PORTAGE -- International Steel Group Inc. will transfer the employees of its Chicago Cold Rolling operation to ISG Burns Harbor as it completes current orders and closes the $52 million plant in the Port of Indiana.

Chicago Cold Rolling was part of the Bethlehem Steel Corp. estate ISG bought out of bankruptcy last May. It is a cold-rolled reversing mill which takes a coil of hot-rolled steel and rolls it back and forth between a single stand to flatten the material to a set gauge.

"This facility has not made money in a lot of years, even under Bethlehem,'' said Mike Milsap, United Steelworkers of America subdistrict director for District 5. "Bethlehem was looking hard at shutting it down. ISG made a commitment to look at it, see if there was a market and make it profitable They made a decision that they couldn't.''

But ISG did decide to move the 35 both current and laid-off employees of Chicago Cold Rolling to its Burns Harbor plant even though it doesn't have an obligation to do so, Milsap said. All are members of USWA Local 6787-2, but will become members of Local 6787 next week.

"They will have better benefits and will get paid more,'' Milsap said. "The employees there are very pleased and thankful.''

Paul Gipson, president of Local 6787, said the transfer is good deal for Chicago Cold Rolling employees who will get an immediate raise when they transfer to his bargaining unit next week, and another one in March when all members of the local receive a 50-cents-an-hour raise.

"It's absolutely better,'' he said. "Our lowest pay grade is better than their highest.''

The employees will work in ISG Burns Harbor;s rolling mill in jobs similar to the ones they have at Chicago Cold Rolling.

Mike LaWell, spokesman ISG, said closing the Chicago Cold Rolling plant is a consolidation of the steel company's cold rolling operations. The disposition of the plant and its equipment still is under evaluation, he said.

When the plant opened in 1997, after receiving a tax abatement from the city, it was owned by three partners. Bethlehem and Mill Engineering and Equipment Corp. -- a Pittsburgh-based mill builder -- each held a 45-percent stake and Jerry Murphy, its president, owned the remaining share. Bethlehem eventually assumed total control of the 140,000-square-foot plant

"It's a small operation that's easily merged into the larger facilities in Northwest Indiana,'' LaWell said. "ISG wants to make sure employee and customers are taken care of in the transition. All the represented employees will be employed at Burns Harbor. The management employees will be considered for employment at ISG's facilities.''

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