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OxfordPress.com

Butler wants AK talks offers released

Commissioners write third letter urging end to prolonged lockout.

By Candice Brooks

Staff Writer

As AK Steel Corp. and its 2,100 locked-out workers head to back to the bargaining table today, they have a unified message from the Butler County commissioners.

“Do everything humanly possible to bring this dispute to a close,” the commissioners wrote in a letter mailed Thursday.

With the lockout in its six month, the commissioners wrote a third letter as a body encouraging a speedy resolution. That solution could be accelerated if both sides released the details of their offers and sought a mediator in negotiations, county officials said.

In the letter — signed by Commissioner Charles Furmon, who initially was opposed to “telling the sides what to do”— the commission said it has been baffled by the difference in perception of negotiations by each side and that “somebody is missing something.”

Therefore, the commission urged in letters to AK Steel management and the new Armco Employees Independent Federation/International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 1943 to release the details of their proposals so that locked-out workers and residents can evaluate the cost and savings of each offer. Support of a proposal by the public or workers, who appear to be in the dark, would help spark a settlement, the commissioners suggested.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or cbrooks@coxohio.com.