MCMINNVILLE, Ore. (AP) — Steelworkers at Cascade Steel Rolling Mills in McMinnville will give up a 3.5 percent raise they were due in April.
In exchange, the McMinnville News-Register reports, they’ll get a one-year contract extension. They hope times will be better the next time they sit down at the bargaining table, in 2012.
Both labor and management officials say the idea came from union workers, who average $20 an hour. Union leaders say there was little hope the economy would recover by the original contract expiration date a year from now.
Cascade Steel melts scrap to produce rebar and other products for manufacturing and construction. It has been cutting jobs. Union leaders say the bargaining unit is now at 280 — down about 120 members since December 2008.
