BY TONY LANE AND SALM KOLIS
RAVENSWOOD, West Virginia - "When 1,600 workers walk out
that tells you something. It tells you something is wrong in
there. We're tired of how we are being treated," said Brad
Warner, who works in the reduction plant at Century
Aluminum's Ravenswood West Virginia plant. Steelworkers here
struck the plant August 23 after the company fired Eric
Rhodes, a worker in the reduction plant.
Warner went on to explain, "They say the new guys have no backbone, but we showed them - the younger guys led this strike."
The company fired Rhodes alleging he was responsible for damage to an aluminum-making pot two weeks ago. According to the Charleston Gazette, United Steelworkers of America (USWA) local president Jerry Schoonover said that the pot had gotten too hot and two management employees tried to cool it down with an air hose. They cooled it down too quickly and the air blew a hole in the pot.
After Rhodes was fired, Warner reported, workers gathered at the union hall. While no official strike was called by the USWA, 400 members put up a picket line around the plant. State police troopers from four detachments were called into the county the night of August 23.
U.S. marshals joined the state troopers outside the plant the next day. Inside the plant, the company sought to force the swing shift to double over, but Warner explained "they got together and walked out."
The Charleston Gazette reported that "lawyers for Century Aluminum called [Chief U.S. District Judge Charles] Haden to the courthouse at 4 a.m." to hear their complaint against the union. It reported that the judge ordered the union members back to work and the pickets to be taken down. After an all- afternoon meeting, and under company threats to close down pot lines, workers voted to return to work. The firing of Rhodes will go to arbitration and the company agreed to set up a committee with the union to look into workers complaints.
Union officials say that this was the 10th firing in the past few months. Jim Lewis, who works in the fabrication plant, told the Militant, "We've proved our point. We're not going to stand for how we've been treated anymore, especially in the pot room. The company needed to know how they were treating us wasn't right. I worked midnight shift Tuesday night [August 24]. They had got the message. They weren't near as pushy."
As well as the firings, other issues behind the walkout are the forced overtime and lack of progress with union grievances. Brad Warner told the Militant that "newer guys in the reduction plant are forced over twice a week. Especially in this heat it's too much."
The walkout took place less than two months after union members approved a new four-year contract by a vote of 1068 to 352. The workers had, by a 3 to 1 vote, rejected an earlier contract that cut benefits.
In 1990-92, this facility, then operated by the Ravenswood Aluminum Corp., was the scene of a 20-month lockout where the company failed in their effort to break the union. Many of those who had come in as replacement workers joined the picket line Monday night. Doug Wilson, who works in the fab plant, said it was "good to see people who scabbed during the 1990 lockout on the line, only a handful stayed in. I understand that there's bad feelings toward them. But they are here in the plant now and you have to educate them. I think they've learned a lot since then."
At the union hall, Richard Carter, a retiree, told us he "was glad to see the young workers come alive. They showed the company they're dealing with a sleeping tiger. I was wondering about the replacement workers, but they stood up this time."
The Ravenswood facility is also in the middle of the growing consolidation in the aluminum industry, a consolidation driven by falling profits. The fabrication plant at Ravenswood is being sold to French aluminum manufacturer Pechiney. Since the announcement of this deal, Pechiney and other aluminum manufacturers are being bought out by Canadian manufacturer Alcan, which would have made this combination the world's largest aluminum company. U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa, currently the world's largest, responded by carrying out a merger with the third-largest aluminum company, U.S.-based Reynolds.
Doug Wilson explained to us one of the outcomes of the sale of the fab plant. "It will split the local. Separating the two plants into different locals is something the company has wanted to do for years."
Salm Kolis is a member of the USWA.