McMINNVILLE, OR — Cascade Steel Rolling Mills is doing well. Production at the company’s steel mill here set a record in March, and sales for the most recent quarter hit a record 202,000 tons. With steel prices also up, about $80 a ton, earnings are up by almost half since a year ago.

So what was the company’s proposal to its union workers March 31?

A wage freeze. No cost-of-living increase. And that’s after workers got just one cost-of-living increase in the last three-year contract — a 1.7 percent raise last April.

For its part, the union wants workers to share in the good times, starting with decent raises. Currently, pay starts about $11 and goes as high as $25, for what can be pretty dangerous industrial work. The union also wants rules improving participation on the safety committee. They want a $25 increase to the $125 annual boot allowance; boots with the required metatarsal guards cost that much and more, and better-made boots of U.S. manufacture can be over $200. And they want increased job security through a successorship clause, so that the union contract would remain in force if parent company Schnitzer Steel Industries decides to sell the mill.

Cascade Steel Rolling Mills produces concrete reinforcing bar (“rebar”), and various grades of wire and bars, using scrap steel purchased from Schnitzer’s steel recycling operation. Much of the steel produced at the plant is used in construction, which is experiencing a downturn, but the outlook remains good for the company. Chinese demand is soaking up steel production in other Pacific Rim countries, so Cascade Steel Rolling Mills and one other U.S. competitor have the West Coast U.S. market to themselves.

Granted, the wage freeze was the company’s opening gambit, but the bargaining committee at United Steelworkers Local 8378 was not amused. The month before bargaining began Feb. 29, members voted to authorize the bargaining committee to strike if needed. Local 8378 President Joe Munger wonders if the company might be pushing the union to strike.