AK Steel Warns AEIF and Union Consultant Michael D. Locker on Misinformation Campaign
Monday April 24, 1:27 pm ET

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio, April 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AK Steel (NYSE: AKS - News) said it had issued a written warning today to a New York-based union consultant to the Armco Employees Independent Federation (AEIF), the independent union that represents hourly employees who have been locked-out of the company's Middletown (OH) Works over a contract dispute since March 1, 2006.
 
The company said that Michael D. Locker, president of Locker Associates, Inc., representing the AEIF, had recently been contacting AK Steel shareholders, independent steel industry analysts and others to communicate false and damaging information about AK Steel's operating and financial position. AK Steel said it obtained notice of the communications directly from some of the company's large shareholders and independent steel analysts.

AK Steel said it also sent a written warning to Robert H. Mitchell, an attorney for the Cincinnati law firm Manley Burke, which is representing the AEIF in contract negotiations, and sent a copy of that letter to AEIF president Brian C. Daley.

AK Steel said that the AEIF had paid more than $42,000 to Locker Associates in 2005 and was continuing to utilize the firm in 2006 on its behalf in labor negotiations. AK Steel said Locker had performed work for the AEIF and other unions representing AK Steel employees on several other occasions dating back to 1996.

Headquartered in Middletown, Ohio, AK Steel produces flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products for automotive, appliance, construction and manufacturing markets, as well as tubular steel products.

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Source: AK Steel Corporation