MIDDLETOWN - Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland is willing to meet with AK Steel officials and leaders of the union that represents locked-out workers at the company's Middletown Works, his spokesman said Friday.
But for now, there are no plans for a gubernatorial meeting with both sides in the same room.
"The governor has begun making contact with the parties involved in the AK Steel lockout as he continues to learn more about what he can do to advocate for a swift resolution," spokesman Keith Dailey said.
AK Steel locked out 2,500 hourly production and maintenance workers nearly 11 months ago at its Middletown Works plant and has been operating the mill with replacement workers and salaried personnel.
Union members have voted down company proposals twice, and no new talks are scheduled.
Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, who has publicly urged both sides to settle the dispute, had written to Strickland asking him to intervene.
"You drive by, you see these people still sitting outside (the mill). It's pitiful, and it's affecting the whole area," Jones, a Republican, wrote the Democratic governor.
"People have been asking for extensions on their child support payments. Businesses are hurting. And our office, we're the ones who have to set these people's furniture out on the street when we have to sell their houses out from underneath them when they can't afford the payments anymore," Jones wrote.
Union officials had hoped that Strickland would come to Middletown for a meeting today, but none was scheduled. A company spokesman declined to address the possibility of a joint meeting.
"We're obviously disappointed," said Brian Daley, president of the Machinists local. "We just want to put an end to this. It's causing a lot a pain."
