Jul. 16--An arbitrator has ruled that AK Steel violated its contract with its unionized workers in Ashland when it decided earlier this year to idle the plant.

The company said in May that it would idle its Ashland Works plant this summer and probably through the remainder of the year, affecting 750 hourly and salaried employees. The blast furnace plant, which produces carbon steel, had seen orders drop from automakers, and the company said there wasn't enough demand to operate both it and a plant in Middletown, Ohio.

However, the company's contract with United Steelworkers Local 1865 contains a clause that states "they are supposed to run us before they run anyone else," said the local's president, Doug Campbell.

Arbitrator Raymond F. Sekula agreed.

"...So long as there is a demand for products that the Ashland Works is capable of producing, Ashland must be offered that work," he wrote in his decision.

A company spokesman could not immediately be reached Thursday.

The company had told the union's officers that it wasn't violating the contract because Ashland doesn't have the capability like Middletown to produce the full range of slab widths required by customers.

But Campbell had noted that Ashland has been producing customer orders while the Middletown furnace has been down for repairs.

The plans to idle the plant, which was to begin later this month, weren't the first for the factory. The plant had also been shut down because of furnace problems in November, but workers were brought back by the second week in January when the Middletown furnace went down, Campbell said.

The union had initially filed the grievance in November but put it on hold when the company agreed to a better supplementary pay deal for workers.

AK Steel has long been a presence in the Ashland area. In the early 1970s, it was the largest employer in the city with 6,000 workers. One of its two blast furnaces has since been entirely shut down, and it AK is now the fourth-largest employer.

Reach Scott Sloan at (859) 231-1447 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 1447.

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