Steelworkers to end Kaiser feud


By Don McIntosh, Staff Reporter

By a 1,681 to 601 vote, members of United Steelworkers of America approved on July 13 a deal that will bring to a close their 22-month dispute with Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation.

Locked-out Steelworkers will be back on the job by the end of September at the company's plants in Tacoma and Spokane, Washington; Gramercy, Louis-iana; and Newark, Ohio; and all replacement workers will be terminated.

According to the deal, the two sides will have until the end of July to negotiate a final agreement. Any unresolved issues will then go to binding arbitration, in which a mutually agreed-upon arbitrator will choose one side's "last best offer" on each issue. After hearing from both sides the week of Aug. 21-25, the arbitrator would make a decision by Sept. 15.

Some issues are already agreed on, including an expedited contracting out procedure and removal of a medical inflation cost cap through which Kaiser retirees' would have been forced to pay the increased costs of medical insurance.

The union agreed to 400 layoffs at the Trentwood facility in Spokane though it was one of the key company demands that led to the strike. The company approved a $12 million fund for early retirement and to smooth transition for the laid-off workers. Trentwood workers will also have recall rights and the opportunity to transfer to other locations if jobs are available. Several hundred Steelworkers have found work elsewhere and will not be returning to Kaiser, union officials said.

Before the strike, Kaiser workers were making on average $14.65 an hour, considered low for Steelworkers. The company has agreed to an increase of at least $3.30 spread over a five-year contract, while the union is pushing for a $3.78 an hour increase.

Kaiser will immediately reinstate health insurance for all locked-out workers and their families while final contract issues are resolved.

The issue of back pay for the workers will be dealt with outside the negotiation/arbitration process. Some 2,900 union members went on strike Sept. 30, 1998, and were locked out when they offered to return to work Jan. 13, 1999. The National Labor Relations Board ruled June 30, 2000, that the company lockout was illegal, and therefore Kaiser owes back pay. The company and the union could settle the charges, or the company could contest the complaint. A hearing is set for Nov. 13 in Oakland, Calif.

Union spokespeople are calling the return-to-work agreement a victory, and they're attributing it to an array of innovative and militant tactics including a multi-faceted "corporate campaign" and a strategic alliance with environmentalists and other groups.

"Kaiser's Steelworkers did not ask for this fight," said David Foster, director of Steelworkers District 11 and chair of the Kaiser Negotiating Committee, in a prepared statement. "But once they were given no choice, their creative and steadfast struggle became a symbol for the fight for workers' rights in a global economy."

Union spokesperson Jon Youngdahl said he thinks the company was moved to a deal because of mounting financial losses.

A boycott of Kaiser products led to commitments from Pepsi Bottling Group, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Anheuser-Busch beer, and other companies to stop buying the company's aluminum.

A surprise picket line in June at the Port of Tacoma delayed Kaiser ore shipments when Longshore Union workers refused to cross it.

And the union won support from thousands of petition-signers and dozens of public officials including U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, Washington Governor Gary Locke, and 10 Northwestern members of Congress for a "Good Corporate Citizen Clause" at the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). The clause, which is still under consideration by BPA head Judy Johansen, would halt the sale of cheap BPA power to companies that break environmental, labor or other laws.

In addition to hitting the company economically, Steelworkers went after the image of company owner Charles Hurwitz of Houston, and in alliance with environmentalists, made their strike part of a larger social justice movement.

To build support for the strike, the union sent out teams of "road warriors" - traveling strikers. In Portland, Kaiser road warriors became a fixture at labor functions, where they built relationships as they appealed to local unions for support and showed solidarity by attending other picket lines.

"Social struggles such as this one change many lives," Foster said, "not only as a result of personal sacrifice, but most importantly because the vision of social justice now burns brightly in the heart of every Kaiser Steelworker."


July 21, 2000 issue

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