A reporter returns one year after eight thousand steel workers at a Weirton, West Virginia plant voted to take over ownership of the plant when National Steel began making moves to close the plant and get out of steel altogether.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Elsewhere on the labor front, it's been a year since we broadcast a report on a landmark development in the steel industry. Eight thousand steel workers at a Weirton, West Virginia plant voted to take over ownership of the plant when National Steel began making moves to close the plant and get out of steel altogether. The deal made the plant one of the country's 10 largest steel companies. The plant is West Virginia's largest private employer and the dominant presence in Weirton, a town of 26,000 people.

Recently Carl Swicord of public station WNPB in Morgantown, West Virginia, went back to Weirton to update how the workers were doing a year after the historic deal.

CARL SWICORD [voice-over]: A lot has changed since the days when E.T. Weir looked over his sprawling steel mill in West Virginia's northern panhandle. There was no foreign competition to speak of, and companies like Weirton Steel provided the muscle that made America's economy the strongest in the world. All that has changed now in the past five years, dozens of steel-making facilities across the United States have shut down. And that was the fate that awaited Weirton Steel in 1982, when the firm's parent company National Steel announced that it no longer wanted to operate the mill. But employees at Weirton refused to throw in the towel, and in September of 1983, the workers voted to approve an employee stock ownership plan, better known as an ESOP. In exchage for cuts in benefits and pay, the workers were able to buy the mill, making Weirton Steel the largest employee-owned company in America.

Now, one year after the vote, employees are wondering if the plan will continue to work. One change employees have noticed is an increase in communication between workers and management. The company president meets once a week with employees and there are more than 20 employee participation groups that work in the mill. Groups like this one work to identify problem areas, like a lack of coordination among workers in the plant.

STEEL WORKER: Most of the time the reason the job is done twice is because the first time nobody checked to find out exactly what they wanted done.

2nd STEEL WORKER: You should know what the job is before you're sent down to do it anyways, what you're saying. Somebody should have done that and have them know what the job is.

SWICORD [voice-over]: Management has set up the groups to give the worker-owners input into day-to-day operations at the mill. So far, most workers seem to think the increased communication has been a good idea.

SAM LEHINOVICH, mill worker: You're informed more. You know how management is trying to work, you know, and you find out that there are other men in the mill in groups who are doing certain things vis-a-vis newsletters which they send out. And it's being informed, I think someone who is informed is a much better worker.

SWICORD [voice-over]: The company is also counting on workers to help cut costs at the plant. Independent Steelworkers Union president Walter Bish says employees are working like they own the mill.

WALTER BISH, president, Independent Steelworkers Union: One of the big things that they do watch now is waste. I mean, you talk to welders that'll tell you that, you know, when they're welding they use more of the rod than before. You talk to people in the electronics that are very aware of waste in copper; we have scrap barrels and they're very aware that, you know, the money that they could be wasting today is money that could be coming out of their pockets.

WALTER SEBULASEDULA, mill worker: When I come to excess material, something that hasn't been used for quite a number of years, I figure well, I'll put it back in stock and somebody else is going to use it.

SWICORD: Do other workers make those sort of efforts to save money?

Mr. SEBULASEDULA: From all I've talked to, yes.

SWICORD [voice-over]: Gloria LaRue, a steel analyst for The Metalworking News, says the attitude of workers at Weirton Steel may help the company survive.

GLORIA LaRUE, steel market analyst: Number one, you have employees who are genuinely interested in the product they produce, and any steel man will tell you that quality, which is so important to the customer, and so important to maintaining a customer's relationship, is very dependent on employees.

SWICORD [voice-over]: But the formation of the new Weirton Steel has not been without growing pains. Some workers have complained that management has not been receptive to suggestions. But union and management officials claim dissidents are in the minority and Robert Loughhead, who was chosen by Weirton Steel's board of directors to serve as company president, has had to decide how far to take employee participation.

ROBERT LOUGHHEAD, president, Weirton Steel: At the outset, when the whole transaction was envisioned and put together, it was always understood that the place would be run as a business, there would be management and there would be a work force. My commitment is to a participative management style and to employee participation in general, and we'll have that. That does not mean that all 8,200 people can have a voice in every decision.

SWICORD [voice-over]: But keeping the work force happy is now Weirton Steel's only problem. The company must continue to raise money if it hopes to complete plans to spend $1 billion over the next 10 years on capital improvements and pollution controls. The company is also faced with the problem of finding new customers and uses for its tin mill products. Those products have been used to make cans for beverages and foods, but demand for tin mill has been steadily decreasing.

To offset those losses, the company has begun to round up new customers for its automotive and appliance products. Since the split from National Steel, Weirton has formed its own sales force, and so far, the company has been able to round up more than 170 new customers, and Loughhead says Weirton Steel no longer has to rely on National Steel to formulate a marketing plan.

Mr. LOUGHHEAD: We were part of someone else's marketing plan, and now we have our own marketing plan. We've put together a good aggressive sales organization, we've looked at the markets that we think it makes sense for us to serve, and we've concentrated our efforts there.

SWICORD [voice-over]: In addition to it's own sales force, Weirton Steel also has several other advantages over its competitors. Unlike other companies, Weirton does not have to make long-term sacrifices to show short-term profits, because the company's stockholders are also its employees.

Ms. LaRUE: Mr. Loughhead is to make that company viable in the long term, and if that means not making a lot now, but making sure you last longer, then that is what he has to do.

SWICORD [voice-over]: So far this year the profit picture looks good for Weirton Steel. In the first half of 1984, the company reported profits of more than $32 million, and officials believe the next two quarters will also be profitable. All of which is good news for the company's employee-owners, who will share in profits if the company continues to make money. But for many workers at the mill, the full implications of employee ownership and profit sharing have yet to sink in.

Mr. BISH: It's very hard to change overnight from a worker to a worker-owner. The people, employees, myself included, you know, we realize that we bought the place, but I honestly feel until that first stock allocation is made to them, or that first profit sharing check is actually given to them, that then the realization will really hit home that they are actually owners here.

SWICORD [voice-over]: But there are some other realities that Weirton Steel along with other steel makers must face. In the month of July, foreign imports took nearly 33% of the steel market, and while larger companies may get out of steelmaking. Weirton Steel doesn't have that option, because it's in the business to stay. Which may be the company's long-term benefit, because the city of Weirton won't let the mill shut down without a fight.

Mr. BISH: We can't predict exactly what will happen; we're very optimistic that we will be around. If there's going to be one domestic steel company that can survive in the United States, we want it to be the Weirton plant.

HUNTER-GAULT: That report was by Carl Swicord of public station WNPB in Morgantown, West Virginia. Still to come in the NewsHour, two poverty experts offer different views on the poor: just how many there really are, who's to blame, and what's to be done. And Judy Woodruff gives us some insight into the Soviet Union's most durable foreign spokesman, Andrei Gromyko.