AK Steel announced Friday that members of the United Steelworkers (USW) international union have ratified a new four-year labor agreement covering about 215 hourly production and maintenance employees at the company's Mountain State Carbon cokemaking plant in Follansbee, West Virginia. The new agreement will take effect on March 1, 2015.
"We are very pleased that USW members have ratified this labor agreement at our Mountain State Carbon plant," said James L. Wainscott, Chairman, President and CEO of AK Steel. "This is our initial labor agreement for represented employees at this plant. It will provide a competitive contract for AK Steel and our Mountain State Carbon employees."
AK Steel acquired Mountain State Carbon in September 2014 as part of its acquisition of Severstal Dearborn, LLC. While the USW had previously represented Mountain State Carbon employees for collective bargaining purposes under a previous owner of the plant, there was no negotiated labor agreement in place at the time of AK Steel's acquisition of the plant.