WHEELING, W.Va. - Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel and the United Steelworkers said Thursday they have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract that is crucial to the company's emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. þþþDetails of the agreement will not be released until union members have been informed and have had an opportunity to discuss the deal, union officials in Pittsburgh said. þþþThe union had been negotiating with Wheeling-Pitt since May on the new contract. It now goes to the rank-and-file steelworkers for a ratification vote that will be conducted over the next several weeks through mail-in balloting. þþþWheeling-Pitt employs some 3,800 people at plants in Follansbee and Beech Bottom in West Virginia; Steubenville, Mingo Junction, Canfield, Yorkville and Martins Ferry in Ohio and Allenport, Pa. þþþThe company filed for bankruptcy in November 2000, when mounting debts left it unable to make a $15 million bond payment. þþþLast week, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William T. Bodoh approved Wheeling-Pitt's reorganization plan, positioning the steelmaker to claim a $250 million federally guaranteed loan from the Royal Bank of Canada. However, the company must settle its labor and pension issues by Monday in order to receive the financing. þþþÿAchievement of this labor agreement is a significant step toward our ultimate goal of emerging from bankruptcy as a competitive steel products company,ÿ said James G. Bradley, Wheeling-Pitt president and CEO. þþþHe said the agreement ÿis consistent with the template that has been established in the industry and will provide Wheeling-Pittsburgh with the flexibility and cost savings associated with other recently negotiated labor agreements.ÿ þþþUSWA International president Leo W. Gerard called the tentative contract ÿa milestone in the reorganization of the American steel industry.ÿ þþþÿIf the new agreement is ratified, Wheeling-Pittsburgh will become the first major integrated steelmaker to successfully reorganize and emerge from bankruptcy since the current steel crisis began in 1998,ÿ Gerard said. þþþThe reorganization plan also hinges on an agreement with the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which moved in March to seize the pensions of Wheeling-Pitt and another WHX Corp. subsidiary, Handy & Harman of Rye, N.Y. þþþOn Wednesday, PBGC spokesman Jeffrey Speicher said an agreement was close but talks were still continuing. þ
AP
