Observers say, as bargainers for AK Steel Corp. and Armco Employees Independent Federation work toward a new labor contract, they are shouldering one of the hardest jobs in industry. Talks in Middletown began Nov. 30, 2005. The contract expires Feb. 28. The union has given the executive committee the okay to call a strike, if it comes to that. William Cooke, director of Wayne State University 's Douglas A. Fraser Center for Workplace Issues, said a fast-approaching deadline might help the situation. "You end up moving mountains in the last week," Cooke said.