Sharing in the cost of health care premiums and proposed changes in retirement plans appear to be at the root of a labor dispute at Wheatland Tube Co.

A strike was expected to begin at midnight Sunday after no new negotiations were set to break an impasse in bargaining for a new labor contract. The United Steelworkers of America Local 1660 were prepared to strike when the contract covering production and maintenance workers expired.

"We've come to a point where we can't move and they've come to a point where they can't move," Dominic Vadala, president of Local 1660, said Sunday.

Vadala declined to say what the bargaining impasse was between the two sides.

A news release from Bill Kerins, Wheatland Tube vice president, cited proposed changes in health care premiums and pension plans as necessary "to meet our pension and retiree health benefit commitments for current employees well into the future."

To date, the company Wheatland has paid the full $850 monthly premium of family coverage for health, dental and vision insurance for its employees, the release said.

"It's now time for the hourly employees to contribute a small share of the premium in order to maintain the excellent coverage they enjoy," the news release said.

The company proposed phasing in hourly workers' contributions over three years, 10 percent the first year, 15 percent in the second and 20 percent in the third year of the contract.

Over the past four years, Wheatland's health care insurance costs increased more than 62 percent, the release said.

Management and salaried employees, who began sharing premiums in 1992, contribute 20 percent of the monthly premium for their insurance, the news release said.

Another proposal would maintain a traditional company-paid pension plan for current employees and retirees but would offer a 401(k) plan for new hourly employees under which new workers would also contribute to their retirement accounts.

Wheatland Tube would contribute 1 percent of wages to a new employee's account and match 50 percent of an employee's contributions up to 6 percent of their wages, the release said.

Employees also would choose how their savings would be invested which managment and salaried employees have done since 1994, the release said.

The average hourly employee at Wheatland Tube Company earned about $46,200 last year and the total cost of an employee, including pensions and other benefits, amounted to more than $32 an hour, the release said.

The company proposed a $1 an hour increase in wages, which would be phased in over the next three years, the release said.

"We believe we have presented a fair and reasonable wage and benefit package that addresses the needs of the company as well as the overall best interests of the employees ...," the release said.

The local represents 470 production and maintenance workers at the main plant in Wheatland. Employees last went on strike in 1991.

Other Wheatland Tube plants are not a part of the bargaining because they work under separate labor contracts.

There had been 26 production workers who were laid off, but as of last week those workers were called back. However, the pipe and tube industry is currently mired in its worst slump in more than 20 years.

A year ago Wheatland Tube bought AK Steel Saw Hill Tubular division. Since then it has announced the closing of its Sawhill plant in Wheatland and that it is selling equipment in part of the former Sawhill plant in Warren, Ohio.

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