Disingenuous Negotiations

I've got good news and bad news. The good news is the United Steelworkers union's bargaining committee reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract with Allegheny Technologies Inc. This, if accepted by the 100 local workers and their peers nationwide, it would effectively end what the workers considered to be ATI's illegal six-month lockout of local and national workers at 12 facilities in six states.

The bad news is, when all is said and done, ATI could have agreed to the contract and back-to-work agreements long before now! Basically, what the steelworkers got is pretty much what they presented a while back! So, why did it take all this time, wrangling and everything else that goes into a ordeal like this to get a settlement that could have reached months before? Looks to me like this was a pointless effort and wasted labor on ATI's part!