Unions representing about 2,000 hourly workers of Tucson-based copper producer Asarco LLC have put the company on 15-day notice that they intend to terminate their labor contract.
The United Steelworkers union, which leads the group of eight unions representing Asarco workers at five sites in Arizona and Texas, said in a message to union members Friday that the contract will now end June 20.
Since their previous labor agreement expired at the end of June 2013, union members have worked under an extended contract subject to a 15-day notice for either side to terminate while negotiations proceed.
The termination of the contract could lead to a strike or lockout at Asarco, which is part of Grupo Mexico. Labor agreements typically bar such actions.
“After two years of negotiations, including meetings this week, too many of Asarco/Grupo Mexico management’s unfair, discriminatory and one-sided proposals remain on too many issues to continue with the status quo,” the message to union members said.
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Asarco responded in a news release late Friday that effective June 21, “we will no longer have a current collective bargaining agreement, however we will continue to operate under the same terms and conditions of the preceding agreement.”
A meeting with the union is set for the week of June 29, the company said.
Steelworkers spokesman Tony Montana said he would not speculate on what might happen in the wake of the contract termination.
A key issue is payments of quarterly bonuses based on the price of copper, which the unions say are due to all workers under a collective bargaining agreement signed after the company exited bankruptcy reorganization in 2009.
The company contended it didn’t have to pay the bonuses to workers not covered under Asarco’s pension plan, which was not offered to workers hired after July 1, 2011.
Asarco refuses to pay the copper-price bonuses to hundreds of employees hired after that date, even after an arbitrator in December 2014 ordered the company to make the payments, the union says.
The union estimated in February that about 550 workers were owed $8 million in price bonuses.
In February, Asarco filed a federal lawsuit to avoid paying the bonuses, alleging in federal court that the arbitrator exceeded his authority.
“Management refuses to address our unions’ serious concerns on behalf of newer hires and seeks to embed its unjust treatment of workers into our contract,” Steelworkers District 12 Director Bob LaVenture, who chairs negotiations with Asarco, said in a news release following a rally at the company’s headquarters on Tuesday.
The union has scheduled meetings with members later this month in Tucson and Kearny in Arizona and in Amarillo, Texas.
Asarco and its union workers have a history of rocky relations, including a five-month strike in 2005. During Asarco’s four-year trip through bankruptcy, the United Steelworkers fought against Grupo Mexico’s effort to retake control of the company when it emerged from bankruptcy.
