Big bonus year for steelworkers
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Steelworkers at U.S. Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) plants in northwest Indiana earned more in bonus pay last year than the median income in Lake County, according to our partners at The Times of Northwest Indiana. The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker paid out record profit-sharing bonuses of up to $43,000 to thousands of steelworkers last fiscal year. The median income in the area is $31,666.
Members of the United Steelworkers union at Gary Works and the Midwest Plant in Portage qualify for the bonus plan.
The publication says U.S. Steel earned a record $4.17 billion in profit in 2021 and $2.52 billion in net earnings last year.
“We believe that when the Company does well, so should our employees,” said U.S. Steel spokesman Andrew Fulton. “This is especially true for the men and women represented by United Steelworkers, whose collective bargaining agreement includes un-capped profit-sharing.”
While times are good now for steelworkers, that hasn’t always been the case. United Steelworkers District 7 Director Michael Milsap says union workers suffered through many lean years in which bonuses were not paid out.
“Profit-sharing is finally paying off,” said Milsap. “We bargained for this during the early 2000s during the restructuring of the industry. We didn’t bargain for the wages we wanted to help the companies out. We proposed profit-sharing so we would share in the good times.”
The bonuses are paid quarterly. In the fourth quarter, workers received bonuses of $6,000. U.S. Steel employees have taken home more than $80,000 in profit-sharing bonuses over the last two years.
Click here to access the full story from Joseph Pete and The Times of Northwest Indiana.