John Cirri, who has played an outsized role at Sparrows Point as president of Local 9477 of the United Steelworkers (USW), announced today in an e-mail to union members that he will resign from his post next Monday.

His decision was not unexpected.

Under union bylaws he will be replaced by Jeff Mikula, the local’s vice president, until the next scheduled union election in April 2012.

Cirri said that with the economically troubled mill sold to RG Steel, a new union contract ratified and the “L” blast furnace back on line, “I believe that now the time is right for me to announce that I will be stepping down as your president.”

His message continued, “I am sure that there will be many rumors as to my reason for stepping down. Anything other than for health reasons is simply not true.”

Labor Department Probe

Trained as a crane operator, Cirri was been an elected union official for 23 years and president of Local 9477 since 2002. He possessed enormous power when the mill was under the ownership of ISG and Mittal Steel, but that power waned after general manager Thomas J. Russo was fired by Severstal 13 months ago.

He has been dogged by questions about the employment of his wife at Sparrows Point and by a U.S. Department of Labor investigation of voting irregularities during the last union election. The federal probe is still on-going.

Cirri headed the Red, White and Blue political caucus that dominated union affairs until recently. He tried to form a coalition with two other steelworker groups, but failed.

In his e-mail today, Cirri did not disclose his future plans, but said his longtime ally, Dave Polanowski, has been appointed benefits and sustainability issues coordinator for the Sparrows Point plant by USW official David McCall.