Steel Union Boss;

In style and substance, the new president of the United Steelworkers of America resembles nothing so much as a tough-minded business executive. And his formidable task is to save both Big Labor and Big Steel.

 

The Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. thought it had found the answer to its financial woes last year when it went into federal bankruptcy court, filed for protection under Chapter 11, and slashed wages and benefits for unionized workers from $21 to $15.50. Going in its favor was a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the right of bankruptcy judges to void labor contracts. And executives predicted that, with its membership already cut in half by a decade of layoffs and plant closings in the steel industry, the steelworkers' union was in no position to put up much of a fight.

Lynn Williams, the new president of the United Steelworkers of America, proved them wrong. He called the first major strike in the steel industry in 10 years. And with the help of a few major stockholders, the accountants at Arthur Young & Co., and the Wall Street investment strategists of Lazard Freres Co., Williams beat the steel executives at their own game. In a series of whirlwind negotiations, the company was forced to oust its top management, recognize the union's status as a general creditor, and offer two seats on its board of directors. And, oh yes, labor costs are down at Wheeling-Pitt -- to a renegotiated $18 an hour.

That brief story hints at a new style of union leadership in America -- fiercely militant and professional, but also ready for change, concession, and compromise. This year for the first time, Williams will negotiate separate new contracts with each of the big steel makers, all of them claiming financial hardship. Several breakthrough agreements have already traded wage concessions for worker profit-sharing plans and a greater union role in managing companies at the plant level. But the toughest of the negotiations is likely to begin next month with United States Steel Corp., the biggest and, financially, still the strongest company in the industry.

Across the table, negotiators from U.S. Steel will find a formidable foe in Lynn Williams. He is the first Canadian ever to head a major international union, the first USWA president never to have worked in a steel mill. The soft-spoken Williams talks with the moral authority that comes with being a preacher's son. He is as much at home discussing international trade with business executives as he is plotting strike tactics with local union executives. And he is determined to use his exceptional skills not only to help save the domestic steel industry, but to recast the nature of labor-management relations in America as well.

Williams was interviewed at his office in Pittsburgh earlier this year by Washington writer Tom Bethell and INC. senior editor Steven Pearlstein.

INC.: A businessman looks at your union -- at its $20 and up hourly labor costs, at its elaborate set of work rules -- and he says to himself: "That's why American industry has gone to the dogs." Isn't that the perception?

WILLIAMS: Oh sure it is. Ever since there has been trouble in the economy and this question of international competitiveness has come up, there has been an attempt to assign the blame for that on organized labor. And I'm sure that that attempt has achieved success. There are powerful forces in America -- business forces -- that, in my experience, have been unremittingly hostile to the labor movement. They were hostile when things were good. And they are hostile now. And this is an enormous problem not just for us, but for the future of the American economy.

INC.: Why is it a problem for the economy?From the point of view of the business community, getting rid of unions would be altogether a good thing.

WILLIAMS: I could answer that in two ways. The traditional way would be to remind everybody of the obvious point that the free-market system drives owners to exploit the people who work for them -- to pay them as little as they can get away with, offer as little in the way of job security as possible, and so forth. That kind of market orientation may be OK for oranges or corn, but it isn't OK to treat human beings that way -- not in my view, anyway. And so it's only fair and reasonable that workers should have an organization that stands up for them, for their interests, for their humanity. That is one reason we need to have unions.

The other thing that has always puzzled me is the distinction that is made between workers and customers. They are the same people. And the worker who's got a good job and a decent income and can buy homes and look after his family and educate his children is a far, far better customer for all of the businessmen across the country than a worker whose income is being driven down and down, or who has lost his job, or who can't take vacations or purchase goods. Unions have contributed enormously to America's postwar prosperity.

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