Steelworkers Union announces end to Kaiser lockout

SPOKANE - Members of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) in Washington, Ohio, and Louisiana may begin returning to work at five Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation plants as early as Oct. 12, following an arbitrator's decision that ended a 22-month dispute.

Under a deal approved by workers in July, the two sides bargained until early September, when they turned their remaining differences over to federal arbitrator Seymour Strongin, who held hearings and then chose the last position of one side or the other on six separate issues.

USWA spokesperson Jon Youngdahl reported that nearly all of the differences between the two sides were whittled away before the issues went to arbitration: "We knew setting up a winner-take-all process of arbitration would force both sides to sit down and work out a settlement."

The new five-year agreement provides for wage increases of $3.42 an hour, elimination of the cap on company contributions for retiree health care, and extension of retiree health insurance to 12 years. Pension benefits were increased by $8.75 a month for every year of work (from an existing average of $29.90 a month per year.) The contract also contains better protections against subcontracting, and $12 million to cushion the blow of the approximately 456 jobs that will be lost in Spokane - 288 at the Trentwood smelter and 168 at Mead.

Another 226 jobs are in limbo at the idled Tacoma plant.

The $12 million will go first to lump-sum payments of $25,000 each for those employees who take early retirement. The remainder will go into a fund for supplemental unemployment benefits.

Youngdahl said the layoffs are due in part to the success of the union's "corporate campaign," which cost the company many big customers, but also because of potline curtailments related to the high cost of electricity.

During the labor dispute the USWA called for the boycott of Kaiser products and successfully won commitments from Pepsi Bottling Group, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Anheuser-Busch, Daws Better Built, Crown Cork & Seal, and Dee Zee Metals to discontinue their purchase of Kaiser metal.

In addition, dozens of elected and appointed public officials including U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, Washington Governor Gary Locke, and 10 Northwestern members of Congress joined the USWA and tens of thousands of Pacific Northwest residents in calling for a Good Corporate Citizenship Clause (GCCC) at the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).�The GCCC will require companies, such as Kaiser Aluminum, that purchase electrical power from the BPA at below market cost to adhere to labor, environmental and other regulatory standards.�The BPA is a federal agency that generates and transmits power throughout four Pacific Northwest states.

Workers at Kaiser's five aluminum plants have been off the job since they went on strike Sept. 30, 1998. That strike turned into a lockout on Jan. 14, 1999, when workers offered to return to work without an agreement and Kaiser refused to take them back.

The contract settlement does not resolve unfair labor practice charges the government filed against Kaiser June 30, 2000. If the National Labor Relations Board rules against Kaiser for conducting an unlawful lockout the company may have to reimburse workers up to $337 million in back pay. A trial before an administrative law judge is scheduled to begin Nov. 13.

David Foster, director of USWA District 11 and head of the Kaiser Negotiating Committee, said the union is hopeful that discussions with the company could lead to an out-of-court settlement.

Foster called the lockout "the longest and largest in the 58-year history of the United Steelworkers." It was also, according to the Department of Labor, the largest labor dispute in the United States last year - as measured by lost work days - accounting for 750,000 idled work days out of the national total of just under two million.

Under the terms of the back-to-work agreement, locked-out workers will be back on the job by the end of October, and the workers who replaced them during the lockout will be terminated.

Youngdahl describes the outcome as a victory for the Steelworkers, not just for the economic gains, but because workers beat back an attempt to bust the union.

"Once the company locked us out, we believe it was their desire and purpose never to have the Steelworkers return," Youngdahl said. "We broke the company's desire to break the union."

� Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc.