BY ESTELLE DEBATES AND DENNIS RICHTER
SEATTLE - More than 3,000 members of the United
Steelworkers of America (USWA) are conducting round-the-clock
picketing at five plants owned by Kaiser Aluminum, the nation's
fifth-largest producer of aluminum. Kaiser is currently
operating all its struck facilities with scabs, as well as
current and retired management personnel.
Contract negotiations ended September 30 when workers in Washington, Louisiana, and Ohio walked off the job, rejecting the company's final offer. Kaiser spokeswoman Susan Ashe told the Associated Press that the company's offer was contingent on the union not going out on strike and the union negotiating committee recommending ratification by the membership. This "enhanced offer," she said, was withdrawn due to the strike action.
The "enhanced offer" by Kaiser included the permanent elimination of 400 jobs between the five plants and the contracting out of 150 jobs, ranging from janitors to diesel mechanics. Over the course of the company's proposed five-year agreement, wages would increase by only 2.3 percent per year, which is less than the average inflation rate over the last decade. Kaiser also proposed a wholesale gutting of seniority agreements and locally negotiated understandings on issues such as overtime, shifts, and vacation scheduling. The company's offer also included pension increases that would keep Kaiser retirees below the industry standard for at least five more years and a proposal to cap retirees' health insurance, forcing them to pay for increased costs.
The strike is centered in the Spokane, Washington, area where Kaiser's Mead smelter and Trentwood rolling mill employ more than 2,000 workers. Three hundred unionists are also striking at the smelter in Tacoma, Washington; 345 at the aluminum refinery in Gramercy, Louisiana; and 230 at the extrusion plant in Newark, Ohio. The USWA also represents workers at Kaiser plants in Richmond, Virginia; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and London, Ontario, that are covered under separate contract agreements.
This is the second USWA strike against Kaiser in the company's more than 50-year history. The first strike was carried out three years ago, mostly by the same workers who are walking the picket lines today.
From the start of negotiations, USWA representatives have charged that Kaiser committed unfair labor practices, which made reaching an agreement impossible. First and foremost was making the contract offer contingent on not striking. In addition, the company also threatened to take pension service away from employees if a strike was called and refused to bargain over certain issues the union considered mandatory.
Many workers on the picket lines point to the company's strike preparations - in particular the temporary mobile homes brought in for the scabs - as proof that the company had no intention of bargaining in good faith.
Rich Marsden, recording secretary for USWA Local 7945 in Tacoma, told the Militant that between 65 and 70 scabs are living in trailers on company property at the Tacoma smelter. These trailers were ready to go a week in advance of the strike. "On the afternoon of September 30 I saw two buses with 40 to 50 scabs line up at the back gate," said Marsden. "At 8:15 p.m. we walked out, and the scabs were brought in."
In the 1980s Kaiser asked for and got massive givebacks from the union, claiming this was necessary to improve the financial health and future of the company. The company went through two buyouts in 1987 and 1988 resulting in the closure of eight plants. Because of the decade of concessions to the bosses, Kaiser workers' wages and benefits are below the industry standards. Workers are determined to win parity with other aluminum workers.
Kaiser spokeswoman Ashe told the press that the five struck plants are producing aluminum and plan to do so "indefinitely."
The USWA strikers are receiving solidarity from other workers in this fight. The International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union Local 23 in Tacoma hosted a barbecue at the Kaiser picket line for the strikers October 5.
Members of Local 8 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees in Seattle have shown their support by visiting the picket lines. And hundreds of people turned out for a public rally to back the strikers in Spokane two days after the strike began on October 3.
Estelle DeBates is a member of International Association of Machinists Lodge 79.