MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – Esmark Inc. will shut down Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp.'s last remaining blast furnace within a year of taking control but keep the steelworkers who toil there, according to Esmark President Craig Bouchard.
The No. 5 blast furnace in Mingo Junction, Ohio, makes high-quality steel, but its production costs are too high, Bouchard said in an e-mail exchange with a United Steelworkers' (USW) official relaying members' questions about Esmark's hostile takeover bid.
''Every employee will be given a job that counts. There will be no reduction in force, layoffs or anything of the sort. No one will have their pay cut,'' Bouchard promised in the e-mail, filed Monday with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. ''Esmark is a growing company. We do not grow by shrinking.''
Bouchard also said his Illinois-based company has negotiated a profit-sharing deal with the USW that would benefit both employees and retirees.
''I believe that all union employees can see their take-home pay increase significantly within six months of the merger,'' he said.
Wheeling-Pittsburgh, which has survived two bankruptcies and remained independent through years of industry consolidation, wants to merge with Brazil's Companhia Siderurgica Nacional SA (CSN).
The union and some large investors, however, say they prefer a takeover by Esmark, a steel supplier eager to get into manufacturing.
USW officials have said that CSN expected concessions, including reductions in profit-sharing and in contributions to the fund that helps pay for retiree health care, a possible renegotiation of salaries and an extension of the labor contract.
The fight for shareholders' votes is intensifying as the Nov. 17 annual meeting approaches, and Wheeling-Pitt is working to persuade investors that its deal with CSN makes more long-term sense.
''We have been and continue to have constructive discussions with our shareholders,'' spokesman James Kosowski said Tuesday.