Union workers at U.S. Steel will receive their first profit-sharing check in five years, with each member of the United Steelworkers union earning an average of $280 based on the steelmaker's first-quarter results.

U.S. Steel also said it was hiring about 130 workers at its three Mon Valley plants, the majority of them at its Clairton coke plant. The new hires replace workers who retired or left for other reasons and won't increase the steelmaker's local work force.

"We're going to be as lean as we were before," said spokesman John Armstrong.

U.S. Steel posted a first-quarter profit of $58 million, or 47 cents per diluted share, on revenue of $2.91 billion.

Union workers last received a profit-sharing check in April 1999, when full-time workers received an average of $368. That included $68 based on 1998 results and $300 from the 1998 settlement of a dispute over how profit-sharing payments were calculated.

About 90 workers are being hired at Clairton, which is facing the imminent departure of union workers who accepted early retirement incentives that U.S. Steel offered last year. Most workers who took the offer had to leave by the end of last year, but the steelmaker extended the departure date until June for some Clairton workers.

Another 30 will be hired at the Edgar Thomson steelmaking plant in Braddock while 10 are being added at the Irvin finishing plant in West Mifflin.

Shares of U.S. Steel closed yesterday at $27, up 69 cents.