Tucson-based Asarco, unions back to bargaining table

Tucson-based copper producer Asarco LLC and unions representing more than 1,700 of its workers in Arizona and Texas are back at the bargaining table.

The bargaining committee for the United Steelworkers and six other unions were scheduled to resume negotiations with Asarco on Tuesday and Wednesday in Mesa, the Steelworkers said.

Asarco, which is owned by Grupo Mexico, operates the Mission Mine in Sahuarita and the Silver Bell Mine near Marana, the Ray Mine and Hayden smelter in central Arizona; and a refinery in Amarillo, Texas.

The Asarco union members have been working without a new contract since 2020, when they returned to work after a nine-month strike over pay and allegations of unfair labor practices by the company.

Meanwhile, the unions’ unfair labor practices complaint against Asarco is still pending before the National Labor Relations Board.

After a long hiatus, Asarco and its unions resumed bargaining in mid-2022 and reached a tentative agreement on several issues for a new basic labor agreement.

In mid-2022, the unions proposed an interim wage and 401(k) plan while bargaining on a basic labor agreement continues, citing the burden of high inflation on union members whose wages have remained static.

The unions presented the interim wage-increase plan to Asarco at resumed negotiations in mid-August, but the company rejected the proposal, the Steelworkers said.

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Asarco and the unions did reach an agreement on an issue concerning re-hired union employees not receiving credit for prior service for vacation calculation purposes, union officials said.

The NLRB has been prosecuting its case against Asarco in an ongoing trial before an administrative law judge in Phoenix since August 2022.

The unions also are pursuing more recent NLRB charges over Asarco’s allegedly unlawful withdrawal of union recognition at the Mission Mine in Sahuarita and the Silver Bell Mine near Marana.

The NLRB has declined the unions’ request to hear those allegations as part of the larger pending case, but the agency has issued a complaint on those charges and plans to investigate and hear them separately, the Steelworkers said.

In 2019, Asarco was ordered to pay more than $10 million in copper-price bonuses to some workers denied those payments, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review lower-court rulings that Asarco owed the bonuses.

The Steelworkers said that in late 2022, Asarco finally completed bonus payments totaling $11.3 million, including interest, to 826 of the company’s current and former union employees.