in
Brackenridge, Pennsylvania, 2009
Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (ATI) is an American metals manufacturing company with facilities located throughout the
Northern United States. Amidst the
COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the company suffered a loss of income of
US$1.6 billion and announced plans to cut approximately 400 jobs, with the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette describing the company as a "struggling
Pittsburgh-based metals giant". This contract expired on February 29, 2020, However, by March 2020, in light of the pandemic and a lack of progress on negotiations for a new contract, the union agreed to a one-year contract extension that would expire on February 28, 2021. In addition, ATI gave each worker a $500 bonus as a show of good faith in continuing the negotiations with the union. The company's proposal of an immediate $3,000 payment to workers with an additional 8.5 percent pay raise spread out over the course of the four-year contract was considered too little, Furthermore, the union alleged that changes to the company's overtime system could cause some workers to work 12-hour shifts while not receiving overtime pay due to not having worked over
40 hours per week. ATI countered that the proposal would see wage increases while maintaining the workers'
premium-free health insurance plan, which was guaranteed for the first three years of the plan and became an option starting in 2024. One union member stated that the monthly cost of the premium would have negated the increase in pay. As a result of the impasse, the contract expired without a replacement on February 28 and several days later, on March 5, union members voted to authorize
strike action, with about 95 percent in favor. On March 26, USW announced that the ATI workers would be going on strike over
unfair labor practices starting at 7 a.m. on March 30. Additionally, news articles published the day the strike began stated that the company was offering 9 percent wage increase, in addition to a $4,000 lump sum payment. == Course of the strike ==