schedule.

United Steelworkers Local 7898 president James Sanderson met with local and company officials Wednesday to discuss the status of the mill, telling the group that while contract negotiations will continue after July 12, union members rejected certain concessions, including cuts to pay and hours, that might have kept the mill open on an intermittent basis. Therefore, the plant will close as planned.

There is no set timetable for when the mill will restart, but Sanderson said it depends on both a union-management deal being reached, as well as an upturn in orders large enough to justify a restart of operations

ArcelorMittal's Georgetown workforce totals 240. The plant has two electric arc furnaces capable of producing one million tons of liquid steel annually and 750,000 tons of wire rod. The Georgetown facility, then Georgetown Steel, was built in 1969 and acquired by the former International Steel Group (ISG) in 2004. In 2005, Mittal bought ISG, making Georgetown part of its US operations.