The possibility of a strike against ASARCO, LLC remains in the wake of ongoing contract issues.

On Tuesday, Dec. 4, United Steelworkers (USW) Local 886 in Hayden, posted a message on its Facebook page, stating that its membership had overwhelmingly authorized a strike.

“You spoke loud and clear at the meetings on Monday to authorize your bargaining committee to call a strike when necessary. In the meantime, continue to report to work until told otherwise.” the post stated.

“Your bargaining committee has offered the company dates to bargain and we will keep you updated about the progress of negotiations. We will stand together until we get a fair contract.”

Strike authorization meetings were held in Kearny/Hayden, Tucson and Amarillo, Texas, on Monday, Dec. 3.

With a contract set to expire Friday, Nov. 30 at midnight, the bargaining committee made “excellent progress over the past few weeks negotiating updates to the local supplemental agreements.”

“Unfortunately, the company repeatedly told us that they weren’t ready to make a full proposal on the basic labor agreement until this week,” the Nov. 28 bargaining update post said.

On Tuesday, Nov. 27 ASARCO gave the union a non-economic proposal, even though it also promised an economic proposal, as well.

After not receiving the economic proposal, the union held its three Dec. 3 strike meetings in both Arizona and Texas.

“Clearly, the company isn’t taking us seriously,” the Nov. 28 post stated.

In another Dec. 4 Facebook post, the steelworkers union announced that, for the second time this year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that ASARCO must pay a copper price bonus to hundreds of workers it hired after June 30, 2011.

In its Dec. 4 decision, the appellate court affirmed Senior U.S. District Judge Stephen M. McNamee’s March 3, 2016 enforcing an arbitrator’s order for ASARCO to pay millions of dollars, along with the continuously accruing, post-judgment interest.

Eight international unions, representing more than 2,000 hourly workers at five ASARCO locations in Arizona and Texas, have fought to collect the award since December 2014, when an arbitrator originally determined that ASARCO had wrongly withheld from its newer employees quarterly bonuses based on copper prices, the statement said.

On June 19, the Ninth Circuit’s three-judge panel had issued its first decision affirming McNamee’s order to enforce the arbitrator’s award, which ASARCO challenged.

In its Dec. 4 ruling, the Ninth Circuit withdrew its previous judgement while maintaining that the arbitrator’s decision was correct and proper, and that federal courts must defer to it, thereby refuting ASARCO’s arguments to the contrary, the statement said.

Contacted last week, Anthony C. “Tony” Montana, with USW Communications, deferred comment to the “institutional perspective” given by USW District 12 Director Bob LaVenture in the Dec. 4 statement.

LaVenture said that ASARCO’s attempt to divide the union membership by withholding bonus payments from newer hires had backfired, instead uniting workers in solidarity within and between ASARCO locations.

“Our struggle for fairness and justice for all ASARCO employees did not begin and will not end in court,” he said. “It begins and ends with workers joining together to force management to respect our unions and obey our contract.”

The Ninth Circuit has now ruled twice in favor of the union workers, after hearing arguments in the case on Nov. 16, 2017.

LaVenture said that while ASARCO’s management may attempt to further delay or postpone paying the millions it owes, “we are committed to fighting for justice for these workers and their families.”

ASARCO cannot hide forever, and its debts will only continue to grow until they are settled once and for all,” he said.

Phone calls and e-mails to ASARCO, seeking comment on both issues, were not returned as of press time.