For the second time this year, local steel union leaders representing RG Steel are heading to the bargaining table with Esmark.

Representatives with United Steelworkers 1223 will bargain with Esmark, which was the company that bid the highest for RG Steel's Yorkville facility in an auction last week.

Esmark, which is owned by Jim Bouchard, will meet with the USW even though the bid has not yet been approved, because the courts are requiring the two sides to do so.

USW Local 1223 President Jerry Conners said the sales hearing to finalize all of the RG Steel's Wheeling assets were supposed to be Wednesday. But, hearings for RG Steel's facilities in Yorkville, Sparrows Point, Md., and Warren, Ohio, as well as Wheeling Corrugating have been postponed until Aug. 15.

Conners said a district director told him the sale to Esmark "was contingent upon a labor contract and the delay was for us to try to reach an agreement on a labor contract."

Talks between the union and Esmark are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Thursday in Pittsburgh.

"We definitely want an agreement, but it has to be fair to both parties," Conners said.

Local union leaders already met with Esmark in July when Esmark was the company rumored to be interested in the Yorkville facility.


"I can tell our guys we're good today. I can tell them we're good tomorrow. But I don't know how far down the road we are and I don't think anyone else does at this time. That's one of the big problems we're having right now -- trying to negotiate a new contract when the industry is depressed. It's never a really good time," Conners said.

If no collective bargaining agreement is reached, Conners said Esmark would have the right to pull its bid of about $5 million.


"If they did pull their bid, the bid would go to the backup bidder which is the same bidder who bid on the Mingo property, which is Frontier," Conners said.

The hearings to finalize of RG Steel's sale of its Martins Ferry and Mingo Junction facilities started Wednesday afternoon in Wilmington, Del.

The Mingo facility is set to go to Frontier, and the high bidders for the Martins Ferry facility were W. Quay Mull, II and Joseph N. Gompers.

The hearings were delayed until 2 p.m., but steelworkers from USW Local 1190 were there the whole time to find out the name of their new owner.

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